trafficmaster allure flooring...warning!

13 years ago

If you have purchased and installed TrafficMaster Allure Flooring. Warning you may want to check the underside for molds and moisture trapping underneath. Especially if you live in an area where there is high humidity or a home that is on pier and beams. Not for Louisiana folks. I had the TrafficMaster allure flooring installed by a contractor 2yrs ago. Started having lifting and buckling. So we removed a section of the flooring. To our surprise there was a large amount of moisture and mold and fungus growing underneath the damages are in the thousands. We had a Globel Forensic Investigors to come to our home to find the problem. They were sent by our Home Owners Insurance co. We had more than enough air ventilation in the crawl space and the floors were installed properly with 1/8 inch gap from walls. There findings were this flooring product is not suitable for the region we live in.

Featured Answer

vcurrie
Original Author

13 years ago

Completely understand that putting a moisture barrier over the soil would solve the problem. I am also wondering what caused moisture to collect when the flooring was installed over concrete.

Comments (9)

live_wire_oak
13 years ago
Do you have a moisture barrier in your crawl space? It's not enough to have crawspace ventilation in a damp climate. The bigger issue is the moisture rising up from the ground and into the home. Any type of floor covering, such as vinyl, or wood flooring over a tar paper vapor barrier, would have had the same issues without crawlspace moisture barrier.
vcurrie
Original Author
13 years ago
No I do not have a moisture barrier in our crawl space. The issue is that the manufacturer installation instruction says the subfloor must be a least 18inch from the ground. Ours subfloor is 34inch from the ground. Our neighbor also installed the same flooring in 2008 on concrete over 2500 sq. ft. of trafficmaster allure flooring in there home. They decided this yr to remove the trafficmaster and install ceramic tile. When removing the allure flooring there was mold and moisture collecting under there flooring also. They promote that TrafficMaster can be installed over any type of floors with little or no prep work. They only exclude carpet and outdoor installation. Our home was built in 1957 with tongue and groove floors. Over the years it has been covered with carpet/vinyl/click-lock laminate floors/peel and stick. We inherited the home in 2007 and completely renovated from leveling/insulation/sheetrock and all new wiring it like starting over again. We have been told that the tongue flooring must be removed to the subfloors. TrafficMaster can not be installed over tongue groove. But Home Depot will tell you It Can! and will sale it to you all day long! and to bad if it destroys your subfloors or collects moisture and grows mold.
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goodbyekitty
13 years ago
You have to have a moisture barrier in the crawl space. If you do not, not only will it affect your heating and cooling costs, your home will also be susceptible to mold and rot. But I guess if you had a Global Forensic Investigor come to your house they would have checked that.

We recently had additional insulation put in our attic, floors insulated (there was none at all)and ducts wrapped. They also put a new moisture barrier in. Our contractor told us that over the years it was obvious there were several people down there working on various things that the moisture barrier had been pulled up, jostled around and bunched up that it was no longer effective. They replaced it for free.
live_wire_oak
13 years ago
YOu still don't get it. ANY type of moisture impervious flooring will do the same thing. ANY TYPE. Vinyl flooring? Yep. It's waterproof and a water vapor barrier. Laminate flooring? Yep. It's laid over a moisture barrier. Wood flooring? Yep. It's laid over a moisture barrier of tar paper.

It's not the flooring type. It's your failure to have a moisture barrier over your soil in your crawlspace. That allows moisture from the ground to migrate through into your home. It's going to cause more problems than just with your flooring too. Until you remediate the actual problem, you're only putting on a moldy bandaid onto the symptom.
clg7067
13 years ago
Water is always moving up though concrete, you need a mosture barrier anytime you put something over concrete.
fixeruppityest
13 years ago
This thread should be called "No surprise: Moisture Barriers are important".

Then we could all respond saying things like "Duh." and "Shocker." Or maybe "thanks for the heads up, Einstein."

Your installation failures are no reason to issue a warning on the part of Trafficmaster Allure, which is a fine product. I'm looking at it right now.
bus_driver
13 years ago
About 3 years ago I installed Trafficmaster Allure. The installation was carefully done in warm weather. The end joints now have gaps. The surface still looks good and seems to wear well. But the joint gaps are unacceptable. I will not use this product again.
mjsee
13 years ago
And I installed trafficmaster allure several years ago...over old cutback mastic which itself was on a slab. It's been fine. In fact---I'm installing more next week. Granted...our house has A/C and the slab has been down since 1965...but I am happy with the product.