Laminate flooring

[cyclone]

Has anyone installed this themselves (in the house, not the pu).  We have decided that we can handle this job, since installation nearly doubles the cost.  (Skip, stop laughing....).  Anyway, my Dad will help and has all the tools necessary.  If you have any helpful hints, please share.

[wavery]

Has anyone installed this themselves (in the house, not the pu).  We have decided that we can handle this job, since installation nearly doubles the cost.  (Skip, stop laughing....).  Anyway, my Dad will help and has all the tools necessary.  If you have any helpful hints, please share.

We are remodeling all of our apartments in a 40-unit apartment building. We have completed 8 so far and have put laminate floors in all of them. I have personally done 3 of them myself (alone). I do them if I have the spare time. It's $ in my pocket.

It's really easy to do if you have a Miter-saw:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90891
If you don't have one, I would highly recommend getting one. It will cut your time in half and the job will look professional. I also got one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90416
Even though I use the snap together flooring, it comes in handy.

Make sure that you leave a minimum of 1/2" boarder all around for expansion.

I also recommend the wide moldings for the boarders. They are actually easier to work with then the 1/4 round and make a real nice finish as long as your floor is level. If your floors are not real level, then stick with the 1/4 round. It will bend with the un-even floor.

If you have phone, speaker or security wires that need to be run, you will need to run them between the wall and the new laminate floor, in the gap and under the molding. If any wires cross a hallway, you will need to dig a ditch. Our sub-floors are concrete and I dig a ditch with an air chisel but you could do it with an angle grinder and a masonry wheel or a concrete chisel & hammer.

Just take your time and buy enough material to allow for plenty of waste. That way you won't waste a lot of your time trying to make an odd piece fit. Remember, you can always return the un-opened packages at your leisure. It sure is a pain if you have to stop and go buy more though.

Oh ya.......When you start out, stagger your boards so the the artificial ends don't line up across the floor. One of my "Contractors" did that and it really looks bad.

[6Quigs]

Yea,
I just did the floor in my study with laminate. Got it at IKEA for 69 cents a sq. ft.
As Wavery said, get the right tools, and it makes the job easy, sure could have done with the ratchet clamp, but managed anyway.I already had a miter saw.

My sister in law put laminate in her Condo, and the woman underneath her was complaining about the noise, so they don't wear shoes in the condo.

[TheViking]

My friend and I did my family room (12' x 22') when the DW and I lived in Az.
 
It took us about 6 hours to do the whole room. Not including the new baseboard. I highly recommend using new base, it makes the job look cleaner. I have a Radial arm saw as well which helped alot with speed. Make sure you keep a box or two in case you need to make a repairs later if need be. Make sure you don't line up any seams when you lay it down ie: cut each end piece a different size. Piece of cake

[Shelly]

I agree with what everyone has said.  We did 3 bedrooms last year and are doing the living room this year.  The first bedroom we did took twice as long as we didnt't have an electric saw to use.  DH sawed everything by hand.  A bunch of blisters later we went out & bought the proper tools to use & it was easy!  Like said above buy extra, where we bought it from they work in an extra % into our order, and remember to stagger the cuts.  Also we used the bigger moulding around the edges, it worked better in our house.  You will love it!

Shelly

[Ron]

Some type of Knee pad

[wavery]

Some type of Knee pad

YA BABY!!!!! Knee pad's a must. :p

[SkipP]

I'm not laughing!....much....LOL;)

If you can find the laminate with the padding attached to the back, that makes life much easier. Sams Club has it here.
 
Knee pads? Oh yea.
 
We've done three bedrooms and the most important thing to keep in mind is to start out with a level floor. If it's not level, installing the flooring is a royal PITA. Sounds basic, but make sure the sub-floor is swept clean too.
 
Measure the room first to see if you can start out with a full piece. i.e. if you're using four foot boards and the room is 12 feet-3 inches, cut a foot or so from the first board so you don't end up with a small 3 inch piece at the end. Same is true for the other dimension as well. Measure the room to see if you need to "rip" any from the first row...so you don't have a very small width on the other end. (I hope that made some sense)
 
Like the others have said...stagger the joints. If you start out with a full piece, start the second row with a half piece.
 
