Andy Dingley wrote:

Do I really need to stagger the end joints ? Normally I would,
certainly in a room, but this is a narrow hallway. It's pretty
difficult to lay the boards down in the confined space and I'm
thinking that the ugliness of the straight joint is outweighed by the
easier laying.

I think if you don't stagger the joins, there is some risk of
unevenness, especially under expansion, where the unstaggered join could
hump a little (^). Having said, that, I've always staggered my
laminate joins, so don't know for a fact that it would be a problem.


What do I do about expansion endways ? The front door end butts
against a marble step, the far end butts against the riser of the
carpetted stair. Is it OK to butt it flush by the door and just leave
a gap at the stair end (hidden by the carpet).

Given the length I'd want a gap at each end. You could easily get/make a
nice bead to cover the expansion gap at the foot of the stairs.


What should I do about fitting it against the long sides ? I have the
skirtings up and the boards trimmed to fit, but I'm unsure about how
to hold it down and in at the sides. Being a narrow hallway (5 strips
wide) there's no friction with the floor to hold it down, so I'm
really relying on some deliberate clamping from the sides to hold the
joints from opening up. Would the skirtings themselves be adequate ?

You mean to prevent the whole lot from moving? I think you'll be
surprised how well it will hold itself in place. Once laid, the floor
will be essentially one piece. 4m^2 of laminate weighs a fair bit, and
it will take a lot of force to move it. Even half that (our last house
had a 2m^2 floating laminate floor) won't move unless you try really hard.


Any advice on threshold strips ? There's an aluminium carpet-carpet
strip down at the moment, and I was planing on stopping the laminate
10mm short of this and machining up an oak strip to fit into and over
the gap. The only commercial stuff I've seen was pretty ugly.

I've always gone for making wood threshold strips. You can make one that
fits perfectly, and make them all the same. I'd personally remove the
aluminium strip altogether.

BTW - does your email work?

--
Grunff