LESLIE: Gloria is on the line, calling from Illinois. And you’ve got a question about flooring. How can we help you today?
GLORIA: My neighbor on the left has laminate floors and they’re glued. And she loves them and I love them. My neighbor on the right has the click type of laminate floors but they look funny. They don’t look level and when you walk on them, they move and not just a little bit. So what do you recommend?
TOM: Is the floor relatively flat in your kitchen? Is it wavy in any way, shape or form?
GLORIA: Well, not that I know of, Tom, but it’s carpeting so I don’t really know. I guess I’ll have to use a level.
TOM: Gloria, first of all, to find laminate floors that are not click-together is rare today. I mean most of them do have some sort of a click assembly. This one floor that you saw that didn’t look like it was laying flat, there may have been an installation issue here that’s causing that. That’s what I suspect because the manufacturers are pretty good at this. And when you put these together and you get them to lay flat, they look really good.
I will say, though, that I’ve actually assembled some of these pieces and I do know that you’ve got to really do a good job on the assembly. There’s no room for error. You’ve got to push it together just right and get it to click and get it to lay flat. If you don’t get it lined up just right, then it may not completely close the seam between the two pieces of flooring.
LESLIE: Well and Tom, I also know that some of the manufacturers, when you’re using laminate flooring – even though the majority of them are click-and-snap-together and meant to be used in a floating situation. But most of the manufacturers will say, “If you’re using them on a concrete slab, you could glue them down.” It’s not something that you have to do but you can if you want it.
But I really don’t think there’s a necessity for it. I know we have a laminate floor in my home, in the basement, on a concrete slab and it’s great. It doesn’t move, it doesn’t budge an inch and it’s floating.
GLORIA: Okie-dokie. Thanks so much.
TOM: Alright? You’re welcome. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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