anyone got any tips on laying laminate flooring?

Question

ive never laid it before but have all the equipment. just wondered if anyone had any tips on what to or not to do.

Answer 1

Depends which type you wanna lay. If you get the ones that just slot into each other then it's pretty easy. The ones you have to glue down are a b*astard. Tip for you: Keep any bits you dont use, and sell them back to the store you got them from.

Answer 2

It's easy if you remember a few basic rules -

1 - Always (as someone else said) buy more than enough to cover the entire room. Buy 1.5x the size of the room, you won't use all of every pack but you'll have lots of offcuts that you can't use anywhere left over. It's a good idea to have at least 1 whole pack left when you're finished incase you need to replace a board at a later date. Also, leave the boards in the room they're going to be fitted in for at least 24 hours before you start to lay them. This gives them chance to acclimatise to the room conditions.

2 - Get all the right tools - especially a laminate flooring fitting kit - this contains spacers to get the gap round the edges correct, and a knocking-in block and a large knocking-in bracket to close the gaps between the boards. Also get a good *sharp* handsaw, or a jigsaw, and a large wooden or rubber mallet. You'll also need a level, a carpenter's square and a portable workbench to cut the boards on. To cut the mitre joints for the finishing beads you'll also need an adjustable mitre saw or a mitre block and mitre saw.

3 - Always use a good underlay - if you're covering a ground-floor concrete floor lay a waterproof membrane underlay and then a fibre underlay over that. If you're covering existing floorboards then just use the fibre underlay. Remember to 'stagger' the fibre boards so they move as little as possible. Also, don't walk on them too much, they dent easily.

4 - Always start at the wall nearest the main door to the room and end at the wall farthest away from it. The reason is that you'll see the floor by the door more often than the rest so it needs to be fitted properly and look good. If possible lay the boards so they run lengthwise away from the entrance, not across it.

5 - Leave a 5 to 10 mm gap around each edge and never nail the boards to the floor beneath. The flooring is designed to float over the sub-floor and it will expand and contract considerably as it gets warm and cools again - hence the large gap round the edge.
Also leave the same gap around any cut-outs you need to make, except where you know you can't fix a finishing bead to hide it - in this case you have to butt the flooring right up flush. When you put the boards around the door entrance you need to cut sufficient of the door frame away to slide the flooring under the base of the frame.

6 - Use the click-lock boards if possible, they're so much easier and can be replaced relatively easily later. Stagger the boards in alternate rows - start the first with a full board, end it with whatever offcut is required to finish the row. Use the remainder of the last board to start the next row and so on. If you find you've used an exact number of boards in one row, start the next with a board cut in two first. When you cut the boards cut with the top face upwards if you're using a hand-saw, or with the top face downwards if your're using a jigsaw. This stops the laminated surface chipping on the side that shows - but watch out for the bits the saw chips off the back, they are extremely sharp and will cut your fingers like butter !

7 - When you've laid each row, tap them in gently with the knocking-in block and the mallet to close up all the gaps. Make sure they're all closed - a tiny gap at the start of the room turns into a large gap by the time you've got further across the room - and you'll have to lift all the boards up again to go back to the small gap.

8 - Finally use a quadrant beading around the edge - but only fix it to the wall or the skirting, do not fix it to the floor. Alternatively, if you dont have skirting use skirting shaped beading instead, but again don't fix it to the floor.

Good luck !

Answer 3

I find laying the floor ok and you get better at cutting the angles as you go along. Remember to leave the 5 mm gap around the edge though.

I find cutting the trimming to be the worst part as the printed wood look surface always seems to peel off!

Answer 4

I laid some a couple of years ago and the thing to remember is to allow the wood to acclimatise to your house.
Put decent underlay depending on floor condition (not carpet underlay) Pick the aesiest corner and take your time.
It does say leave a gap but I found that I didn't need that big of one
Good Luck

Answer 5

Buy sufficient flooring + one pack, get the proper underfloor foam, and pay a guy £110 to do a room. Its cheaper than buying all the necessary gear, special webbing etc that they use. You can go out and play golf.

Answer 6

Don't, as relatives of my husband did, start at each edge, only to find there's a gap in the middle! That's my best tip.

Answer 7

Start it under any counter toe kick spaces & work ur way out from them, cause U have to angle @ 45 degees each piece & then lay them down.

Answer 8

Get a good Jigsaw! and make sure you leave 5 mm around the skirting board or if you've taken the skirting board off then 5mm from the wall

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/laminate_flooring.htm

Answer 9

go on Internet,type in laying laminate flooring and you get step by
step help.

Answer 10

Have a pro to do it, no worries. You have to have tools to cut the edges and difficult part.