Does your floor need a new look? With laminate flooring you can create a stylish look at the fraction of the cost of a traditional wood floor, and best of all, you can easily install it yourself, and it doesn’t require any glue.
Now there are many different types of laminate flooring available but today we’re using high density fiber board from Uniboards Multilook Collection. Kits are also available that contain foam underlay, spacers and other tools you’ll need to install your new flooring. Before you get started, read the manufacturer’s instructions thoroughly. Now what you need to do is remove the plastic wrapping from the boxes and lay them flat on the floor, so that they can acclimate for at least 48 hours to the temperature of the room. In the meantime you can remove all of the old flooring and thoroughly clean the area of the room where you’re going to lay the panels. And we’ve already done this so let’s get started.
All rooms have different sizes and layouts. And doorways and closets can be tricky. So these areas should tackled first. Now you have a couple of options here. One, you could just lay your planks around your door trim, and cut it to fit. Or if you want it to look really nice what you should do is what I just did; cut the bottom of the trim from the doorway off, so that your plank fits under snugly. Now the easiest way to do this is to take a scrap piece of foam, scrap plank like I did, and this will give you the correct height. And then once you get that cut, you can remove all of the wood from underneath, and you can see how much better that looks.
Next it’s time to lay down the foam underlay. Since I’m working with a wood subfloor on the second level of this home, I only have to lay down the foam but if you’re working with the concrete floor. You’ll also need to lay down a vapor barrier to keep the moisture factor to a minimum. And you should join, all of the edges together with moisture resistant tape.
Since this is a floating floor, it’s a good idea to use spacers around the room for an expansion gap, so that the floor has a room to expand and contract when the humidity changes. All right, now that I have the floor prepped I’ m ready to begin. This is the area that I am going to start, so I’m going to take a couple of measurements, to see where I need to cut my first few pieces, alright, now I’m ready to make the cut. I’m using a compound miter saw to make this cut. And because the planks are made out of a composite material, they’ll cut just like wood.
All right, you can see how nicely these are going to fit here. All I have to do is make a few more cuts for this area and then I’ll be out in the middle of the room. This floor is really to install, each plank has a tongue and groove, so what you want to do is hold your board at about a 450 -angle and insert that tongue to the groove of the previous plank, then press down on it to snap it in place.
Now you can see that we have a gap right here and that’s easy to get rid of. You’ll need a piece of wood and a hammer, and you put the piece of wood at the end of the plank and then you’re just going to tap on it, until that gap closes. Okay, proceed working down the row until you get to the end. Now you can see that you’ll probably have to cut a plank to fit, you want to make sure that it’s at least 12 inches or longer, okay. Let’s go down to make the cut.
Now once the plank is cut, don’t throw the extra piece away, when we get back upstairs, we’ll use it to start a new row. This will not only cut down on waste, but also strengthen the integrity of the floor once it’s laid. All right I’ve got the piece that I’ve just cut. Now this time let me show you how to close this gap when you’re working up against the wall. Instead of using the piece of wood, we’re going to use the other tool that came with the kit. Goes in between the piece of plank in the wall, and we’re going to hammer on this to close that gap.
To start this next row, I’m going to use a full plank. Now let me show you what I’m going to do when I get to the next row. Remember those extra pieces I had when I made some cuts, I’m going to use one of those pieces to start the next row. That is going to stagger the seams and it will give the floor the strength and integrity it needs. Aside from being durable, and attractive, laminate flooring is also environmentally friendly because the panels are made of recycled materials.
All right, I’m just about finished laying the planks. I’ve got one to go, and with any luck, it’ll just fit snugly in place, all right. After you remove the spacers you’re ready to install any trim or molding if chosen, then you can install transition strips wherever your laminate panels meet your old flooring. All right, that’s it, we’re finished with the floor. I think it looks beautiful, plus it’s stylish and affordable. Laminate flooring comes in a variety of styles and prices, ranging anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 per square foot plus installation, but you could save a lot of money by installing it yourself, and you saw how easy it was to install.
If you would like more information on this or other home improvement ideas, visit us online at MichaelHoligan.com.
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