We recently had lam flooring professionally installed over particle board sub flooring. It is forming bulges from underneath. We had it uninstalled in the bedroom and the particle board was wet and the nails had popped out through the subflooring.The installers said it had to be a broken pipe or water running under the house as the lam flooring showed no signs of moisture from above. We then had the particle board opened up to the sub sub flooring. We were told the bottom of the particle board was flat and there was no evidence that the moisture came from below, no stains on the tar paper or the boards. We also had a pressure check done and the pipes aren't leaking. The surveyor says water won't run under the house, it runs away from the house. It seems to me that there is only one option left...the installers installed it over the existing stains, that they knew were there because one of the installers said" Oh yeah that's where the dog peed" The house was built in 1958, we bought it in 1994. We were not aware of dogs being in the house, we consider that a no no. Have you ever heard of old stains that are between the tar paper and the foam sheets that lam flooring uses causing particle board to become wet, can differences in temperature inside and outside the house cause condensation? If so wouldn't that be something the professional installers should know? Should they fix the problem or a least uninstall and reinstall free?
Answer:
I'd certainly expect more than a local installer's opinion regarding what caused your headaches. The first thing of course is to determine exactly where the moisture came from. Lam flooring itself should not be effected by moisture because there is nothing absorbing about it. The most recently applied underlayment will have to go by the look of it and perhaps even new flooring installed rather than recycling something that has already been disfigured. As to whose responsibility all this is, I think a converstion with your lawyer is in order.
