Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Question about buckling

Ok - let me see if I can get you the whole situation.

I have the snaplock type of laminate flooring in my house. It is a totally free floating flooring that I installed throughout the house.

There is a 3/8 in gap along all walls, under the baseboard and shoe moulding.

The trim was installed using a thin piece of cardboard, like what are on the back of legal pads, so that the flooring could move freely.

I have a hallway like this


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If the formatting works you can see this. The laminate flooring is laid along the long part of the hallway, and is therefore going across the short part. On either end of the short part are bedrooms.

The flooring is slightly buckled in the short part of the hallway, and is getting worse. I have pulled up the baseboard and all the gaps are as they should be, even on the ends of the bedrooms, at either end of the short hall.

The underlayment is the factory recommended one. There is a crawlspace under the house, which is completely dry and covered in plastic. At this time, there is no insulation under the floor; I am doing that this weekend.

Right now I cannot remember the brand of the flooring, but it was one of the highest rated ones, and seems to be great quality, in comparison to others I looked at.

Hopefully that is all the information you need.

My question is how can I fix the buckling?

HELP!!!

Thanks

Is the hallway laminate also part of an ajoining room laminate?

It is possible that the movement in the large room is somehow pulling the hallway laminate? Perhaps it's pinching at the door frame?

I have often wondered if a floating floor should be continuous across rooms.

It is continuous throughout - it is being pushed together, not pulled. It is not pinching on the doorframes - I checked that.

Do you mean like one of the large rooms is twisting it? - The buckle is even all the way across.

Well, if it's not touching the wall or doorframe anywhere in the hallway, then could it be hanging up on the floor?

I mean this is largely common sense - if it's buckling there must be a force on it and the force is pushing on something immoveable.

Thanks for your reply. I CAN push the buckle back down. There is nothing underneath it causing a problem, as far as I can tell.

The flooring "rested" in my house for several weeks before being installed, as we were unable to get to it, so it should have acclimated itself to the environment.


I may end up removing all the furniture from one room and the baseboard and seeing if I can move the floor away from the hallway a bit to relieve the buckle.

Once again thanks, and keep the thoughts coming - I really would like to get it fixed.

How long is the longest "run" of flooring between expansion joints? A Run that exceeds about 30' in uninterupted length may be long enough to buckle. There should also be a transition or expansion joint in dooorways and or arches of less than about 42". Each manufacturer may have different dimensions but each maintains the concept.

Did you use the 2-in-1 moisture barrier and cushion in one? Or just the cushion underlayment?

Buckling is caused by expansion and it being in a bind not letting it expand, so it goes upward.
Moisture/humidity causes expansion.
Heat causes expansion, even from your HVAC.

Is there some heavy furniture? When nailing trim, did you pinch the laminate with an angled nail?

Try removing all the trim and looking at a bind in the doorjamb area. This can happen easily when undercutting jambs and not the baseboard a little(if you left them on and trimmed out with 1/4 round)

The pad thing on the trim has me confused? Are these pads installed in the expansion gap, against the baseboard?? If so... Ding ding ding!!!!