Plank floors fail differently from tiles. How to check a new timber, laminate or SPC floor at handover and word the defects.
Timber, laminate and SPC floors in a new unit usually fail in a handful of ways: gaps opening between planks, joints peaking into a ridge, edges swelling near a bathroom or balcony door, squeaks and bounce underfoot, and chips or scratches from the last weeks of work. The commonest fitting fault behind peaking is a floor laid without an expansion gap, or one pinned by skirting, a door frame or a cabinet plinth. Walk every room at vacant possession, look along the floor with a torch held low, check the edges at wet areas, list each item in writing and send it to the developer inside the 24-month defect liability period.
More new condos and landed homes now hand over bedrooms with laminate, SPC or engineered timber instead of tiles. These are floating or glued plank floors, and they show defects differently from tiles. Instead of hollow or cracked tiles you see planks that have opened up along their long edges, a raised ridge where two rows meet, a corner that has swollen and gone soft near the bathroom, a section that bounces or clicks as you walk, or skirting and beading that have come away from the wall.
Some defects are just damage: dents from ladders, scratches from dragged materials, and chipped plank edges at doorways. Others are fitting faults that will get worse with time, which is why the difference matters at handover. The laminate flooring installation guide explains that the work that decides quality is almost all invisible once the floor is down.
Wood-based and plastic plank floors move with heat and humidity. A floating floor needs a gap at every wall, column and door frame, hidden under the skirting, so it can expand. If that gap is missing, filled with grout or silicone, or pinned down later by skirting nailed through the planks or a kitchen plinth set on top, the floor has nowhere to go and lifts in the middle. The SPC lifting and bubbling guide lists exactly these ways the gap gets lost after installation.
Moisture is the other cause. A new slab gives up its construction water slowly, and the timber floor moisture guide warns that a moisture-sensitive floor laid over a slab that has not finished drying takes that water into the boards. Water also gets in at thresholds: a balcony or bathroom door with too little step lets water run onto the planks during heavy rain or a wash. Finally, an uneven screed underneath turns into bounce, squeaks and loose joints.
Bring a torch and wear socks. Do every room, including inside wardrobes if the floor runs under them.
| What | What to look for | Simple owner check |
|---|---|---|
| Joints between planks | Gaps along long or short edges, ridges where rows meet | Hold the torch flat to the floor and look along the planks from a low angle |
| Edges near wet areas | Swollen, soft or darkened plank edges at bathroom, balcony or kitchen doors | Press the edges with your thumb and compare with planks in the middle of the room |
| Movement underfoot | Bounce, clicking, squeaks, a drum-like hollow sound in one area | Walk slowly in lines across each room and listen |
| Surface | Chips, dents, deep scratches, colour or pattern mismatch between planks | Look across the floor with the torch from several directions |
| Skirting and beading | Gaps at the wall, beading coming loose, skirting nailed through the planks | Look along the whole perimeter, especially behind doors and in corners |
| Doorways and thresholds | Transition strips missing or loose, doors that scrape or stick on the floor | Open and close every door fully; check each strip is fixed |
Mark each finding with the room and the wall or door it is near. You can tick your defects room by room on ClickBina's checklist tool and add flooring items room by room.
Small, even gaps between planks in a dry air-conditioned room can open and close with the seasons, which is normal movement for wood. A gap that is wide, uneven along its length or catches a fingernail, or planks that have separated so the click joint shows, is a defect. Peaking, where two rows lift into a ridge, almost always means the floor is pushing against something at the edges.
For SPC, ClickBina's vinyl and SPC cost guide says to leave a 6–10 mm gap at all fixed edges, covered by skirting or trim. You cannot see the gap at handover, but you can see its absence: a floor that is tight against a door frame, under a fixed cabinet or into a grout line. The laminate guide notes that peaking is nearly always fixable in the first year, but left for a season the click joints themselves break and the planks need replacing. That is a good reason to list it early.
Laminate has a fibreboard core, and the laminate guide is blunt: a swollen laminate plank cannot be dried out and restored; it can only be replaced. Swelling right at a bathroom or balcony door usually means water has crossed the threshold, which can be a defect in the door step or the waterproofing as much as in the floor. The balcony waterproofing guide explains how a shallow step lets storm water over the sliding door track and into the flooring.
Cupping across a whole room, with the edges of each board higher than the middle, points to moisture from below, often a slab that was not dry when the floor went down. List it, and ask the developer to find the moisture source before replacing boards, or the new ones will cup too.
These are qualitative calls except where a figure is quoted from a ClickBina guide. Judge by whether the floor is sound, flat and finished.
| Finding | Usually | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ridge or peak where two rows meet | Defect | Floor pinned or no expansion gap |
| Wide or uneven gap, click joint visible | Defect | Joint has separated |
| Swollen or soft plank edge at a wet-area door | Defect | Water has reached the core; laminate cannot recover |
| Cupping across a whole room | Defect to list | Moisture from below; source must be found |
| Bounce or loud clicking in one area | Defect | Uneven subfloor or failed joint |
| Skirting nailed through the planks or cabinet plinth on the floor | Defect to list | Pins the floating floor |
| Chips, dents, deep scratches | Defect | Damage before handover |
| Fine seasonal gaps in a dry room that close again | Usually normal | Wood moves with humidity |
| A light hollow sound across a whole floating floor | Usually normal | Floating floors sound different from tiles; list only a local drum |
Number each item, name the room and the nearest wall or door, and say what you want done.
Send the list in writing and keep a copy. The new house defects guide explains the process and what to do if the developer does not respond.
Ask what was done in each room and walk it again afterwards. A repair that only taps the ridge flat will peak again.
A floor that peaks again after a repair usually still has something pinning it, or the moisture source was not found. Report it again in writing as a repeat defect and give the date of the earlier repair. The defect liability period guide says an inadequate repair should be documented and reported again, because it is a fresh breach of the developer's obligation.
If swelling returns near a bathroom or the floor stays damp, a leak detection visit can check for a pipe or waterproofing leak before more boards are replaced. The leak detection guide explains what the visit covers.
The defect liability period for a new home from a licensed developer is 24 months from vacant possession. Floor movement often shows after the first few months of living with the aircon on and the windows open, so check again after you move in and before the period ends. The defect liability period guide says the developer is typically expected to make good within 30 days of receiving your written notice.
Hold off on built-in wardrobes or a kitchen standing on the floor until the floor items are fixed, because fixed furniture can pin the floor and hide the defect.
ClickBina offers a defect inspection service in KL & Selangor. We walk every floor, check joints, edges and wet-area thresholds, write a numbered defect list for the developer, and can carry out the rectification for items the developer does not cover or after the period ends. As an experienced KL & Selangor contractor handling whole-house refurbishment and trade coordination, we can sort the floor, the threshold and the skirting together.
Where swelling points to a hidden leak, leak detection is a separate visit at RM300 – RM800. For repair work, a site visit to quote is RM150, waived if you go ahead. We reply within the hour, the price we agree is a flat price with no hidden charges, and ClickBina is registered with SSM.
Methodology: apart from the quoted expansion gap, defect-versus-normal calls are qualitative; no homeowner-measurable tolerance is published for plank gaps or bounce.
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