To think I can fit the flooring myself?

[howtodoitmyself]

I have some hard wood flooring to go down in my living room. I spent today ripping up the carpet to prepare for tomorrow. It's flooring that I had off a friend as she's moving and it won't fit in her new place, as it's only a year old I jumped at the chance! So I know it may not fit my flooring exactly and I'm planning on using some new carpet on some of the floor if it doesn't all fit. It's the type of flooring that just clicks together.

My dilemma is how do I start? Should I measure my flooring first and then measure the wood or should I just start lying it out and finding out what will fit where?

Clicking it all together is the easy bit. It's making it fit neatly at the edges of the room and trimming round anything that's not square that's difficult. If you're joining it to carpet then you'll probably need to buy some proper threshold strips. You usually lay the wooden flooring on some kind of underlay - you need the floors to be fairly level to start with otherwise you'll feel 'soft' patches under the uneven bits of the floor when you walk on it. If it's joining on to carpet then you need to think about both bits otherwise you'll have two different heights with an unpleasing 'step' between the two. I'd do lots of thinking and planning before launching in - at least watch some videos.

You need to put a underlay under it and start in the middle although many people start on the outside. Do you have a electric/hand saw, tape measure, spirit level.

The people moving into your friend’s old house must be thrilled!

Put underlay down then make a plan of where it will all go, which direction it will run etc...

Lots of youtube videos.

I did my entire flat myself but going round radiator pipes and the door bits took ages to do it neatly!

Yeah! Who moves out and takes the flooring with them. What a weird thing to do.

Moving out of social housing perhaps as it cannot be left for subsequent tenants and would be disposed of (mad but true)

You're doing half flooring half carpet?

I read that as OP will lay carpet as a fall back if the laminate flooring doesn't work out.

Nothing weird about it at all. In local authority housing where I live, new flooring is put in for each new tenant even if previous tenant has just recently bought new flooring themselves. Tough. Ripped out.

Wow, that's ridiculously wasteful isn't it 😦

It’s fitting it against door frames etc that can be tricky because you need to cut it an awkward shape.

Pp is it night about getting some underlay before laying the laminate

Have a go OP, what's the worst that could happen? You have nothing to lose if it's free. You can get underlay that helps uneven floors. Leave it in the room for 48 hours before so it acclimatises. Don't forget an expansion gap round the edge, you can either take off skirting boards to cover this or but beading to cover it.

I would highly recommend getting a mitre saw if you can buy or borrow one as the cuts are a lot easier to get straight. Plan your cuts to make the most efficient use of the flooring. A rubber mallet and block are also great for banging it home.

Good luck and do let us know how you get on.

Ime flooring is one of the few jobs it’s worth paying someone to do. So hard to get right. So hard to fix. We do all other DIY but we pay for a guy to do the floor. It isn’t very much usually.

It happened to a woman in my street. She was upset about how wasteful it was as she moved out into her own property and had only recently bought new carpet.

We’ve just done three rooms. Lots of tutorials on YouTube
B and q website has a guide. Definitely read and research or you’ll do it wrong - it’s easy but not intuitive

You could have layed it on top of the old carpet at a pinch instead of underlay.

Thanks for all of the advice! I will definitely watch some videos first and probably visit b&q in the morning to get any tools I may need.
For those questioning about taking the flooring. My friend was in social housing and knew that I had been desperate to change our floor for a few years but our mortgage went up massively and we haven't been able to afford it so she very kindly told me I could have it. You can't leave anything when you move out of social housing apparently.

The most essential tool in my floorlaying kit is a decent set of knee pads.

As others have mentioned, you'll need to ensure the floor is level. You'll also need a good quality underlay, and trim for the edges where the floor meets the wall or doors.