Corners on laminate flooring planks, separating from rest of the plank, Advice please

[Marz]

I welcome your advice please:
At our cottage (and unfortunately it is winter and I do not have a photo), we have installed 12mm wood-looking laminate flooring which is holding up very well, considering foot traffic and that it is unheated in winter.

Unfortunately, some of the corners are raised, as though the top laminate layer has separated from the bottom structure of the plank. As a result, you can feel it with your foot, and definitely see it from the side, especially when sunlight hits it appropriately. The corner can be pressed down but it pops back up, only a millimetre or two, but noticeably.

I'd like to think I could drill a tiny hole and insert some think glue with a syringe, and then put an extremely heavy weight on that corner. Would that work?
Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

I notice you're in Canada and you mentioned that the cabin is unheated in winter. This can lead to stress in the flooring through the cooling and heating cycle. Laminate should never typically be below 55 F after it's installed. It shouldn't really be exposed to low ambient relative humidity for long periods of time either and then have the heat suddenly thrust on.

For this type of application, you should look into an SPC (Stone-Plastic Composite) core flooring that can tolerate low temperature installations. There are products in this category on the market than can handle temps down to -20 F.

If this has been installed for a few years, my guess is that the annual weather cycling has contributed to your problem and it will only become worse.

Pictures would help. If it's actually delaminating (the layers are separating) then maybe the corners can be stuck back down but it's probably more in the locking system and the movement of traffic combined with the weather cycling and extreme cold in winter.

 

[Marz]

I can't get pictures until I can get into the cottage because, yes, I am in Canada and the winters are very snowy and cold. Having said that, I can add that the floor has held up very well over 10 years, and the popping up corners / separation of the top laminate layer at the tongue-tongue corner / has been there since the installation and there have not been any new ones since then. Otherwise it's a great floor and we won't be replacing it. I just want to fix those corners... I will post photos in a couple of months.

 

[Incognito]

Krazy Glue or something similar would be the best hope you have. Gonna have to be real surgical there with the needle application and then how you wipe any excess and weight down the corner. I can tell you those kinds of "repairs" go South real quickly.

As a commercial flooring guy over the years I've been tasked many, many time with "Just do whatever you can" to get a business through an inspection, eliminate eye sores and trip hazards. Essentially, my boss and his customer would have to understand it's a crap shoot whether the attempt is successful or if WE make the damage worse. I see your situation as very analogous to those types of repairs. In my case they cant afford new flooring so they want a band-aid on the cancer. In your case it's mostly cosmetic and you don't really have much to lose if you are very cautious and take your time to do some test patches before you go all in with any solutions.

If you use the wrong glue, too much glue, not enough glue, not enough weight properly applied, not clean residual glue thoroughly it would be real easy to make matters worse.

 

[highup]

Even if the joint issue is not caused simply because of the temperature, it could be caused by there not being enough expansion gap.
If there's not enough expansion gap, then the temperature swings could come into play has either the home or the material expand or contract, forcing the joints against each other.
When you get up there it would be interesting to take off a couple pieces of baseboard and see if the material is crammed up tight against the walls.

 

[C.J.]

If you go the super glue route as Incognito mentioned I would blue tape off the edges to catch any squeeze out and there will be squee out.

 

[Incognito]

Even if the joint issue is not caused simply because of the temperature, it could be caused by there not being enough expansion gap.

They saw problems right away. Most likely the laminate was assembled too aggressively with the tapping block.