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.

And ours definitely aren’t! Our upstairs bedrooms are L Shaped with another bit jutting out as well! Not an easy shape. Thankfully no radiator pipes to contend with though.

This is it! I was surprised by how good they looked @MotherOfCrocodilesand tbh, I don’t think I’d mind sanding and varnishing at all, less daunting than laying the floor. But the house isn’t that warm, and the room is right over the main living space so I think I definitely need to put something down.

Very cool tool! Thankfully, while there’s a lot of corner to negotiate in the room (quick count think it’s 12) they’re all 90 degree angles so fingers crossed I won’t have to add that to the basket.

Again, would love to, think I’d find that job therapeutic even, enjoy painting as you can kind of chill out and just focus on getting the job nice and clean, I’d imagine same as sanding and varnishing. Laying laminate seems a lot more fiddly and frustrating 😅 But cold house, and need to sound insulation too.

Great tips, thank you!

Do you mean walk in the wooden sub floor and mark squeaky spots? What could I do if I find them to stop the squeak? (Don’t think I have squeaky spots, but I’m interested!)

Don't skrimp on the expansion gap. I did laminate in my 1st house when I was in my 20s and laid it too close to the skirting and then it expanded and pushed into the skirting board and leveled it off the walls!

Check the clearance under the door if using thick underlay and thick boards, taking the door off to shorten it is a pain, avoid it if you can.

The part near the door is the bit you'll see the most so plan the layout so that is symmetrical/ neat.

Thank you for this! I’ve picked white skirting, but with the thought that I’d use a nail gun and need to fill in those holes with caulk and repaint white anyway… but I hadn’t even considered no more nails! Maybe if I use both, just a few nails to hold in, it might mean I won’t have to paint?

Yay, I’m not alone! 😅 Ugh, there’s so many options… I’m veering towards a ‘fumed oak’ type board/colour at the moment… what have you been looking at in terms of colour, thickness, finish? I actually saw a high gloss walnut board the other evening, sooo shiny but it looked lovely. Think I’m loosing it a bit tbh 🤪

It’s just a minefield and so difficult to inagine it in the room. I’ve used AI to superimpose loads of different types of boards, but lighting will make a huge difference in real life. I’m on a budget too so I’m really afraid of buying something and DS, or me, hating! 🤯

I was actually just giving the part near the door more thought. I’d read to start your boards against the longest wall in the room, that would be the wall opposite the doorway to the room (there’s another doorway to the en suite as well).

But, now I’m thinking, if I end up having to cut a board thinner, and try and cut to fit in the doorway, I could end up with a mangled board (don’t trust my intricate cutting skills too much!)

Should I start with a full board from the doorway and work outwards?

Work out how many boards you'll need from door to far wall, you don't want to end up with a very thin (hard to cut) last row so you might need to do a midsized part board at each end of the room.

You’ll be amazed how many 90degree corners aren’t 90 degrees!

Haha, very good point, and this house has its foibles! Maybe I do need the tool!

Good plan! Just sent DS to measure up again … for the 5th time I’d say 😅 (He loves numbers though so he’s happy out!) Think I’ll actually do a proper measured plan of how the floorboards will be laid so I don’t screw this up.

Have a look at this account on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/stories/jade.sweeney_/3876675867548432704?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=NzhxbDN4NzM3d2Vh

make sure you check (run hand over) every inch of existing floorboards for proud nails or other bumps that need hammering down or you can kiss goodbye to the underlay and say hello to holes in the laminate.

you may think the floorboards are level, but I'll bet there will lips somewhere hence the ticker the underlay the better chance you have of creating a level surface for the laminate. Check with a spirit level before you start laying, you do not want to find out once laminate has clicked in place that there is a void and floor is now bouncing when walked on

as you have a subfloor and are placing floating laminate the possibility the original floorboards squeak in places when walked on will nonetheless translate into squeaks through the laminate, so make sure all floorboards are nailed down tight, but check for dips and valleys across the room width (ie do not create new problems by over hammering)

the professional way to deal with laminate in door openings is to cut a slot into the door frame so the laminate is hidden in the recess. As you know, you must leave an expansion gap, so having that visible at a door given you cannot use beading to hide it, is the most visible bodge you can do with laminate. However, if trying to do that slot by handsaw it is a pit of a job, tradespeople use oscillating multi tools with saw blade.

My main tips -

• if you buy a regular Mitre saw, you may need a workbench or two as well. I bought just a cheap collapsable workbench, and when cutting had the other end on the workbench, and the other one supported on a stepladder
• check you have the right blade for your Mitre saw. I bought one that was meant to be for laminate, but was absolutely atrocious. Then read some reviews and bought another one, boards were cut like butter. If your first blade doesn't work, don't struggle with it, just try a different one
• you'll want two people for the job. It's quite hard to cut the boards if you don't have another one holding them down securely
• wear a face mask when doing the cutting - otherwise your nose will be full of dust. Once this triggered a really bad cold when my nose was clogged with sawdust
• lay the boards in a random pattern . Don't try and do something symmetric, as this will make the floor more likely to give in and break. Random pattern is always better. This way you also need to plan just one row at a time
• measure twice, cut once
• make sure you leave the 0.5cm gap between flooring and wall. Otherwise you'll end up with a squeaky floor that may start to warp

• the skirting is likely to be a lot harder than laying the floor. Next time do your best to save the same skirting so that you can reuse it. Skirting is particularly hard if you have an old house that doesn't have straight walls. At least you only have 90 degree cuts, that will make it easier. But expect it to be rather fiddly, and be prepared to have to fix with a lot of caulk after. I don't know how tall your skirting is, but use a Mitre box if possible!
• use either foam or no nails glue to fix the skirting to the wall. Foam is better if the walls are very uneven, otherwise no nails or similar. You don't need to nail or screw them to the wall (they will hold with adhesive)
• Read reviews before buying your laminate, and pay attention to what people are saying about the installation process. I've worked with really awful laminate that is super hard to click into place, but also some really good ones that click in place with minimal effort

Good luck!

You don't need a detailed plan - just do one row at a time, in random pattern :)

Like the previous poster said, just measure the width of the room to make sure you don't end up with a thin sliver as the last row (but what lights you use for each row don't need to be preplanned in detail. Plan each row as you go along)

Plus can recommend this one https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Keswick-Medium-Oak-12mm-Laminate-Flooring---1-48m2/p/237062