Laminated floor: how to fix without disassembling?

For many years, laminate flooring has been one of the most sought-after floor coverings - it looks decent and expensive, it is great for almost any interior style and, importantly, it is quite simple to put it on your own without the help of workers.

However, laminate with all its obvious advantages at the same time has one major drawback - for a variety of reasons, the uniformity of the coating can be broken.

People who have experienced this problem start to panic, because they believe that it is possible to repair this damage only with the help of professionals.

However, if you examine the issue and understand the causes of swelling, you can not only get rid of this problem yourself, but also prevent further irregularities.

Those who decide to solve the problem on their own, first of all, it is necessary to figure out what the laminate is and what parts it consists of.

• The bottom layer of the laminate is a bit like a thick sheet of paper with a film on one side. This layer is needed just to protect the material from moisture.
• Then comes a layer of fiberboard, along the edges of which are small connectors for fastening, it is with their help the plates are connected to each other during installation.
• Colorless paper with a pattern printed on it is the layer from which we, as a rule, choose one or another type of laminate.
• The last layer is a protective film of acrylic resins and melamine.

The reasons why the surface of the laminate swells depends on a variety of factors. Here, the role is played not only by how the owner of the room takes care of the laminate, but also by how it was originally laid.

Among the most common reasons that people who choose laminate flooring regularly face are the following:

• Initially selected poor quality material. It is no secret that during repairs, accompanied by enormous spending, people tend to succumb to attractive promotions and discounts. This leads to the fact that trying to save an extra 100 rubles, you can choose a low-quality product, which will lead to subsequent spending on repairs.

• An error was made when preparing the base surface. In particular, it plays a big role how well the base is prepared for laminate.

Sometimes builders generally lay the floor right over the old parquet, which is also unacceptable. In addition, sometimes during installation they forget about the substrate, which will later work for thermal insulation, or choose a substrate of the wrong thickness, for example, too thin and soft substrate will not work for thin strips.

• Installation technology not met. A common mistake in self-laying the floor covering is not a clearance of the required size between the wall and the panel. According to the regulations, this space is 1 or 1.5 cm. Otherwise, the temperature and humidity levels will be disturbed and the floor will go in waves. Moreover, the same rule should be observed if the laminate is in contact with heating pipes or other elements.

• Laminate wet from the water on the floor. Unfortunately, all the advantages of this flooring often fade in front of one and the obvious drawback - the slightest ingress of water to the surface can lead to bloating.Here, an overturned vase with flowers, insufficient sealing of windows during showers, and even too much water during wet cleaning can play a bad role. Of course, in this situation it all depends on the quality of the laminate. But even the most expensive material from staying in a wet room or prolonged contact with water will become unusable.

• Carelessness and lack of care.

Determine the reason why laminate is bloated is necessary to correctly choose the way to fix the problem.

Of course, if the laminate has risen at the joints and seams, the problem can only be fixed by dismantling. As a rule, the reason for the violation here lies in the fact that the coating was incorrectly laid.

The steps in this case are:

• remove the baseboard;

• find those laminate plates that run into walls;
• jigsaw cut off the protruding part so that the baseboard necessarily covered the space that appeared;

• put in place the baseboard.

If the laminate is blown up by the waves after water, in the summer it is enough to simply wipe the surface with a dry cloth and how to ventilate the room.

However, if you cannot partially get rid of the moisture, you must also dismantle:

• laminate must be disassembled to the place where it is swollen, and also remove a few plates around (all panels must be carefully removed at an angle of 45 degrees);
• thoroughly dry both the plates and the substrate;
• replace the damaged panels, put the cover back (also at an angle, carefully return the laminate to its place), install the plinth.

In this case, it often happens that the plates change their color and appearance from moisture, so when buying laminate it is better to always take a little more material than you actually need in such situations to always replace the old and useless plates.

Without replacing the panels, you can try to solve the problem with the help of a glass ram - after disassembling the cover of the distortion, “pull out” with the device. In addition, there is such a "popular" way - it is believed that all irregularities can be fixed with an iron, smoothing the plates, as if you were ironing linen.

If you do not want to engage in a complete disassembly of the laminate, you can do the following:

• free the room from furniture;
• remove the baseboard;
• departing from the wall 15-20 mm, mark the line of cut and walk on it with a jigsaw;
• to speed up the alignment process, you can put a heavy object in place of the deformation, then the plates will fall into place faster;
• return to the place of the plinth.

Nevertheless, it is not always possible to avoid dismantling, but you can try to limit yourself to replacing only one panel without disassembling the entire structure.

For this you need:

• measure out a small rectangle inside the damaged panel, which will be several centimeters smaller than the original plate, and cut it out;
• using a chisel and a hammer, pull out the cut out piece and, after a weakening in the structure, rest parts;
• row up panels about 10 cm in the direction of the wall;
• remove the remaining pieces of the panel and cut the lock connection;
• smear with glue a new panel and what it is attached to;
• Insert the panel at an angle of 45 degrees and lower. Using a glass-jack, pull up two panels and, after connecting, lower them to the floor;
• press down with something heavy.

And about how to replace a damaged panel, without disassembling the entire laminate, see the following video.

As mentioned above, most problems with laminate can be avoided if you properly care for it.

Today, there are many ways to do this:

• Polishes and impregnations, which include wax. These products have a water-repellent effect, but this method works only with regular processing of the coating and following all instructions (for example, it is applied twice with an interval of 4 hours, and then at least 12 hours the coating will be absorbed). In addition, you must always carefully read the accompanying information in order to get impregnation just for the laminate, and not for the parquet. By the way, impregnation, as a rule, is applied to the joints of the plates.The approximate volume of one tube is 500 ml, which should be enough for processing approximately 10 m2. A polish should process the entire area of ​​the room - the tool will create a thin protective film, which after some time you need to update.

• Glue that is in a good hardware store will always be offered to you when buying laminate.

• A protective film that will be almost invisible if it is carefully glued.

There is a general recommendation for the use of any means of care - the surface that is subjected to treatment must be cleaned from contamination and thoroughly dried. Otherwise, there is a risk not only not to bring benefits, but also to allow the occurrence of damage, stagnation of moisture and even the appearance of all the same blisters.