morning star bamboo click lock failure

[mxxmikexx]

material: morningstar click lock solid bamboo
floating on concrete slab
moisture barrier/cork underlayment as per manu. recommendation
installed by a friend in the carpentry trade.

this floor was installed about 1.5 years ago. and these past few months we started seeing a gap which has now gotten to be about almost 1/2" wide. you can clearly see that the bamboo "click lock" "tongue" has broken and the floor has now separated.

the material was purchased from everyone's FAVORITE supplier. lumber liquidators. i have filed a complaint , but have been playing phone tag with them for about 6 weeks now.

and i cant simply pull the rest of the floor up to repair this center section , because alot of the end boards click lock joints were glued, so separating those boards will surly break the fragile click lock "tongue"

has anyone seen a bamboo click lock floor fail like this?
I thought i researched and bought a good product, but after these past few weeks of reading everyone's horror stories with bamboo, and with lumber liquidators I totally regret this purchase. this was installed in our first home, and now we have this horrendous gap right in the middle of our floor to look at... It couldn't be in a worse spot in the room!

 

[highup]

Is it installed over concrete? The boards look cupped.

 

[mxxmikexx]

it is over concrete slab, on grade.
we used concrete sealer and plastic vapor barrier/cork underlayment as advised by LL

 

[havasu]

How long was the flooring allowed to acclimate to the humidity of the room before installation? Was there a drastic change in humidity recently?

 

[mxxmikexx]

i had the flooring in the house for a few weeks to acclimate before it was layed down.

we had a very cold winter here in chicago, so the heat was running alot, but according to my meter it never dropped below 35% in that room

we did another room at the same time, with the same product, also on concrete slab, and that room has held up fine so far.

 

[havasu]

Well, then all I could add is LL has taken yet another victim. Very irritating to hear this.

 

[Ernesto]

Don't tell me, you waited two weeks like LL said, unwrapped it out of the box and installed straight away, right?

I hear that scenerio played out hundreds of times on flooring forums. I need to write a blog about this, oh wait, I did already. lol
You can;t tell the moisture content of the strand with a meter, although I do have one that has a setting for it. Strand gains and loses moisture very very slowly. So if you don't pull it out of the wrapper and acclimate, thats what happens. Two weeks ain't enough.

http://floorsavior.com/blog/

http://floorsavior.com/blog/?p=75

Arid zones are the same animal as a heated home back east.

 

[mxxmikexx]

ernesto: yes, all of the flooring was brought inside the house, and all of the ends of the boxes were opened to acclimate as LL instructed me to do. the written instructions from morning star also say this (i still have them right in front of me as i type) "if products are protected in plastic, only open the ends of the boxes"

The floor survived the first winter ok, but now after the 2nd winter this has happened.

I finally spoke with the person who is in charge of my claim, and they told me the 30 yr warranty is only on the finish, but they will review my case and let me know in 7-10 days what their decision is.
im not holding my breath on them doing anything for me, maybe an insulting attempt of a $100 credit of something like that.....

As a consumer I thought i could trust a big co. like LL who has been around for a long time. they advertised bamboo as the best thing since sliced bread and it was the perfect product for my home and our climate. now it seems they are nothing more than a shady used car salesmans who dont stand behind their product that they sell.

what a mess....

 

[Ernesto]

Opening the ends does not cut it, the bamboo/planks in the center cannot acclimate. Thats a big no-no even with hardwood and many manufacturers do not suggest that method. Very bad advise and whom ever said it should have bamboo shoots inserted up finger under nails.

 

[mxxmikexx]

thats what the salesman told me and thats what the manufacturers document says that I have on my desk as I type this.

hindsight is 20/20. i never installed a floor before. but looking back , yes i totally agree that the floor needs to be completely unboxed

 

[Floorist]

LL has a horrible record when it comes to customer service. And they get a lot of complaints because their products are less than wonderful.