Laying Laminate Flooring

[JMN2]

For a 3 bedroom bungalow I originally was going to have new carpets in the smallish bedrooms and laminate in the hallway and largish living room but I think now it will be simpler to lay laminate in all rooms. Before I start to study for this project, few intial questions if I may...thanks.

1. Would it look horrible if the bedrooms have different flooring from the hallway+living room, with a trim edge by the bedroom doorways? Hallway and living room will have a continous laminate without a trim by the doorway, bedrooms may all have different ones but most likely very similar in style.

2. In a true Japanese and Scandinavian fashion, I never wear shoes inside the house, they are always left by the front door. No dogs. So I may not need the thickest laminate? Which thickness would suffice? Obviously I want still good quality.

3. I wil not take off the skirting boards but will use trim/beading strips, so I assume I'll need a saw and some kind of a mitre thingy? Other useful tools?

4. Is there some good insulating underlay available?

5. I assume I can just cut the old carpets into smaller bits and take them to the council dump?


My brother has helped some of his lady colleagues to lay laminate and if he says it's a piece of p1*s then it can't be very difficult. Luckily I don't have heavy or large furniture and beds can be moved around while working.

[redsturgeon]

For a 3 bedroom bungalow I originally was going to have new carpets in the smallish bedrooms and laminate in the hallway and largish living room but I think now it will be simpler to lay laminate in all rooms. Before I start to study for this project, few intial questions if I may...thanks.

1. Would it look horrible if the bedrooms have different flooring from the hallway+living room, with a trim edge by the bedroom doorways? Hallway and living room will have a continous laminate without a trim by the doorway, bedrooms may all have different ones but most likely very similar in style.

Depends on how different but IMHO it would be better to do it all the same.

2. In a true Japanese and Scandinavian fashion, I never wear shoes inside the house, they are always left by the front door. No dogs. So I may not need the thickest laminate? Which thickness would suffice? Obviously I want still good quality.

Laminate is pretty tough stuff but obviously the hall would get considerably more wear than the bedrooms. I have laminate in several bedrooms, been down for 16 years and looks the same as the day it was laid. It was standard B&Q type so I don't think you have to go best quality.

3. I wil not take off the skirting boards but will use trim/beading strips, so I assume I'll need a saw and some kind of a mitre thingy? Other useful tools?

Yes a mitre saw would be useful something like this is more precise than a simple mitre box


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-SW0 ... dpSrc=srch

4. Is there some good insulating underlay available?

Yes

5. I assume I can just cut the old carpets into smaller bits and take them to the council dump?

Depends on your local dump rules.


My brother has helped some of his lady colleagues to lay laminate and if he says it's a piece of p1*s then it can't be very difficult. Luckily I don't have heavy or large furniture and beds can be moved around while working.

Yes it is very easy. If you can measure and use a saw then you can lay it. Hard on the knees though.

John

[JMN2]

Thanks John.

Any views on the thickness? At B&Q there were quite a few that were only 7mm and they looked very thin.

[redsturgeon]

Thanks John.

Any views on the thickness? At B&Q there were quite a few that were only 7mm and they looked very thin.

I last laid a laminate floor about ten years ago and I do not remember a difference in thicknesses then.

Here is a summary from one supplier in terms of thicknesses ( no recommendation from me in term of supply)

https://www.woodandbeyond.com/blog/lami ... ess-guide/

They say choice of thickness is more to do with the evenness of your floor and sound transference rather than quality or durability.

John

[JMN2]

I may buy laminate and trim cutters - good idea?

The doors are 20-24mm from the concrete floor which looks even and flat at least from where I've lifted the carpet, so I probably won't have any problems there and no need to shorten the doors.

3 bedrooms are 30m2 in total + recommended 10%, any leftovers I can use elsewhere.

[redsturgeon]

I may buy laminate and trim cutters - good idea?

The doors are 20-24mm from the concrete floor which looks even and flat at least from where I've lifted the carpet, so I probably won't have any problems there and no need to shorten the doors.

3 bedrooms are 30m2 in total + recommended 10%, any leftovers I can use elsewhere.

Never used them myself, I used a jigsaw for the boards and a mitre saw for the trim (both tools I already owned). It may be that the specific tools for the job might make things easier but I have no experience of them and tbh didn't even know they existed.

John

[Maroochydore]

Re tools - don't forget to get a pullbar, preferably one you can 'tap' with a mallet/hammer.

A selection here : https://www.amazon.co.uk/laminate-floor ... pull%20bar

No recommendations, but if you're going to do it again don't go too cheap/basic. I have a really solid/heavy one and use it for other DIY things.

[MyNameIsUrl]

If you use a saw for cutting, you must use a good dust mask. Protecting the eyes from laminate dust is a good idea as well.

[Lootman]

A few other points that I don't think have been mentioned.

Buy about 5 percent more square footage than the room dimensions, as there is waste when you cut. If the room has an odd shape, allow more.

There generally isn't any waste for the underlay

Allow a gap around the edge because the flooring can expand slightly with humidity

The floor does need to be level. If not carpet is the best option

You can lay laminate on top of an existing floor. Not on carpet, obviously, but on stone, wood, concrete or tile.

