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Diy Laminate Flooring

Felidae

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Felidae Enthusiast
Felidae
Posted

I'm going to install laminate flooring mostly by myself. If anyone has any tips or advise please post.

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Michi8 Contributor
Michi8
Posted

It's very easy to do! I suggest getting a proper laminate blade (for circular saw) for cutting the laminate...it's very tough stuff and hard to cut through. We dulled a blade very quickly when laying floor in our basement...the final cuts were tough to do.

Michelle

DebbieInCanada Rookie
DebbieInCanada
Posted

Hi,

We have laminate in our house, and I LOVE it. My first advice would be to buy the best you can afford. We have Pergo in our foyer, hallway, and eating area. We bought another brand for the kitchen, since they had a pattern we loved, and could not get in Pergo. The Pergo has held up wonderfully for 9 years - no marks at all, with 3 kids and a dog. The kitchen has had more problems. There are several dents in the floor where things have been dropped, and I think the same things were dropped on the Pergo, but just didn't leave a mark.

We have the glue-together kind, and really like the waterproof aspect of that. Wet/snowy shoes come in the front door, and the water never seeps through the joints. We just installed the "click" together kind for my mother, and it went together very easily.

When you lay out your room, think about which way you want the grain to run - usually they say to run the grain "with" the light, or with the length of a hallway. Make sure you use spacers to leave a 1/4" gap around the walls - between changes in summer and winter humidity, there can be a lot of expansion.

Some brands have a repeating pattern, and you can pick the boards one at a time out of the box and lay them in order. Some brands have several different printed patterns, and the pieces are not well distributed through the boxes, so you have to open several boxes and make sure you select a variety as you lay them in place. Make sure you shift the joint down at least 8" for each row. Depending on the measurement of your room, the last piece you cut off at the end will usually work as the starter piece for the next row, and you will get an even shift in the layout.

Also measure and calculate how many rows you will have in your room. If your measurement ends up with less than 1/2 a board width on your last row, you might want to cut a strip off the first row, so the last row isn't a "sliver". If you have a very thin strip to fit in for your last row, it can be very difficult to get in place when you are working up against the wall. Also remember that most rooms aren't square, so don't trust your starter wall to be square with the rest of the room. Do some measurements, and decide if you need to scribe some off the first row to square it up.

Installing completely by yourself might be a bit tricky. We have always had 2 or 3 people. It helps to have someone at each end of the row to guide, or tell you when things are in place properly.

(yes, I watch a lot of home improvement TV, and I've done many of our own projects.)

Good luck!

Debbie

Felidae Enthusiast
Felidae
Posted
  • Author

Great advice girls. Thank you.

I did get buy good quality laminate. But we're laying it for the purpose of selling our condo. It will give a better first impression than the kitchen and entryway flooring that is there now.

I love home reno/decorating shows too. My dh will be helping me, but I have more patience and accuracy for these types of projects.

Now I just need inexpensive and quick backsplash ideas. Once you start something, it seems to never end. LOL

tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

We did wood floor in my yoga room - bamboo, but the same basic premise applies. Check the details, to make sure you have the right kind of underlayment for the method of laying that you're using and all that. It was pretty easy, but we were very glad to have a compound miter saw and table saw for ripping the edge pieces.

Felidae Enthusiast
Felidae
Posted
  • Author

The flooring looks awesome. It will definitely have a much better impact on first impressions than the previous floor. I'm really happy with the quality of product that we chose. I was looking at other brands in Home Depot and Rona, and they were very thin and just not as nice as my pick.

It feels good to be done and I'm really glad that there were three of us laying it at the time.

I can't wait to complete all my little projects so that we can sell and buy a different place where I am looking forward to laying bamboo (if it needs any new flooring). However, if my budget is tight, I would buy the same brand of laminate again.

  • 11 months later...
Diane-K Newbie
Diane-K
Posted

When you purchase laminate flooring it usually comes with all the guideliness that you may need. So you normally shound't have any problems. This happened to me when I ordered my floor coverings from an on-line shop. The package included all the instructions and it went very well. So I thought to recommend to store to other persons too.

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skyepie Newbie
skyepie
Posted

How do you clean laminate? The house we bought a year ago has it in the kitchen, dining and formal living room. It is beautiful when freshly cleaned, and I use the Swiffer Wet-Jet laminate formula. However, when we walk on the dry floor with bare feet, we leave footprints! My floor looks gross 1/2 day after I clean it!!! Suggestions please!

jerseyangel Proficient
jerseyangel
Posted

Laminate floors should be cleaned with either a product specially made for the purpose (Home Depot has a good one that you just spray on and wipe off with a dry soft mop) or very-slightly-damp mopped with warm water and a little white vinegar.

It's important never to saturate the floor or leave water on the surface. My parents have a Pergo floor in their kitchen, and it's held up perfectly for several years now--but she never gets it too wet...that's key.

celiac-mommy Collaborator
celiac-mommy
Posted

We clean the laminate with a diluted Murphy's Oil soap-makes the floor SOOO beautiful! Plus you can use it on all the baseboards-pretty much everything. As for installation, ours did NOT come with the tapping block-we thought we could get away with using a small remnant board--BIG mistake!! We ended up ruining a few boards. I recommend using any tools the manufacturer recommends!

debmidge Rising Star
debmidge
Posted
We did wood floor in my yoga room - bamboo, but the same basic premise applies. Check the details, to make sure you have the right kind of underlayment for the method of laying that you're using and all that. It was pretty easy, but we were very glad to have a compound miter saw and table saw for ripping the edge pieces.

RE: Bamboo flooring

How does this flooring hold up to imprints of high heels? Isn't bamboo a softer wood? Do you know if it could be used as an interior door?

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