Floating floors gap fix
When the seasons change we can sometimes see the ugly gaps in or floating floors, here’s a simple way to fix that instead of kicking them all back into place!
What are floating floors?
Floating flooring is an installation system where the flooring is laid on top of the subfloor without being secured to it using glue, nails, or staples. Each panel or plank of the floating floor is connected to the others through a locking system which allows the entire assembly to rest on top of the subfloor.
Why are there gaps?
Floating floors require expansion joints around fixed objects like walls and cabinets, which are then concealed with baseboard and/or shoe molding. The expansion gaps are for allowing the flooring to expand and shrink based on humidity and temperature. Sometimes gaps show when the entire row of flooring doesn’t move together. There can be other reasons like poor installation, water damage, uneven subfloors, improper Acclimatization, etc. but this is typically the reason in majority of the cases.
Materials needed to fix the gap
Scrap wood piece
Super glue (optional)
Step 1
Take your double sided tape and cut off 5 inches or so and attach one side to your scrap piece of wood.
Step 2
Place the scrap piece of wood with the other side of the double sided tape down onto the board you’d like to move to fix your gap. Using your hammer or rubber mallet carefully hit your scrap wood piece to move your board.
Step 3 (Optional)
In some cases if you have the same gap in the same spot over and over it may simply mean your locking mechanism has broken. Adding super glue before moving the board back into place will make sure this doesn’t happen again. Place a small amount of glue in the lip of the boards end (the short end) and tap it into place. Remove any excess glue if any squeezed out.
Step 4
A Continue this for the remaining boards in the row by moving the taped scrap wood until you get to a wall or fixed object where the floating floors ends for that row.