You also need "transitions" for doors, stairs etc. And beading for a nice finish around the edge.

The best part is you need no glue, nails, screws etc. You are basically laying a jigsaw puzzle on the floor - it'is a floating floor that stays in place because of weight and friction

[digitaria]

I have laid engineered flooring, continuously from living room into dining room and additionally into hall with a trim edge. Engineered wood is like laminate but with a real wood top layer.

I used a 10" compound sliding mitre saw for the cutting, a cheap one from a DIY shed. It did the job very well, but epic quantities of sawdust were generated. I did all the cutting in the garage to contain it.

3. I wil not take off the skirting boards but will use trim/beading strips, so I assume I'll need a saw and some kind of a mitre thingy? Other useful tools?

Not taking off skirting saves a lot of hassle - if you currently have white skirting, you can get pre-painted shaped trim strips which cover the gap at the edge of your new floor and look pretty good. Otherwise, you could get unpainted strips and paint them to match.

4. Is there some good insulating underlay available?

I used Selitac, which is a foil-backed polystyrene, again available from B&Q and resistant to damp, which is important on a concrete sub-floor. Easy to work with, joints should be taped up with aluminium tape. Can't say I'm thrilled by its insulating properties, but more insulation=more thickness=more need to trim doors if the floor level raises. Trimming doors is not my favourite job. Much sawdust once again generated. Doors are heavy!

5. I assume I can just cut the old carpets into smaller bits and take them to the council dump?

I was certainly able to do that (and our local dump's staff are famously awkward).

[panamagold]

I've had Quickstep,(the global Belgium flooring manufacturer with the professional cycling team.) engineered wood floors fitted and they are excellent.
The above link will take you to their comprehensive laminate installation instructions download page. I suspect 'other laminate selections' will be your best choice.
Good luck.

[JMN2]

Thanks for the pointers. I'm easing my way in slowly and have ordered the stuff for two bedrooms, and will later tackle the study and then hallway+living room. I am not worried if the laminate is a slight mismatch. I've studied how to do the radiator pipes and door jambs.

I went for https://www.diy.com/departments/albury-natural-oak-effect-laminate-flooring-2-467-m-pack/1708099_BQ.prd

[JessUK98]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I've very recently put some laminate flooring down myself.
The floorboards in my bedroom aren't the greatest, so I went for laminate in 12mm thickness, with a 3mm underlay (This did mean I had to cut off some of the bedroom door though), so I got away with not having to hardboard the floor. I just made sure floorboard nails were't raised, and the floor was clean (had to clean up a lot of dried plaster blobs off the floorboards!) etc.

With the laminate you posted it's very easy to lay - no need for a pull bar and mallet (the neighbours will be pleased at that ). If you are leaving existing skirting boards in place then get some wedges to put down to provide an expansion gap (e.g. https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-f ... 842_BQ.prd).
Then get some beading to put over the expansion gaps (which will probably cost nearly as much as the laminate!). A mitre box and saw are essential for this in order to get a decent join in the corners. How you affix the beading is also something to consider. I have previously used a hammer and panel pins (a nail gun would be much quicker and easier, but at a larger cost). This time I just used an adhesive, but make sure you glue the beading to the skirting and not the floor.

I personally laid the laminate in the opposite direction to the floorboards (mainly because my floorboards were crap and uneven). This caused more waste but makes sure that the joins of the laminate don't run exactly over the gaps in the floorboards (but usually advice is to lay end to end along the longest section, or if the room is square it should be towards the light source). Also if you are going to laminate all rooms, then usually people like to lay the laminate in the same direction in all the rooms to make it look better. I also needed a threshold that would accommodate the height difference between the laminate in the bedroom and the carpet on the landing (but if you are putting down laminate of all the same thickness this won't be an issue). I went for this kind: https://www.diy.com/departments/colours ... 331_BQ.prd

I cut my laminate using a jigsaw. This was very dusty. I think a circular saw would have been better, but I don't have one of those, so the jigsaw did the job for me just fine, although it was fiddly cutting sections for the doorway and wooden window panels etc

HTH,

Jess


EDIT - I also second the use of knee pads. They are a must. I laid laminate a few years ago without knee pads and ended up with fluid on both knees, and they were very sore!

[redsturgeon]

I cut my laminate using a jigsaw. This was very dusty. I think a circular saw would have been better, but I don't have one of those, so the jigsaw did the job for me just fine, although it was fiddly cutting sections for the doorway and wooden window panels etc

HTH,

Jess

Sound advice, except for this bit. If you are referring to a hand held circular saw, I would not recommend it. If you are referring to a power mitre saw then that might do the job, with the correct blade. A jigsaw is fine.

John

[modellingman]

A few more tips based on laying a lot of laminate floor in rental properties...

