On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:38:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jul 16, 10:52*pm, Frank wrote:
"Don & Lucille" wrote in et...

What skill level required to do laminate flooring? Can the average home
woner tackle this job? Any tricks? Hints?

Read the instructions that come with the laminate, it will contain most
critical information to do the job. Get the installation kit with spacers,
tapping block and a side puller. The edges could easily be damaged even
using a tapping block so you need to developed a feel of how much force to
use and at what angle to snap those boards in without damaging it. First row
must be perfectly straight, otherwise you won't be able to snap the next row
in. Get an extra pair of hands to lay long rows until you learn how to do in
alone. Be extra careful cutting boards to wrap around doorways, especially
in hallways with multiple doors. Helpful to have table and sliding miter
saws. If you have areas with complex geometry, it will be helpful to trace
it on a paper template and then cut it on the laminate with a jigsaw, than
use a file or drum sander for fine adjustments.


Certainly can be done by anyone with reasonable carpentry type
skills. However, I agree with the advice to consider going with
either an engineered wood or solid wood product. A lot depends on
what room it's going in, what other homes in the area have, what the
use will be, etc. I can see putting it in a basement room for an
office or kids use. But if you put it in the living/dining room of a
house in an area where many homes have real wood, then I'd say you're
making a mistake. When you put up a house for sale, no one ever says
it has laminate floors.

You may also want to take a look at the latest idea in engineered wood
flooring. Click floating flooring. The prefinished planks click and
lock together. This is a relatively new method (at least in the US).

I have done laminate and I finished installing 1600 sq ft of 3/4"
engineered hardwood (nailed) a few months ago. The laminate was very
much easier to put in and I did not need a quarter of the equipment I
ended up needing for the hardwood installation.

As for difficulty of installation, that raised and interesting
question for me when I tried to research what an "average homeowner"
would have on hand for tools. It appears what many writers consider
the average homeowner is quite far below what I would have considered
average and is probably below what a fairly large fraction of people
on this group would consider average. When describing the tools for
an average homeowner, even a circular saw is hardly mentioned. No one
mentions a table saw or power miter saw as part of the average
homeowner's equipment. Could I do a laminate installation with a
circular saw? Yes, but I would have to first build a sturdy jig to
mount the boards, and I would still be scared to death using it. For a
small laminate job, even a cheap table saw will take care of both
ripping and cross cutting of the laminate boards. For even an "above
average" homeowner, I would consider a miter saw a luxury for crosscut
work, unless you are dealing with a big job or something special. For
instance, I would not have considered doing 1600 sq ft of hardwood
(including covering two staircases) without one. Going forward, I
would also suggest you invest in a decent jigsaw.

As I imply, the size of the job is also an important factor.
Installing a 150 sq ft of laminate is doable with hand tools and maybe
nothing more that a jig saw, a lot of blades and a hand saw with a
miter box. The job will take a lot longer than if you have the proper
tools, but it can be done, and if you are careful, it will still look
very nice.

The other factor is once you start getting the hang of this stuff and
gain confidence, you start planning more advanced projects and will
wish you had bought better power equipment, but that is another story.

You might want to take a look at my web site below. I just put it up a
few weeks ago on my efforts at installing the hardwood flooring. Some
of the more general techniques and information will apply to working
with laminate, although as I said, the equipment needed is much less.

http://home.comcast.net/~dyrgcmn/Odd...lrInstall.html