Laminated flooring help please
 

Hi,
I have decidied and bought a pack of laminated flooring to do our
small bathroom. Could I please have some tips on laying it. I have
bought a roll of the foam underlay which I presume I just cut to size
and put underneath? the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats
easy enough.

I am puzzled with the pack of floor wedges that I got. How do I use
these or do I need them?

Do I lay the flooring llike bricks ie. space the joints?

Finally does the flooring fit exactly from wall to wall or do I leave
a small gap for expansion.

Thanks for any help.

Hi

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 21:23:26 +0000, Alan wrote:

Hi,
I have decidied and bought a pack of laminated flooring to do our small
bathroom. Could I please have some tips on laying it. I have bought a roll
of the foam underlay which I presume I just cut to size and put
underneath?

Yes - it's worth stapling or taping the edges down so it won't go
walkies when you are laying the boards.

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that the
overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go with the
instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the one I used...

Possibly it's intended to act as a damp barrier whereas I used a seperate poly sheet for that.


I am puzzled with the pack of floor wedges that I got. How do I use these
or do I need them?

They help a lot.

Take two, put sloping faces together, now you have two parallel faces, the
depth of which can be adjusted by sliding the wedges together or apart.

You use these around the edge at about 2 foot intervals to hold the board
off the wall (you need a gap all round or disaster will strike when it
expands due to heat, and it does). Adjust each one with fingers until teh
desired gap is achieved and the board is supported firmly. Now you can tap
more boards onto the working edge without the previous ones wandering off.

Do I lay the flooring llike bricks ie. space the joints?


Yes - exactly. Even overlaps. There is a lot of flexibility about the
end-joints. Overlapping by 1/2 or 1/3 with the neighbouring boards will
make it rigid. Whether you aim to line up the end joints every 2nd or 3rd
board is upto you. The joints do become a feature, and "random" may or may
not look as good a dead regular depending on the pattern. Lay a few in the
middle of the room dry (no glue) and see how it looks.

Finally does the flooring fit exactly from wall to wall or do I leave a
small gap for expansion.

See above - the gap is essential or, with the slightest heat the floor
will buckle.

Thanks for any help.

If you search this group with google there are some quite detailed
explanations in old posts by various people including me.

Here's a useful hint - like wallpaper, plan ahead before laying the first
board. It's bad to have to lay a strip 2cm wide because you started all
wrong - better to have 2 half width boards on either side of the room
rather than 1 full and 1 sliver.

I recommend an offset hand saw for undercutting the door architrave - then
the laminate slides under without any fiddly wibbly gaps. Looks neater and
much easier to do. You may have to take 1/2-1cm off the bottom of your
door(s) too - you can check in advance. I used a powerplane, but check for
nails. I didn't and chipped me blade.

HTH

Tim

"Tim S" wrote in message
...

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that the
overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go with the
instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the one I used...

I interpret that as overlapping the boards 30cm from the joins in the
underlay.

Mary

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:29:30 +0000, Mary Fisher wrote:


"Tim S" wrote in message
...

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that
the overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go with
the instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the one I
used...

I interpret that as overlapping the boards 30cm from the joins in the
underlay.

Mary

Yes, that makes more sense - the golden rule of laminate flooring: Never
ever line the joints up; horizontally, vertically or any other way ;-

Tim

O
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:29:30 +0000, Mary Fisher wrote:


"Tim S" wrote in message
...

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that
the overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go with
the instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the one I
used...

I interpret that as overlapping the boards 30cm from the joins in the
underlay.

Mary

Yes, that makes more sense - the golden rule of laminate flooring: Never
ever line the joints up; horizontally, vertically or any other way ;-

Tim

Thanks for that, a couple of other things I have thought of....

1) There is a couple of uneven floorboards (remember this is only a
small bathroom so I have to negotiate around the pot!!) should I just
plane them till they're resonably level. Please don't say take them up
and refit, it's beyond me.....

2) Should I be laying the laminate floor strips the same way as the
floorboards are running ?

3) How will I ever get the bath panel off should I need too when the
floor is going to be higher than the bottom of the panel?

Thanks again

Alan wrote:

2) Should I be laying the laminate floor strips the same way as the
floorboards are running ?

Lay them at right angles to the boards - particularly important if they're
not as level as they should be.

Alan wrote:
Hi,
I have decidied and bought a pack of laminated flooring to do our
small bathroom.

Most laminate flooring doesn't like excess water! It absorbs it and
swells. I assume you have bought waterproof flooring suitable for a
bathroom.

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:47:30 +0000, Alan wrote:

O
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:29:30 +0000, Mary Fisher wrote:


"Tim S" wrote in message
...

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that
the overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go with
the instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the one I
used...

I interpret that as overlapping the boards 30cm from the joins in the
underlay.

Mary

Yes, that makes more sense - the golden rule of laminate flooring: Never
ever line the joints up; horizontally, vertically or any other way ;-

Tim

Thanks for that, a couple of other things I have thought of....

1) There is a couple of uneven floorboards (remember this is only a small
bathroom so I have to negotiate around the pot!!) should I just plane them
till they're resonably level. Please don't say take them up and refit,
it's beyond me.....

Yep - plane them down a bit. You could use that green fibreboard underlay
for laminate as well as the foam. It will give it a bit more tolerence.

It doesn't have to be perfect, just near perfect. A few mm in the metre
lumpiness is OK, but 1cm isn't as I found with my not-very-flat chipboard
floor. I packed an area by the door that had suffered compaction out with
high density stationers card. I would have perhaps used latex levelling
gunk, but I found out after I laid the boards - bl**dy Ideal Homes cr*p
flats. Worked out fine in the end though.

3) How will I ever get the bath panel off should I need too when the floor
is going to be higher than the bottom of the panel?

Trim the panel?

Tim

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 20:25:09 +0000, Tim S wrote:

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:47:30 +0000, Alan wrote:

O
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:29:30 +0000, Mary Fisher wrote:


"Tim S" wrote in message
...

the pack says overlap by 30cm so hopefully thats easy enough.

My roll of foam didn't say so and I didn't. I would have thought that
the overlap would have caused some uneveness despite the fact its
compressible. However, the manufacturer said do it, so best to go
with the instructions in your case - might be a different foam to the
one I used...

I interpret that as overlapping the boards 30cm from the joins in the
underlay.

Mary

Yes, that makes more sense - the golden rule of laminate flooring: Never
ever line the joints up; horizontally, vertically or any other way ;-

Tim

Thanks for that, a couple of other things I have thought of....

1) There is a couple of uneven floorboards (remember this is only a
small bathroom so I have to negotiate around the pot!!) should I just
plane them till they're resonably level. Please don't say take them up
and refit, it's beyond me.....

Yep - plane them down a bit. You could use that green fibreboard underlay
for laminate as well as the foam. It will give it a bit more tolerence.

prat mode - yes you said bathroom, so adding a fibre sponge wasn;t such
a bright idea slaps self. Use a second sheet of the foam if needs be.
Probably not recommended as such but I had to in my hall - did the job OK.

Tim