Laminate Floor Problem

Q: We had a laminate floor installed in April. I was concerned from the beginning that noise would be an issue but was promised that it would be okay. After the floor was installed, it has a squeaking and popping sound when walking on it in various areas. The installer, who came highly recommended and boasts that he prides himself on ”quality work”, has been out to try to remedy the problem 3 different times. He has used a flooring glue two times and the other time he drilled a hole and used a tube and a can of insulating foam sealant in order to raise the floor in the squeaky areas – all to no avail. On the front end of the job he charged $1000 extra to “float the floor” due to the areas that he thought were unlevel.
My question: Would you recommend that the insulating foam sealant carefully be used to fix the problem or does the floor need to be redone?
A: The fix that your installer is using is very similar to what is done in glue down vinyl and wood flooring. Typically this fix is done when air bubbles occur as the adhesive cures, but I can’t say I have heard of folks doing it with a floating floor.
For floating floors, typically the labor itself it much cheaper, but if you do not have underlayment purchased, you will need to purchase underlayment for the installation, which might be where some of the additional cost came from. Floating floors can account for some minor variances in a subfloor, but for the areas which would cause the floor to move enough to make a bit of noise, the subfloor itself needs to be properly prepared before hand.
Here is what should have happened. Its clear your installer knew of some subfloor concerns, so the subfloor should have been fully checked to see where variances where in the level and then proper leveling measures should have been done to correct any problems in the subfloor before installing the floor.
I personally would want the issues in the subfloor to be properly addressed since this is a floating floor. In the case of glue downs (where a fix like this is normal) the flood is solidly anchored to the subfloor, so filling air pockets would be ok, but in the case of a floating floor, where the floor is not anchored, I would be concerned with having drill holes and a foam sealant injected rather than leveling the subfloor with a proper self leveling compound.