I recently had an engineered wood floor installed using the floating installation method, on a concrete slab floor. I notice in some spots there is a slight "give" in the floor when I put my weight on that spot. Is that movement supposed to be there? Is that why they call it "floating"? There are no squeaks, yet. I was disappointed in the length of the planks, but it is still beautiful. They want final payment now, and I just need to know about the slight "give" in some spots. They did put a good heavy vapor barrier below, and put glue in the tongue/groove.

Hi Mike
Because the floating floor is not fastened solidly to anything you can consider it normal to have some minor movement when stepped on, how much is considered normal depends on how flat the subfloor is, what the thickness of the flooring itself is and how thick the underlayment pad is.

You will find that the thicker the floating floor is the less flex there will be within the board itself.

If the subfloor is not flat and has depressions or high spots within it can also cause the flooring to flex down more into the depression when stepped on.

Using a too thick soft underlayment pad can also cause the boards to sink into the pad too much when stepped on.

Floating floors are great floors to use and available in many styles from wide long planks to the narrow board look. They just need a little more caution when prepping the subfloor to make sure all high spots are sanded down or depressions within the floor are filled with a leveling agent will minimize any excessive movement when walking across the floors.

Hope this has helped

Jeff Hosking

Jeff,

Thanks very much for your help.

I had foundation work done before the flooring, and the floor guys had to do a lot of leveling. And, they did use a thick pad below. The movement isn't terrible, and the floor is beautiful. I think I got a good installation. I'm glad I did not try to do it myself.

Thanks,
Mike