Fitting Karndean Floor

[fitter]

I had Karndean flooring fitted 18 months ago. The base floor is old cupped and crowned floor boards, well screwed down. The fitters did not prepare the floorboards but stapled 4' x 2' 6mm ply to floorboards, then fitted Karndean. The floor is now showing signs of shape of floorboards. Should the base floor have been prepared in some way prior to ply being fitted to avoid this problem?

[rosebery]

If the boards are that badly bowed I'd have had the lot up and replaced with 18mm ply.

If there are some minor ups and downs I use SLC to fill the dips before overplying.

6mm ply should be OK for Karndean but I screw or nail it down rather than stapling it. Screw or nails heads driven down below level of floor and filled or they will show through the vinyl.

[harry69]

6mm should be fine in most case's for karndean.
Most important that it is fixed with ring shank nails 18mm at regular intervals. IE: one every 6 inches or less. to take any movement out of the floor whatsoever..

Then the thing that has maybe been missed on yours at a guess, is that we then coat the floor with a compound by ardex called feather finish..
its like a very fine powdered screed. that is literally scraped over the floor to take out any dips, and the nail heads, gaps, joints..
Its fast setting in thin coats, so i usually do 3 coats, and end up with a perfect surface to work from..

I suspect that your fitters may have missed this...

[rosebery]

"I suspect that your fitters may have missed this..."

Exactly - so they didn't do it properly in the first place. Fetch 'em back in!

Edit: Kardean might just have something to say about it if the installer didn't follow the company's installation instructions - particularly if they are a Karndean approved installer. That might just be an incentive to them to come back.

[harry69]

[quote="rosebery"]"I suspect that your fitters may have missed this..."

Exactly - so they didn't do it properly in the first place. Fetch 'em back in!

Edit: Kardean might just have something to say about it if the installer didn't follow the company's installation instructions - particularly if they are a Karndean approved installer. That might just be an incentive to them to come back.[/quote]

Yes very much so..
I have to pop back to a kitchen this friday where a tile has lifted slightly in the doorway.
But im happy to go back and put it right as my reputation is hard earned and i also have this thing that is lost on some folks called pride in your work.

I would contact the fitters or whoever supplied your job ( as in a shop) or if you just had independent fitters, then get into them and tell them whats going on..
Also ask them a few questions on the prep work..Basically if they used feather finish compound and pressure sensitive adhesive..

Feel free to ask me anything im happy to help..if you were in the northwest, id come and have a look myself, so i could tut at what they have done..lol

goodluck..

[Jessica444]

Can anyone recomend a Karndean Fitter who will cover the Wolverhampton Area. I'm looking for approx 35 square meteres to be laid in a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and hallway.

[2Slow]

use a latex based screed over uneven floorboards before fitting ply - and finishing with feather finish. Amtico insist that that's how it's done and we also do it with Karndean.