Our trials and travails with our dealership continue. We bought the coach in September, reported issues in October and we still don't have our coach back. We had a leaky dishwasher that caused the floor to warp. The interlocking floor was glued down from Fleetwood, but the dealer said we really should go with a floating floor. We bought the same exact flooring as we had before directly from Fleetwood.The dealer replaced the floor to be floating, but now it just doesn't feel solid. Plus, you can see some give when someone walks on it. I'm worried the dealer didn't prep the floor well before installation. We had 2 spots that had creaking. the dealership said that was normal and that it would "settle" after some time. However, after much insistence on our part, the dealership later called and said the creaking was fixed.Here's what i'm wondering: anyone out there have a floating floor? Is it normal for it to give?

Some of the floating floor products have a type of foam padding under it which will cause a slight deflection when you step on it. Mine has what looked like a 1/8" to 3/16" foam attached to the backside.

When a 'floating' floor is placed in a house, that simply means it is not nailed to the sub-floor and was it grows and shrinks with moisture or the movement of the house settling or aging, it can do so. There is usually about a half inch of space between the flooring and the walk to permit this movement without buckling. Have never installed with anything other than 'paper' but I understand there is some thicker material available as rgatijnet1 mentioned. I suggest that if you can actually feel the floor 'move' then this might not be normal. Is this movement detected anyplace you step, or is it just in the area of where the leak took place?

rgatijnet1 wrote:Some of the floating floor products have a type of foam padding under it which will cause a slight deflection when you step on it. Mine has what looked like a 1/8" to 3/16" foam attached to the backside.The deflection is making for a very unhappy mrs as it's quite pronounced- especially when the floor felt solid before. The fact that there were some spots with creaking is also worrisome.I'm wondering if anyone has a floating floor that is also seeing deflection out there or is thee floor supposed to be fully solid

If the flooring has the padding underneath it, the squeaking can be caused by the adjoining flooring pieces moving against each other as the deflect. The noise can usually be stopped by sprinkling baby powder over the area that squeaks. If the flooring has the padding underneath, the only way to stop the deflection is to remove and replace the flooring completely, with flooring that does not have the padding.

So the floor was soaked enough to warp the wood flooring. How long did the dealer dry out the sub floor before putting on the floating floor. Some of the give could well be that the sub floor was warped too and he was just hoping to cover it up with the floating floor. Myself, I'd have made the dealer install the floor the same way it came from the factory.

New floating floor: shouldn't it feel solid?? | Good Sam Community

elhajj33
Explorer
Mar 21, 2016
We Cant Wait wrote:
So the floor was soaked enough to warp the wood flooring. How long did the dealer dry out the sub floor before putting on the floating floor. Some of the give could well be that the sub floor was warped too and he was just hoping to cover it up with the floating floor. Myself, I'd have made the dealer install the floor the same way it came from the factory.

the floor was up for several weeks before the new flooring was put in. We looked at the subfloor and it definitely wasn't warped.

As for gluing it, we thought about that, but the recommendation was to go with a floating floor for the coach as all the movement and flexing of a moving vehicle would cause a glued down floor to pull up with time
We_Cant_Wait
Explorer
Mar 21, 2016
So the floor was soaked enough to warp the wood flooring. How long did the dealer dry out the sub floor before putting on the floating floor. Some of the give could well be that the sub floor was warped too and he was just hoping to cover it up with the floating floor. Myself, I'd have made the dealer install the floor the same way it came from the factory.
rgatijnet1
Explorer III
Mar 21, 2016
If the flooring has the padding underneath it, the squeaking can be caused by the adjoining flooring pieces moving against each other as the deflect. The noise can usually be stopped by sprinkling baby powder over the area that squeaks.
If the flooring has the padding underneath, the only way to stop the deflection is to remove and replace the flooring completely, with flooring that does not have the padding.
elhajj33
Explorer
Mar 21, 2016
rgatijnet1 wrote:
Some of the floating floor products have a type of foam padding under it which will cause a slight deflection when you step on it. Mine has what looked like a 1/8" to 3/16" foam attached to the backside.

The deflection is making for a very unhappy mrs as it's quite pronounced- especially when the floor felt solid before.

The fact that there were some spots with creaking is also worrisome.

I'm wondering if anyone has a floating floor that is also seeing deflection out there or is thee floor supposed to be fully solid
Horsedoc
Explorer II
Mar 21, 2016
When a 'floating' floor is placed in a house, that simply means it is not nailed to the sub-floor and was it grows and shrinks with moisture or the movement of the house settling or aging, it can do so. There is usually about a half inch of space between the flooring and the walk to permit this movement without buckling.

Have never installed with anything other than 'paper' but I understand there is some thicker material available as rgatijnet1 mentioned. I suggest that if you can actually feel the floor 'move' then this might not be normal. Is this movement detected anyplace you step, or is it just in the area of where the leak took place?
rgatijnet1
Explorer III
Mar 21, 2016
Some of the floating floor products have a type of foam padding under it which will cause a slight deflection when you step on it. Mine has what looked like a 1/8" to 3/16" foam attached to the backside.

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New floating floor: shouldn't it feel solid??

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