Samson Floor Design

Laminate is wood, but it isn’t solid wood planks. That is advantageous when you want the look of a wood floor but not the hefty price tag. The only way anyone else can tell the difference is when a laminate floor starts lifting, curling, bumping, or popping up.

What Causes the Lifting?

There are lots of reasons why your laminate is lifting or doing other strange things. Most of the reasons are fixable, which is good news for your floor. It can be restored to its former loveliness.

Excess Moisture

If there was any recent flooding in your home and the water went over or seeped under the laminate, it will lift. There’s too much moisture underneath trying to escape and it can’t. Running industrial floor dryers in this room and using desiccant containers to draw out the moisture can help the floor relax back into shape. 

Buckling Subfloor

A subfloor under the laminate needs to be nice and flat. If it isn’t, the laminate bumps up, curls, pops up and/or follows the deformities of the subfloor. The only fix for this is to remove the laminate, fix the subfloor, and then replace the laminate. New laminate planks may be necessary if the subfloor warped the laminate too much.

Poor Installation Work

If your installer did a bad job installing the laminate, it could pop up and curl up all over the place. Laminate still requires some gluing and fastening to stay in place, even if it is the click lock kind. To fix the issues due to poor installation, you will need to hire a different installer to fix the job. 

Not Enough Expansion Space

Wood floors and laminate need expansion space for the changing of humidity and seasons all year. If there isn’t enough expansion space in between planks and walls, the planks start popping up. Removing key planks and trimming them a little helps.