My experience in reno, is at minimum, double your estimate time. Installing
floor is all stoop and kneeling work, hard to do for a many hours in a row
if you are not used to it. You will be slow moving and stiff as a board the
next morning. Problems always show up when you are not expecting them, so
take them in stride. Don't rush, do it right the first time.

"Alex" wrote in message
...
On Aug 12, 7:13 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
Alex wrote:
Hi...

We're about to lay laminate floating flooring throughout our house,
but given we'll be doing almost every room (except bathrooms), there's
no way we'll be able to have a single starting point. Is it
recommended to start a new row in each room then use a transition
piece at the door where the floors meet (for example hallway and
bedroom or kitchen and living room) or is there anyway to have the
floors move seamlessly throughout the house? I'm not sure what the
standard process is for this.

The standard process OUGHT to be that which minimizes the work. I'd use a
transition only if I had to do so or if it made the installation easier.

There are four tools you'll need that you may not have considered:
1. A cheap table saw - there will be ripping.
2. A rubber mallet.
3. Ratchet
clamphttp://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90416

The last is useful because no matter how much you beat on some planks,
they
just refuse to snap together!

I presume you'll be removing the baseboards (excellent opportunity to
recondition them). (Hint: Don't drive the nails out from the backside: cut
them off instead.) If so, you'll also need:
4. Tool for undercutting door jambs.

A pneumatic brad-nailer is a god-send when re-installing the baseboards.

Good luck on your project: Laminate flooring is kinda fun and you'll be
tickled with the results. Downstream, laminate flooring is MUCH easier to
keep clean than carpeting and a lot more durable.

P.S.
The plastic-impregnated laminates are okay for the kitchen and batch -
they're virtually waterproof.

Thanks for the reply and tips. I might just have to pick-up the
ratchet clamp from the local Harbor Freight, so great idea!

Ideally I'd love to make the floors seamless, but with the way our
house is laid-out, I just don't see how we can do so since we'll have
to start a new row of planks in a couple of places... and given
they'll be coming from different directions, I just don't know how we
can make them seamlessly blend together without transition pieces.

Also, just curious to anyone why's laid a floating laminate floor, we
plan on having three of us working on it with one cutting and two
laying, and at about 750 square feet I'm guessing we can get done in
either one day or maybe one day plus a few hours into a second one.
It's basically a living room, kitchen/dining room, hallway, small
entry hallway, and one bedroom. We might hold-off on the trim until
the next day, but that I wouldn't think should take too long.

Thanks for the advice..

Alex