Our flooring has held up well so far. It's cost effective, durable and...if you want...you can re-enact that scene from the beginning of the movie Risky Business on it!

[luvourjayco]

Why not the PU.  We have recently purchased a 5ver and ripped out the carpet and put laminate in.  Love the ease of clean and the padding acts as insulation.

[AustinBoston]

It sure is a pain if you have to stop and go buy more though.

This is even more true if your selected flooring is not "off the shelf" and you have to wait a week for delivery.

Austin

[wavery]

Why not the PU.  We have recently purchased a 5ver and ripped out the carpet and put laminate in.  Love the ease of clean and the padding acts as insulation.

For us laminate would not be good. We spend a lot of time at the beach. Water and sand wouldn't work well. Most of the sand would end up under the laminate :p .

Rain my be a pain too. If you get that stuff wet, you'll want to dry it off right away. Any moisture in that composite and it swells up and falls apart. Don't get me wrong, it's not real touchy. All I'm saying is....if it gets standing water on it, wipe it up or you may be sorry.

I just had another thought......(scary stuff :yikes: ...watch out :p ). You wouldn't want to glue that stuff down. It works best, free floating and it's easily replaced that way. With all the bouncing around that a PU gets, while towing, that stuff might move around a lot.

Might be an interesting project for someone. It sure wouldn't cost much.

[cyclone]

I just wanted to say thanks for all your input!  We are buying the kind Skip mentioned (with the pad already attached).  I am also buying knee pads!  I'm guessing the most challenging part of this will be all the door frames we have to deal with.  (8 of them).  Fortunately we have a radial arm saw, and a miter saw available for use; and probably a few other types of saws if we need them, too.     Dad is in charge of the power tools.   We have joked that we will set up the Qwik Shade and have a mini Trading Spaces in the back yard.  We really do plan to use that thing - it will be a couple of weeks before we begin installation, so may need that protection from the sun.  I'm actually excited to get started on this project.

[TheViking]

I just wanted to say thanks for all your input! We are buying the kind Skip mentioned (with the pad already attached). I am also buying knee pads! I'm guessing the most challenging part of this will be all the door frames we have to deal with. (8 of them). Fortunately we have a radial arm saw, and a miter saw available for use; and probably a few other types of saws if we need them, too. Dad is in charge of the power tools. We have joked that we will set up the Qwik Shade and have a mini Trading Spaces in the back yard. We really do plan to use that thing - it will be a couple of weeks before we begin installation, so may need that protection from the sun. I'm actually excited to get started on this project.

 
Let's see some pics when you are done.

[GeneF]

Good luck with the floor Jan.

We had the laminate floor put down when we remodelled our kitchen, thanks to our dog, Duke.

As the carpenter was putting the floor down, dw asked him a question and his reply was "I don't know, this is the first floor of this type I have put down."  Grateful that he was not the lead carpenter.

I don't know what others have experienced with these floors but I will say:

1.  They do scratch so you do have to watch the sand and dragging furniture over them.

2.  It is recommended that you have rubber backed rugs if  you put them down.  The jute back onces allow fine dirt particles to get through and can scratch the floor if moved around.

3.  We have a 6 X 9 area rug under our kitchen table and have put a rubber padding under that.

4.  MFG only recommended using 409 Glass and Surface cleaner to clean the floor.  Does a good job but since we have had ours a few years, I would really like to use some kind of surface clearner that returns the shine a bit and makes me feel like I really cleaned the floor, not just wiped it.  (Yes, I wash the floors in the house.  DW says it is good to see me on my hands and knees once in a while.)

5.  MFG does not recommend letting puddles of water sit.  Reason is that the water might seep through the cracks and loosen the glue holding the pieces together.  I don't think water would affect the laminate itself.

Have fun, Jan.

[ForestCreature]

Hi Jan! We were tossing around the Laminate wood flooring too. After asking around, I'm starting to lean tword Vynil floor. The area we want new floor is high traffic (the kitchen) and the back entry door, add the dog water that gets knocked around at times and is left to sit (I don't understand why Shadow will not clean up after himself) till I see it and wipe it up.  I just get the feeling our house is to rough for Laminate in a traffic area and it would look like crap in 2 yrs...it only took 10 for the vynil.