• lay laminate in an overlapping pattern (like brickwork) and in a square room choose the overlap to minimise wastage. In the past I have used halves, quarters, fifths and two-fifths of a board length as the overlap. Aim for the wastage to come from pieces of board where there are cuts at both ends of the waste.
• if you plan to use a jigsaw to cut the boards (and why wouldn't you), downward cutting blades are useful particularly if any of the cuts are likely to be visible. Standard blades have a neat cut on the lower side of the cut but a ragged one on the upper side, so to get a neat decorative side cut when using standard blades you need to mark and the cut the board upside-down. Marking upside down introduces a lot of scope for getting it wrong and adding to your wastage. Scroll blades are good for cutting curves and essential for tight curves.
• if the board might get wet, eg outside a bathroom or in a hallway then a product like Click Seal (search online) or Click Guard (Wickes) can be used. It is a thin glue-like compound (but it is not a glue) which is put on the upper edge of the "tongue" as each board is clicked into place to provide a water-tight seal on the joint
• a scrap of waste board temporarily clicked onto the board currently being fastened into place along with a short length of 2-by-2 is much kinder to the boards than the proprietary plastic "tapping" blocks - sometimes the "taps" have to be extremely robust and the blocks can cause damage to the boards. Scraps of waste can also be used to ensure the necessary gap between board and skirting
• if a board is resisting being tapped into place check that nothing (such a sliver of mdf) has got into the groove
• buy your underlay and decorative edging (called scotia) online - B&Q sell the boards cheap but make their margin on the other stuff. Screwfix (ironically owned by same group as B&Q) is also much cheaper than B&Q for scotia, though you need to buy in quantities of a dozen. Use a vapour barrier (aka thick plastic sheeting) under the underlay if laying onto an uninsulated concrete floor
• a good stanley-knife is useful for trimming mitred cuts on scotia - unless your rooms are perfectly square, which is unlikely in an older property, perfect 45 degree cuts aren't any good. Trim the underside first.

[JessUK98]

I cut my laminate using a jigsaw. This was very dusty. I think a circular saw would have been better, but I don't have one of those, so the jigsaw did the job for me just fine, although it was fiddly cutting sections for the doorway and wooden window panels etc

HTH,

Jess

Sound advice, except for this bit. If you are referring to a hand held circular saw, I would not recommend it. If you are referring to a power mitre saw then that might do the job, with the correct blade. A jigsaw is fine.

John

Yeah, was referring to the hand held circular saw. That is what I have seen the majority of tradespeople use, so presumed that was the go to tool. Depends on the type of blade I guess. I used the jigsaw just fine.

[JMN2]

I have a T-shaped room, from the bottom up, a corridor is narrow and long, then splits into two wings (each 1 m2), each end having a door to a bedroom. I will do the bedrooms first, then continue from the bedrooms into the T-section, meet in the middle and continue down the T.

To use a floor trim in the bedrooms depends how the planks meet when the corridor starts, it's very close but by using a trim ie expansion gap I may not have to cut any planks lengthwise when the corridor starts. To clarify, looking at the T, for the whole lot the planks will be vertical.

Any flaws in my cunning plan?

Also, if I decide to laminate all the rooms at one go with the same product without using expansion gap trims between the rooms ie a big floating structure, is this OK? So the expansion gaps along the walls would be sufficient? (3 bedrooms, T-corridor, largish living room)

Noticed that my Schiphol-bought wooden cheeseboard is exactly 19.2cm, same width as the laminate...
Thanks.

[redsturgeon]

I have a T-shaped room, from the bottom up, a corridor is narrow and long, then splits into two wings (each 1 m2), each end having a door to a bedroom. I will do the bedrooms first, then continue from the bedrooms into the T-section, meet in the middle and continue down the T.

To use a floor trim in the bedrooms depends how the planks meet when the corridor starts, it's very close but by using a trim ie expansion gap I may not have to cut any planks lengthwise when the corridor starts. To clarify, looking at the T, for the whole lot the planks will be vertical.

Any flaws in my cunning plan?

Also, if I decide to laminate all the rooms at one go with the same product without using expansion gap trims between the rooms ie a big floating structure, is this OK? So the expansion gaps along the walls would be sufficient? (3 bedrooms, T-corridor, largish living room)

Noticed that my Schiphol-bought wooden cheeseboard is exactly 19.2cm, same width as the laminate...
Thanks.

I don't think your cunning plan works. The join in the middle of the hall where you meet in the middle will be a problem. You would have to have an expansion gap there. Better to start in one bedroom, expansion gap at door. Continue across hall to the opposite bedroom, expansion gap at door and then do that bedroom.

It depends on the size whether you could lay the lot as one floating floor and no gaps but I see nothing wrong with an expansion gap/threshold at each doorway, looks neat and does the job.

John

[JMN2]

Thanks again John. Yes, my original plan was to have gaps at each doorway, I'll stick to it. Since I am having gaps for both bedrooms I might as well still do them first, then do the T starting from one wing/bedroom door.

[redsturgeon]

Thanks again John. Yes, my original plan was to have gaps at each doorway, I'll stick to it. Since I am having gaps for both bedrooms I might as well still do them first, then do the T starting from one wing/bedroom door.

Yes that would work fine.

John