How to Install Laminate Flooring: Complete Step-By-Step Guide

If you’re looking to upgrade or update your old floors, then laminate is a great choice to be considered, and not just because it can be put right on the old floor top, but because in the last 30 years since its creation, laminate flooring has grown significantly in popularity and become the mainstream in the home decorating industry.

In general, laminate flooring is synthetic multi-layer flooring that simulates wood/stone due to photographic applique layer, situated under the clear and protective top layer. Laminate flooring (mainly inner core layer) is usually composed of fiber board materials and melamine resin (formaldehyde introducing compound).

Laminate Flooring: Advantages & Disadvantages

Laminate, though being generally cheaper than most typical wood flooring (any timber-made-of-product designed to be used as either aesthetic or structural flooring), has both advantages and disadvantages, the first being in prevalence:

• cheaper than any other type of flooring;
• requires less skills to install;
• easy to maintain;
• resistant to fading, denting, scratches, and stains;
• durable & hygienic;
• doesn’t need to be nailed, stained, sanded or finished.

The main disadvantage to be concerned about is because of laminate being made of melamine resin (plastic derived from formaldehyde), which is more peculiar for light domestic use than for heavy one (peculiar for wood/hardwood flooring).

How to Install Laminate Floor: Step-By-Step Guide

Laminate flooring is relatively economical, durable, and easy to install. There’re several laminate wood flooring varieties available, offering its consumers a vast set of aesthetic choices. Most laminate products (a self-locking tongue and groove system, which requires no fasteners of adhesives) typically share similar characteristics (adhered and durable laminate finish, pressed wood base) and are reasonably easy-to-install, so even an ordinary do-it-yourself homeowner can succeed just simply following this step-by-step guide.

1. Prepare Tools & Materials: laminate flooring, padding/moisture barrier, transition strips (if necessary), dust mask, safety glasses, tape measure, pry bar, pull bar, tapping blocks, hammer, utility knife, carpenter’s/combination square, construction adhesive, string line/chalk line, power drill, table saw, jigsaw, power miter saw, undercut/jamb saw.
2. Prepare the Work Area & Subfloor: clear the room (remove furniture and appliances, shoe molding/baseboard trim, existing flooring), prepare the subfloor and sweep the floor (remove any loose debris and dust).
3. Install Padding/Moisture Barriers: roll out the cut-to-length padded underlayment or moisture barrier along the starting wall.
4. Consider the Floor Layout: measure the width of the room (use tape measures) together with its length and multiply them (this will give you the room area in m²), comparing with the pack size (divide the room size with the pack’s).
5. Lay the First/Second Row: begin from the left side of the room moving towards the right, lay the first board with the tongue facing the wall on the left, align the short ends by locking them together (use pry bar/tapping block), keep the rows square and straight (use string line/framing square/level).
6. Install the Remaining Rows: ensure the tightness of joints (use pry bar/taping block).
7. Cutting Laminate Flooring: use a power miter saw/chop saw (for square cuts), a jigsaw (for holes and notches to fit around corners/piping).
8. Fitting around Architraves (molding around the door/cupboard): saw out the bottom piece of architrave and slot your boards under it.
9. Finishing Off: cover expansion gaps around the room perimeter by installation baseboards or moldings to the wall (helps to preserve the floor system).

How to lay wood flooring is very similar to installing laminate. For this you'll need: expansion strips, spacers, tension straps (for solid wood), glue or self-adhesive underlay.