Flooring – Installing floating floor and keep getting gaps

flooringlaminate-floorpergola

My sister and I are installing pergo max premier which is a new verison of their floating floor, my sister has installed 2 laminate floors before and this type is a lot thicker with less give and more difficult to work with.

Each peace we really have to pound in place with a hammer and a tapping block, we are running it along a very big room, close to 150 feet in length and we are noticing that once we get to the 4th row the very first row against the floor a few gaps between the pieces are forming.

We have disconnected and redid the floors twice but it seems from us using the hammer and tapping block it's causing gaps in the rows that we have already done and the pieces don't seem to be locking in place like the should even though when we set them they are set as in as much as they can go.

Does anyone have any experience with this happening and how to fix it as we don't want to continue adding new rows when the first few rows gaps keep appearing.

Best Answer

I haven't worked with the newer Pergo; the last I installed was in 2007.

However, check the installation basics (from here and here):

  • Are you installing in the correct direction? The tongue facing upward should be on the floor and the next piece goes on top of it.
  • Is the floor flat?
  • Is the flooring material acclimated to between 65 °F and 72 °F for at least 48 hours?
  • Are you alternating seams so they are at least 12 inches offset from each row?
  • Are you not tapping from the sides?
  • Are you providing 1/2 inch clearance from the walls, pipes, and other fixed objects? (3/8 is for rooms smaller than 40 feet.)
  • Are you damaging the tongues or seams?
  • Are you using T molding across the width of the room? See the instructions for rooms longer than 40 feet.
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