Snapping, Popping, Creaking Floor

Q: I had an Alloc floating floor installed and it started popping and creaking immediately. A floor inspector came out and found nothing wrong with the installation. The company found fault that the floor was not acclimated for 48 hrs. However, the floor was installed in the spring when the temperature was between 60 and 80 degrees. If this is the problem how do you correct it?
This floor was installed in the kitchen and hallway. The first floor put in the house 50 yrs ago was 12″ tile. A second floor of vinyl linoleum was installed 25 yrs ago on top of the tile in the kitchen but not the hallway as it was carpeted. I’m wondering since the hallway has one floor and the kitchen two could the difference in thickness of the seconded floor cause the new floor to shift causing the snap, pop, and creaking noise?
Thank you for any help you can give me.
Sylvia 🙂
A: Based on your information, there are several methods that could be looked into to fix this issue. These fixes will be based on where the noise is located – across the entire floor or just near areas of transitions. We’ll go over a fix to each location.
If you experience noise across the entirety of you floor and acclimation is the major concern I would suggest trying to use a dehumidifier to pull some of the moisture out, which should relax the floor a bit and help reduce, if not remove, the noise. The reason behind this is that most floors which are not acclimated have a moisture content that differs too much from the subfloor and can cause a floor to expand or contract a bit, which will either cause gapping (in the case of contraction) or noise and possibly buckling (in the case of expansion).
Now if you only experience noise at transition areas, such as where you have a t-molding or where the floor is installed over two different subfloors like the tile versus linoleum, you will want to pull up a bit of the flooring and do some small repairs. First prep your transition, makes any cuts etc. You will want to have an 18″ finish trowel as long as it will fit the span of your area. If you do not have a finish trowel that will fit your transition area, then lay a straight edge over the area to find the width of the holiday in your floor. The holiday is the area where your subfloor is uneven (either a dip or a raise). To create a smooth surface create a screed (the same tool concrete finishers use to smooth out concrete). To make a screed, take a strip of wood and nail it to something about the size of a 1×4. The distance from the bottom of the strip of wood to the bottom of the screed is the thickness of your floor and underlayment. Then take a file and dress down the edges of the bottom of your screed (only at the corners to round them slightly), but make sure the bottom area remains straight. Remember, you will only need a screed if you don’t have a finish trowel.
With either your finish trowel or your screed ready, get some bondo and ensure to feather it up real well, then lay the bondo to smooth out your holiday and use your trowel/screed to ensure the surface is smooth.
Now bondo works great instead of using something like acrylic based Portland cement is because the bondo dries far faster so you can complete your job much quicker. If your holiday is fairly extreme you should look into using a Portland cement or self leveling compound.
Once this area has been smoothed out, install any flooring that needs to be reinstalled and then install your transition and you should be set.