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The Natural Philosopher[_2_] The Natural Philosopher[_2_] is offline
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Default How crucial is the 10mm expansion gap in laminate flooring?

On 09/01/17 20:49, David Lang wrote:
On 09/01/2017 13:04, wrote:
The following website gives the coefficient of thermal expansion for
MDF as 12µm/m-K
(
http://www.makeitfrom.com/material-p...Fiberboard-MDF)



That means a 10metre long board will expand 0.12mm for every degree
Celsius (or Kelvin) change in temperature. If the temperature of the
board increase 40 degrees, the total change in length is only 5mm. That
is 2.5 mm at each end. So a 10mm gap all round is excessive unless you
are likely to get an awful lot of swelling due to moisture.

I think 10mm is way OTT. The beading/skirting is only just that
thickness. You do need a gap = I have seen a laminate floor 'raft' on a
few occasions, although they were in kitchens - so they could have got wet.

I needed about 5mm all round on a floor of of 6 x 6m. IT bucked before
I adjusted it
l

thermal expansion is pretty much not the problem. Moisture is.