ᐅ Baseboards are starting to come loose; what is the best way to reattach them?

Hello everyone,

I hope someone can help me with a question.

We have parquet flooring throughout the entire apartment. Some of the parquet strips are beginning to loosen. When you tap on them with your finger, the sound is hollow, which is not the case with the adjacent strips. Furthermore, these hollow-sounding strips are lifting slightly—about 1mm (0.04 inches) in some areas. What could be causing this?

We own the apartment, and the floor is just under 4 years old. The issue with the strips is spreading throughout all living areas.

There can be various causes, but they all ultimately assume that the adhesive is not holding, of course.
With new flooring, the cause can stem from the subfloor (insufficiently dried screed), the parquet material itself (absorbing too little adhesive), the adhesive (unsuitable type or incorrect application), and last but not least, the installation technique.

This needs to be addressed on site by removing some baseboards and examining them: Is there adhesive present, how much, are there any visible deformations, what does the subfloor look like...

This should be investigated by an expert; what does the flooring installer say about it, have you already asked?

Here, the flooring installer needs to assist and must be involved. It could also be due to the adhesive used or the way the parquet was installed.

I had the same problem, and for me, the glue didn't work at all. These trim pieces simply didn’t absorb that glue. Following a friend’s advice, I used a different adhesive, and now the trim holds properly.

Take a close look at the moldings and check the subfloor. If you installed it yourselves, you will know which adhesive you used. If not, you will have to experiment. I wish you the best of luck with that.

That’s true, the quality of the adhesive varies. But usually, the manufacturers provide the correct adhesive, and that should also be available at specialized retailers. We used wood glue for laminate and hardwood flooring, and it holds excellently.