Has anyone laid their own laminate flooring? Tell me the dos and don’ts!

[HelpMeDecorate]

So I bought my first house last year. It’s just me and my teen DS. Always lived in rental so little opportunity to redecorate.

Have decided to tackle my boy’s room first so we can test our DIY skills. So far I have prepped and painted all the walls, stripped the skirting and pulled all the carpet, underlay etc up to bring it back to the wooden subfloor.

I’ve done a lot of research on how to lay the floor (but still so torn on the actual flooring!).

Has anyone done this themselves? Is it realistic that I can do this myself? And if so, tell me all the things to consider that the guides don’t tell me please! Whether that is how to lay it, or choice of floorboard, underlay etc.

I’ve do e it a few times in mine and friends’ houses. I thoroughly recommend you watch some YouTube videos. It’s been so helpful for me over the years.

I was going to question you on the floorboards but those ones look great from that photo. You'll need to get a different door bar, laminate and carpet won't sit right with those ones, our carpet fitted used rather nice ones I must say, I'll go have a look and see what they are.

Don't get the cheap foam underlay get the really thick green underlay that is 1.5cm thick boards. I got mine from B&Q. If you don't use a quality underlay it won't sit right on the floor. Buy laminate with at least 8mm. When you saw an end put a piece of masking tape where you will saw to avoid rough edges.

Take off skirtings and lay floor then replace skirting and you don't need the awful beading.

Yes, the wooden boards on the subfloor are in pretty good shape, have a bit of tidying up to do but it should be a good level workspace 🤞 Okay, so it’s a door bar I need, if you have an example that would be great.

Do I need a door bar with the spiky carpet things on one side and not on the other I wonder? God, I hope it’s not too stuck on the tiling side, don’t want to damage the tiles, can’t face a bathroom redecorating project as well 😂

So this was the underlay I was going to get… it’s only 5mm though! Do I really need something 1.5cm?

ETA: Tried to give a link to the underlay but it keeps giving me a Server Error. If you search ‘Volden Aquastop 5mm XPS Foam Underlay Panels’ that’s what I was thinking.

Would that do?

Found this @MotherOfCrocodiles- is this what you mean?

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/wolfcraft-steel-pulling-ledge-for-laminate-flooring-440mm/7656k

Hmmm… how do you prep the ground for vinyl flooring I wonder? Are you into having to lay some sort of levelling compound? Can I even do that on a wooden subfloor? Can I ask why would you choose vinyl flooring over laminate? A pp mentioned moisture and warping above which I suppose you wouldn’t have with vinyl.

I used the green 1cm underlay XPS. It's thermal and acoustic insulation and waterproof too. 1 pack does 4 metre square.

Are you sure it’s 1 centimetre? All the ones I’m looking at are millimetres 😳 I found this green one, but that’s still only 2mm. Definitely want the best thermal and acoustic I can get, house is not the warmest and the room is right above the open plan kitchen/living. (And I think DS wants a hard floor mostly for swinging himself around on his office chair! 😂)

https://www.woodies.ie/10-sq-m-superior-green-underlay?gadsource=1&gadcampaignid=17795601750&gbraid=0AAAAADvePP82jElykEpfcenzx1ayI1o9&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyfOBhC6ARIsAHKFB79d9Nfe7XulLOQ-wRrXk73rSPvVlqeAsQaCD46m74K8vzMrO1OvmQaAhnfEALwwcB

Re the sliding hammer, I have this https://neasdenhardware.co.uk/products/wolfcraft-hammer-pulling-ledge which you don’t actually need a hammer with (it has a built in sliding block) however the one you linked would do a similar job I think. That said, I’m thinking of thick laminate/ engineered wood (14mm)- this may not be the right approach for thinner laminate as maybe you can’t whack it in the same way if it is less rigid…?

Re the door, the “doorstop” is the piece of wood all round the inside of the frame that stops the door when it is closed. In your case this sits over the carpet so is not really relevant.

yes to needing a new metal bar at the junction between carpet and laminate, you can get ones specifically for this purpose (probably can get one to match the laminate even)

Honestly your floorboards look quite nice in the picture, I’d be tempted just to keep it like that! Maybe picture is not representative though!

Think hard about where you start to make going round doors and radiators as easy as possible. Maybe even lay some of first so you get the idea. Rooms are rarely truely square.

You don't need to prep, it's like lino. You cut it to the size of the room.

Having a compound mitre saw, as I suggested up thread, will make fitting the skirting much easier especially the corners, .... and here's one more gadget to help cut the angles perfectly.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HMW81SN?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

You also might want to consider painting the cut skirting before fitting it, you'll probably have to do it in stages, but it's often easier and looks sharper, with less risk to getting paint on the boards, but may still need a little touch up after nailing and caulking.

If DS is planning in rolling around on a chair get a floor protector mat itherwise his chair will damage the floor. About £20 from amazon.

We did the box room recently with some laminate we discovered in the loft. Cutting the planks to length is straightforward but remember which end to cut off so they still clip together in the middle. You also need to measure across carefully and if needs be don't start with a run of full planks because you could end up with a really narrow gap to fill at the other side. And you'll need to give some thought to cutting the planks lengthways. It can be done by hand and the scraggy side can be hidden under the skirting or trim but it is still tricky over such a length. And a rubber mallet comes in handy as a persuader.

I have never tried laying laminate, but looking at your photo the floorboards look in good nick.
You may want to consider just sanding and varnishing them.
Me and my DB did this many years ago , it is the world's dustys job but we got a great very hard wearing finish.
We hired a floor sander and edge sander and used boat varnish which is very hard wearing .
It has a really high vco tho so make sure you air well and wear a proper painters mask

tape the boards where you saw - much cleaner edges
wider planjs are easier (and quicker) to lay
before you start walk the floor without underlay and mark squeaky spots. use a metal detector before srewing in floorboards to avoid hitting gas/water/electricity

floorboards might look good, but op might want to add sound and heat insulation

Yes, very easy, like Lego but you need access to a decent saw to trim as needed. Easiest method is to leave skirting in place and paint before you lay the floor, lay underlay then the flooring starting in one corner and working outwards leaving 5-10mm at the skirting board, ideally you centre it trimming both sides but i didn’t! Once you are finished lay trim all the way around the cover up the edge, I find it’s easier to paint the trim before laying, you can then hold in place with nails or no more nails glue (or both). It’s the sort of project a teenager can do with saw supervision if they haven’t handled one before. Tons of videos on YouTube. Bizarrely perhaps the cheaper versions are easier to handle by the way , real wood was harder

I've been giving myself a right headache trying to decide about flooring options too. Was going to paint floorboards, then stain and restore them, but just seen really good looking laminate in B&Q for £20m/sq (after trawling round loads of other places) and reckon will go for that. But just to say I feel your pain trying to decide. Will be very satisfying once done

The laminate I’ve been looking at is 8mm - 12mm so you make a good point, I’ll make sure that a different ‘whacking’ approach isn’t required!

Ahhh, thank you for clarifying, in my head I was just referring to the ‘doorstop’ as the entire area around where the door stops, have looked at my door again though and see what you mean.

Still need to try and fit the laminate into that doorway area nice and clean around the frame as well… should I take off the frame? Is that mad? Or just try and cut it? A PP posted a nifty tool earlier for tracing around doors and pipes, presumably I’d need another type of saw to cut the exact shape of the door frame out?

Is this where people just concede and give up on the idea of perfection? Get it nearly there and fill any little gaps with caulk or something?

Thank god you brought up doors, I’d have gotten to that point and not even thought about it! I’ll be inspecting doorway I see now 😅