laminate flooring at marriage seam

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Mark440
Posts: 279
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:33 am
Location: Anna, Tx

I'm wanting to tear out a couple of rooms of carpet and install laminate flooring. The only place i have concerns is in the living room where the marriage seams come together. I have seen the "levelness" of this vary over the years, so am wondering how well laminate flooring is gonna hold up. if i run the flooring perpendicular to the floor joists, I end up being parallel to the marriage seams.

I have thought of different ways to mitigate the moving variance of the seam. I could cover it with couple ft wide sheets of metal sheeting, but would be concerned about a clackety sound when walking over it. I thought about laying 3/8 or 1/2 plywood - but that becomes one of those projects that doesn't end until the whole danged house is done.

If i run the flooring the other way....the stuff warps and buckles because that ridiculous MDF subflooring is prone to sag (without fail!) I learned this the hard way when i put down laminate in a bedroom with the flooring running parallel to the floor joists. I am fixin to tear it all up due to the hills and valleys. Which takes me right back to figuring out how to mitigate the seam.

Any ideas? Any experiences?
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Greg
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Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:01 pm
Location: Weedsport, NY

First thing, check & relevel the home if necessary. There is no reason that you should have movement between the two halves if the two sides are properly bolted together. Flooring should be run 90* to the floor joists.

Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
Mark440
Posts: 279
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:33 am
Location: Anna, Tx

Place was re-leveled this last year. I also had the cross-corner braces installed on all 4 corners.

The 'ridge' at the seam has always been there - but hidden by the carpeting. I've crawled down under - and the seam itself appears to be blocked quite well, so I don't know why there is a ridge. That said - I wouldn't know how to fix it. I didn't see anything obvious for adjusting it.

I did find this posted here in the mobilehome.com form.

Re: marriage joint not level in double wide

Post by Mark Bower » Wed Feb 15, 2006 10:21 pm
By next month my company is going to be carrying a product which will help line-up those marriage lines. Even with a good releveling, something it's still about impossible to get that joint absolutely flush. Our new product will solve that.

Mark
You gotta see my repair manual!
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Mark440
Posts: 279
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:33 am
Location: Anna, Tx

I found the "issue". I pulled out all the carpet (and gladly burned it to a cinder!) At the marriage seam, the edges of the crappy OSB sub-floor are raised up - a full 1/4 inch in some places. I don't think it is due to water as there are no other indicators of water damage. But! The hot water tank does sit right on the edge of the seam in a closet...and I know the previous yo-yo's who owned this place did have a WH that failed. My guess is that water did run right down thru and along the marriage seam - causing that edge to expand.

So....ya suppose it is "safe" to take a belt sander and put a bit of a slant on each side of the seam? (I know there is a word for that slant - and it evades my brain at the moment!)

FWIW - the builders went staple happy - more like insane! - when they put down the sub-floor. At the marriage seam, there is no less than 50 staples on each side for the 17 ft run. Some are less than 1" apart.
Opportunity has a shelf life.
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