I’m helping a friend work on his sons house and it has new laminate flooring in a few rooms. There are a couple o spots where the floor isn’t completely flat and the laminate ticks on the floor when you tap the laminate or walk fast over it. Obviously the floor wasn’t level and no underpayment or padding. He won’t take the floor up as it’s not even noticeable and only pushes down a 32 or so. Is there and other fix for this problem?

I thought about using a wide scraper or razor blade to push in between two pieces and drill the tab with a wire bit and syringe in some glue? I’m worried it may damage the edge even if I use a razor blade? Any other ideas. Thanks for the help....shane

I have the same problem. There is no good solution. You can nail it down with a pin nailer. The crap also swells up if it gets wet. Not good for a kitchen. Or if your aquarium leaks water.

If the ends are too tight to the wall, that can happen. If not tearing it up, I'd stop looking at it and move on to real troubles.

Problem with that stuff is usually do it yourselfers or moisture.

The new stuff is supposed to be better. A guy was installing while I was plastering. I took a scrap and soaked it in the wash bucket of water for days. Took it out and was surprised it did not swell. Pergo (spelling).

Shane, my first thought is.... did your friend's son let the laminate "adjust to the environment" a few days before installing?

Wright Brothers, I currently have Pergo laminate installed in half my house and it has been real good (5+ years) until the kids somehow flooded the bathroom sink and water got underneath. It didn't swell but shrank. Now the hall is messed up and unfortunately they don't sell the model we have so the flooring has to get replaced.

You're better off to avoid the laminates and buy engineered hardwood flooring.

Adam that's what I told the installer (home owner). He showed me the package said new and improved waterPROOF or some such. I went with vinyl plank here. Call me cheap but it's working and clean up is easy. Real nice when time to cut meat or process vegies. It said no dog traffic but I ignored that. And yeah they sure like to discontinue colors. Glad the wife talked me out of the sycho hippie tie die color. It was special order and now no more.

OP, if me I'd let that canoworms alone.

Somehow my cabinets got set on top of the laminate flooring, so that's gotta come up too. Brilliant, huh?

Had laminate in the basement til the wife came home and water was spraying through the drywall onto a tempurpedic mattress and had flooded half the basement. Within minutes, it swelled up. Got new engineered vinyl flooring installed thats waterproof, dogproof and looks better than our wood flooring upstairs.

Mine are not "waterproof" even though the package said they will resist water. I'm glad you have had great luck with vinyl plank. I'm looking into that style now. Was it easy to install?

Water resistant means if you throw water on it, some of the water will bounce off.

Was not hard to install. Allure is the name from home depo. A member here recommended it. Full floating, I did no underlay or prep over t and g, ship lap style edges 4 sides with an adhesive on edges. Only place I nailed were thresholds and I drilled the vinyl so it would still float. The thresholds that went vinyl to vinyl I used scrap, as cheapo depo wanted big money for those and not in stock. It goes on sale a few times a year.
One thing I really like, I can tear it out easy if I want. I used oak shoe mold at base boards and hearth, vinyl shoe in bathroom.

If you buy some, PM me if you want.

Great info thanks. I'll let you know for sure once I make a decision

Instructions that came with mine said wipe up spills, don't let water stand on it. I levelled the floors then had it professionally installed. So far no problems.

Vinyl plank is great . Just glue it down and if one piece get messed up or you get ready to change just hit it with a hair dryer and up it will come. I had a water leak when I built my house and it got up under some of the vinyl plank and made it pop up. I just heated it up with the hair dryer and smoothed it back down.