Why Floors Fail: Everything You Need to Know About Expansion Joints for Flooring

Part 1 

The most common reason for glueless click-system laminate & vinyl floating flooring failure is inadequate expansion joints.
Vinyl body is less hygroscopic but PVC is definitely more heat conscious. Variation in temperature and humidity will lead to expansion or contraction which can lead to gaps appearing between planks or tenting. So for safety sake we recommend in our installation instructions that panel size should not exceed 8m in direction of the panel width and 10m in direction of the panel length without an additional expansion gap. This is obviously in addition to the 10mm gap around walls. Different manufacturers use slightly different measures but all approximate the rule above.

Kaindl, one of the worlds leading laminate manufactures recommends:
Bigger areas must be separated with an expansion gap of at least 15mm.
Laminate flooring consists of wood. Wood is a hygroscopic material and adapts to the ambient humidity levels and as a result, its dimensions are subject to slight changes. The expansion can be 2mm/m length. Keep this physical property of wood in mind when laying down your laminate flooring. 
A minimum expansion gap from 1.5mm/lm room length on both sides should be considered e.g.: Length of the room 10m x 1.5mm/lm = 15mm distance The must be expansion gaps of min. 1.5mm/m between rooms. Those gaps can be masked by using a special profile. When fitting near solid elements e.g. heating pipes make sure there is a distance of 1.5mm/m.

From timberfloors.co.za: Leave an expansion gap all around the perimeter of the room, usually between 8 and 10mm. This will allow the wood floor product to expand when the humidity in the air rises. This expansion gap will later be covered by the skirting. Laminate flooring is known to expand 3mm per meter, if allowance for this expansion is not made the floor will ultimately fail when it needs to expand.
Laminate flooring is also normally not laid more than 8m in length without breaking the length with an expansion joint profile. Most manufacturers have profiles available that look similar to the flooring decor or it can be made from aluminium. It is also strongly recommended that one breaks the laminate floor with an expansion profile at every room entrance. In other words do not take your flooring into different rooms all in one piece, an expansion profile should be fitted under the door entering each room. Remember to also allow for an expansion gap around door frames. This gap around door frames is usually filled with a colour sealant to compliment the floor decor.

For Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVT) the expansion joints can be slightly smaller but remain just as important. IVC US, a prominent American company recommends the following: "Maintain a 1/4” (1/2 cm) expansion space around all walls, cabinets, pipes, toilet flanges and any obstacle in the floor."

And lastly a compact guide published by The Southern Africa Wood and Laminate Flooring Association: A Simple Guide to Laminate Flooring Installation, which also recommends a 10mm gap and room sizes no larger than 8x10m without expansion gaps. Pdf download here

In Part 2 Why Floors Fail: The missing step - Acclimatisation

Download our laminate and vinyl brochures or browse our website. Scroll down to "Lamadeira" here.

For any other inquiries about laminate & vinyl flooring please send us an email.