We have had a floating hardwood floor installed in our kitchen. The installers would not lay the floor to the walls, but insisted that they could only fit to just under the kitchen cabinets.
I suspect the job was done in a very rushed manner as they completed in a morning what was listed as a 2 day job.
The flooring by the kitchen sink is very bouncy. You can actually see it moving when you stand on it.
The installer says that this is perfectly appropriate and does not think there is anything wrong with it.
Am I being ridiculous in saying this is not acceptable.
It is a floating hardwood floor fitted on top of a concrete subfloor.

Please advise me what I should be saying to the installer, as I don't know whether to believe him now or not.

Thanks

cheesed of London UK

Typical lack of floor preparation. The area either has a high or low spot that causes flexing.

Sere the link below for more information.

Uneven Subfloors. New Bouncy Floor

A floating floor will have a slight amount of "give" in some places when it is newly installed. They should be nearly undetectable when walking on them. I have found that over time. This little amount of "give" will disappear as the floating floor conforms to the substrate.

This is all if the floor has been properly leveled. The tolerances are 3/16" over 10', or 1/8" in 6'. My concern for you and your concern should be whether this was addressed at all. Just because it is a floating floor does not mean that it is a trampoline.

Movement of the flooring, will eventually tear it apart. Think of trying to cover more area with the same amount of flooring. A depression if measuring the surface of the depression is more surface area then a pane of glass taking the same foot print.

All floating floors must have a perimeter expansion space to accommodate wood expansion.

Don't be so fast to jump to that conclusion. There are legitimate reasons for that to happen.

One store we work for, the owner does the estimate/measure and schedules the job after checking with us for available dates. Not having seen the site ourselves, we can only estimate the time it'll take based on his description.
If there's any question at all I always tell him to add an extra day just in case an unforeseen situation arises (a problem with the subfloor after ripping out existing floor for example) so that the homeowner will have that next day available if necessary.

Also, there have been times when he's scheduled a job for two days automatically because in his mind, that's how long it would take if he were doing it. But then we get there and see piece o' cake, this is a one dayer.
That actually leaves us in an awkward spot. We're not going to dawdle and purposefully draw the job out just so the homeowner thinks they are getting more of their money's worth of labor, but on the other hand, we fear the exact reaction that you have described - that if we don't twiddle our thumbs and make the job extend to the time allotted for it, that the homeowner will think we "rushed" it.

We've had jobs that only take a few hours and the homeowners are always suprised, they think they paid X amount for labor they should see you sweat it out longer. But that's why they hired a professional - to get the job done in a timely manner (and done right). It's a catch22 in this trade, I guess.

In your case, your installers may have rushed it, don't know. Just wanted to point out to the general public that scheduled time vrs actual time often doesn't mean a hill o' beans.

Great observations DC!!

I agree with above, most likely a slight depression in the subfloor in that spot.

A floating floor in a kitchen, scheduled as a two day job? Damn, how big is your kitchen? Kidding. What DC said about the whole scheduling thing.

It is unlikely that the "spongyness" will go away of its own accord. If your floor is a composite product, the centre core will deteriorate over time and the connecting joints will fail, along with that area of the floor. Best to remove the area now, and flatten the substrate. Some floors allow for this without affecting the warantee on the product.