Warning: A client told me to just glue down click-lock vinyl in a bathroom

I was doing a job in a small apartment in Chicago last week, and the homeowner insisted I glue the planks to the subfloor because he 'saw it on a video'. I told him that goes against the floating floor install rules, but he pushed hard. I did a small test patch in the closet, glued a few pieces. Within two days, the planks had buckled at the seams from normal humidity changes. Had to pull up the whole test area and explain why we're doing it right, with the underlayment and expansion gap. Anyone else had a client try to talk you into a bad method that you knew would fail?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan23618d ago

That video advice is a disaster waiting to happen. The glue locks the planks in place so they can't move, then the material swells and has nowhere to go but up. Seen it cause a full floor failure in a basement when someone ignored the expansion gap too.

jamesm3818d ago

People forget glue can actually pull moisture from the subfloor over time, especially in a basement. That extra moisture intake makes the swelling even worse than just from room humidity. It's a double whammy that guarantees buckling.

ryan36917d ago

Honestly @jamesm38, that exact double whammy ruined my cousin's basement floor last year.

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