Let the Oslo rip and my Dricore floor buckled

[RSNovi]

So we had one day which was a little chilly around 50 so I wanted to see how the stove would heat the house. I have the stove in the basement which I knew I wasn't going to be spending time down there since I don't have carpeting yet. I packed the stove maybe 3/4 full and got it up to about 650 and settled it down to around 550 - 600. The basement hit 100 degrees F. I go down the next day and noticed some of the Dricore tiles lifting and buckling at one seam.

I am not sure why they did that unless the humidity drastically changed, but I would have thought less moisture the panels would shrink. Any thoughts?

 

[begreen]

The stove needs to be on an approved hearth pad or hearth. Dricore is not approved or safe. It is a combustible product. My guess is that the bond to the waferboard failed due to heat. If these are vinyl tiles it is a dangerous situation that the installer should have warned about. The stove needs to get on a non-combustible surface. If they are ceramic tiles, was a cement board underlayment put over the Dricore before laying the tiles?

 

[RSNovi]

Sorry, I left out some details. The stove is sitting on ceramic tile with a layer of 1/4" hardibacker on top of the Dricore. The Dricore panels which buckled are about 5 feet from the stove and they are bare waiting for carpet.

 

[begreen]

It doesn't sound like a very thermally stable floor, but this is out of my range. Personally I would have used 1/2" real cement board on top of the Dricore to add dimensional stability. Did the installer know that there would be a wood stove installed?

 

[RSNovi]

I did the tile install and was planning for the stove. The Dricore panels under the tile each have 5 Tapcon screws securing them to the concrete floor. That floor is extremely solid. The Dricore panels outside of the tile are the ones which are starting to give me issues. Possibly the only fix would be to secure each and every Dricore panel to the concrete, but that would be about a day job.

Chris

 

[tutu_sue]

The Dricore is designed to be free floating and move with expansion and contraction like a laminate or engineered floor. You leave a gap at the walls and the panels are locked into to each other by the tongue and groove. My theory is that the screws are preventing the necessary freedom of movement they need and with the top drying out so much faster than the rubber backing the edges are pulling.

 

[logger]

Thats it. The Dricore is a free floating floor. It didnt have enough room to expand and buckled. I used to put these floors in for some time. Best bet is to adjust a circular saw to the depth of the Dricore and run it around the perimeter of the room, taking off another 1/4 in. of the floor so it can expand. Not sure if you have molding down, but that would have to be popped up first. Hopefully the floor settles for you without having to pop any of it up to re-do.

 

[tutu_sue]

I found these installation instructions for using Dricore with carpet: Carpet - To prevent panel uplift when stretching carpet, fasten DRIcore panels to the concrete floor with concrete fasteners every four feet at the perimeter edges and one in the panel in the center of the room. Install tack strips on top of the perimeter rows of the DRIcore panels, to hold the carpet down. Do not glue the underpad or carpet directly to the DRIcore panels. Good luck!

 

[RSNovi]

I was also concerned with the screws no longer making it floating. Dricore actually recommended screwing down the panels as I did. I am thinking that I might need to screw every panel down now.

 

[wendell]

Since it sounds like you put your hearth pad on top of the dricore, you pinned that part of the floor down so now it can't float the way it needs to, thus the buckling.