This was actually a vinyl job, full spread, laid by others July 2010 which had a water leak from the plumbing which wasn't noticed for a long length of time which lay under the particleboard sub floor on the ground
Seven months later an area of vinyl against a kitchen unit bubbled and was repaired
Another 4 months past and bubbles arrived over joins in the sheets of particleboard
There was a comment by another layer that bubbles in the vinyl could be caused by the vinyl been cut in that tiny fraction too tight or by moisture causing the skirting boards to swell forcing the vinyl to bubble
His other comment which I strongly disagree with is "He would have expected to have seen a gap between the vinyl edge and the skirting board having the skirting board shrunk since drying out" To me in that case why hasn't the vinyl laid flat again? If the bubble was there earlier, why wasn't it noticed when the layer returned to repair the bubble by the kitchen unit? Maybe it wasn't there then?
From my experience of laying these plastic backed vinyls is that anything the layer does wrong due to the vinyl being cut in that fraction too tight, that ball point pen thickness, will bubble 10 minutes after the layer leaves. Anything which happens months later is not a laying problem
This is the reason I would like to know from you timber guys is this able to happen as you are more likely to understand the science of timber more than me
To me the water vapor from the plumbing leak has risen from the wet earth under the house and made the particleboard get dimensionally bigger across the sheets pushing the vinyl up over the joins in the particleboard and also causing bubbles around the skirting boards. The skirting boards do not sit on top of the vinyl. The vinyl is cut in neat
There were moisture readings taken by this layer and the readings were dry. Which I would have expected as it is over the 19 months since it was laid and the air movement under the house would have dried everything out
What do you guys reckon?