2-3 months after installation of HD Legend engineered bamboo click flooring we have a bulge (~2x3 ft. area and ~1/2 in. high) next to our fireplace. Flooring was installed using Black Jack underlayment over concrete foundation (built in 1994). The bulge appeared after lots of wind and rain that caused water marks on the ceiling around the chimney. Driven rain may have run down inside the stone around the chimney, then seeped under the flooring, however, after removing the quarter round and inspecting in the gap between the flooring and the fireplace, I couldn't see or feel any sign of water on the concrete, underlayment, or flooring. Although the bulge is directly adjacent to the fireplace, it is near the middle of a ~30 ft. run of flooring. Originally there was a gap of ~3/8 inch on all sides of flooring, but I haven't pulled up glued down trim to verify the gap since the bulge. What are options/suggestions to get rid of the bulge?

 

Check the gap, first. What you are describing is classic "no edge gap" syndrome. How close did they get to the fireplace? If it is jammed there, it could cause a problem. If your trim was glued to the floor, it could be keeping it from expanding. Trim should have been attached to the walls, not the floor.

 

Buckling in a floating floor, means it has expanded and taken up all the expansion space across the flooring.

Pull the trim and recut the flooring along the walls that are locking in the floating floor.

Also, very heavy bookshelves, or furishings(piano, on opposite sides of the room, can cause the flooring to buckle.