I fucking give up

[TrogL]

I'm laying laminate flooring. It simply will not lay flat and straight. One tiny error half-way down the floor gets amplified so three rows later it looks like a washboard.

I've relaid this stupid thing a dozen times and it gets worse instead of better.

I'm just going to lay it any old way, sand it down, throw three coats of varathane on it and call it finished.

Anybody got a match?

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Ya can't sand laminate!

Well, ya can, actually, but it will remove the laminate surface and leave you with cardboard with a dusty surface.

The key is to shim the laminate against the wall along which you started the installation. Be careful, slow, and deliberate in this operation. You do not want the floor to move. Shim it about 3/8" from the wall. The big box stores sell laminate installation kits that have plastic shims in them. They're the best because they have no give.

Once you get the shims in place, you ought to be able to install the laminate without the floor shifting (which is what is happening, causing the joints to open up). Also, be sure you're completely hammering the joints closed. They may look closed, but they might not be fully joined. The seam should damned near disappear. I also assume you're using a laminate hammering bar against which you swing your hammer, and not a wood block or (I HOPE not) hitting the laminate itself.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

2. It,s hard to see your problem

Is the floor level? Your underlayment or sub flooring must be clean and level to some degree even when installing a floating floor such as snap togather floors Pergo example. Shims indeed , and setting the first row actually the first two rows is right where your level is at your side . After your first two rows are set perfectly square and level at all points ,you than may proceed at a quickened pace ,checking periodically that your flooring is square and level. For what you seem to be saying I might question the product you chose. Snap togather floors are being made almost too easy to install. By the way,have you ever shot a lazer line? Sometimes inexperienced persons really don't get square and level or they don't really know how that means.

Which means they try to eye ball it.

It must be square ,not just seem so.

1/8 th. of a inch off on those floating floors is enough to throw the whole thing off. That,s why you must check each row for squareness. Perfectly square and level. The floating floor will float over inconsistencys of a existing floor -,little valleys or bumps so to speak but each line or row must be square or perfectly straight.

If you have a high spot in the sub flooring or existing floor and your floating floor doesn,t lay flat or connect properly, ,than you add extra pad underneith your flooring board on both sides of the inconsistancy ,shim it so to speak. Same applies installing carpet when floating over a valley, you build it up.

Perfectly straight meaning square, thats the key.
The tool to shoot a lazer line is only about twenty bucks.
On that first row for example from wall to wall ,there can be inchs in a differance. You can start that line using those plastic shims and end up using pices of moulding and anything you can find to keep that line square/perfectly straight,. And that can also mean you will have to cut filler strips for the areas in that line the moulding will not hide. assuming ofcourse you did remove the moulding!

If there is anything in it that helps you ,I wish you the best of luck.
And never let a problem get the best of ya! You just tell that problem I,am gonna nail your ass. And than go and find out just how your gonna do it.

[TrogL]

3. Problem solved

Craftygal insists upon overloading the dishwasher, then putting double the recommended amount of soap as well as a second soap in the second soap dispenser.

The dishwasher flooded the entire kitchen. The floor is destroyed and will have to be thrown out as well as all the underlay. The wood below it will have to dry out or it's going to rot as well.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Oh geeeze .... sounds like you had a crappy day.

You have my sympathy!

[NMDemDist2]

5. ahhh geez!! that sucks man

:hug: