Wondered if any of you have had this happen -

We have replaced our carpet as it was smelling of dog pee even after being claned with a machine - was all in the underlay. Anyway hubby laid a fab laminate floor last week and to our horror our youngster who has been clean for months now had a sly wee that went un-noticed and now it has swelled where the join is.

What I wondered is - has this happened to anyone else, and if it reduces once it dried out. We cannot possibilly replace the whole floor and new skirtings.

Yours hopefully, Aimi x

Oh dear is all I can say I'm afraid.  We live in a chalet bungalow and so airing cupboard is on gnd floor.  Hot water tank leaked and got under the laminate and it didn't go back down the whole lot had to be replaced (insurance covered it thankfully).  That was about 3 years ago and just recently I noticed that the bit of carpet in a lobby area was wet.  Don't know where the water came from suspect it might be from washing machine.  Anyway this has very slightly warped laminate in exactly same place and that was a few weeks ago and it looks like staying the same.

If the laminate is floating check your insurance policy.  It was the first thing the insurance people asked me because if it is stuck directly to the floor it is considered as fixtures and fittings and can't be claimed on house contents.  All insurances are different though so worth checking first.

When we needed new flooring I asked around a lot of my cat and dog keeping friends, and everyone without exception said don't get laminate as it will get ruined if water is spilt or it is peed on...... :(

We have laminate in the kitchen (suitable for bathrooms) and a week after laying it the washing machine leaked   it got under the laminate just by the machine.  After cleaning up the water and taking up the lamintae to dry underneath we decided to see what would happen, so we put it all back, after all it was expensive stuff ;).   At first it swelled up abit, but didn't show too much because of the colour and situation, it also didn't come apart at the joints.   Now, a year later, you can't even see where it swelled up, it has dried out nicely and is completely unnoticeable :)  We also haven't had any smells developing, so it seems to be ok :)  Maybe we were just lucky tho as it didn't really have time to get really soaked.

We've got laminate through our dining room and living room and it's a god send.  With 6 dogs and 4 children we've had plenty of spills, but it's never swelled up so far.

Although the very first laminate we put down, a quite cheap version went badly wrong when our fish tank exploded!

We've had plenty of spills on our laminate, one cheap that got hit by the first tank leak which was replaced by an expensive one which has been hit with the second leak.  Our dog piddled plenty of times on laminates, glasses of wine, tea and milk shake have also been spilt but I think it depends on whether the joins have been sealed and how long the liquid has been allowed to soak in.  With all our small spills and piddles the laminates have been cleared up quickly and no harm was done but if the liquid is seeps between the joins or in our case leaks in from underneath that's when the damage is done.

Ours has swelled and also the colouring rubbed off so we told the company who made it and they sent out a load more to replace it and this is doing the same, were not sure what were going to put down when we move yet. The laminates easy to clean just looks tacky once its been down a few months and worn and swelled :(

I don't know what the laminate is in my house as it was down before I bought the house.  But when Lastar first came he weed a few times in the living room (he'd never lived in a house) I cleaned it up straight away and I've never had a problem.  It's had a few spillages too and still looks quite new.  i doubt that it's an expensive laminate as I feel that it was put down for the sale as the house was empty when I bought it and a big company owned it previously.

My laminate has been down a year this month and looks as good as the day it was put down!

Mine has been down almost three years now and looks as good as the day it was put down. 

hi my hubby is a carpet fitter/laminate fitter and most laminate is made of MDF so if it gets wet it will absorb water and swell and 9 times out of 10 will need replacing ie most washer machine leaks are a rip up  and dog pees  you can get away with unless they pee like a washer lol