My DIY Saturday - Laminate Floor Day

randomshenans · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:46

I live in a rented house, so I was never going to do anything to this place, but the eldest, who is 8 had the downstairs bedroom and it was a bit of a bum deal as the carpet looked just so old it was paper thin and it wasn't pleasant but the landlord had said he wouldn't replace it. The tool.

So with the Mrs bending my ear over moving house, I thought sod it, I'll do it with her this weekend. It's not a huge room, so we managed to pick up all the bits for it for like 200euros, including a couple of box units and a lamp and bits for his room, so I don't think that's bad at all.

I've never put down laminate flooring before, and my issue is getting bored halfway through and wanting to leave it until next time, which is where the Mrs is good as she's damn practical and pushed us through.

It wasn't perfect, and isn't, but for a first go it's not too bad. We didn't lay it in the proper like brick overlap fashion, but that's because I didn't have my saw on me when we started, I had to go and get it, but again it's much better than the nasty carpet that was there.

The outset, kinda in the mist of ripping things out.

Carpet out, underlay scraping.

All out.

Clear room. Now to start.

Underlay going down. It was a waterproof and spongy layer, felt nice underfoot even for a pretty thin layer.

Sizing up some boards. Again, I know the correct method is overlapping!

Now, the boards on the left here aren't cut to size, they're placed down, we weren't cut and finished.
The edging bits were the most frustrating! Instead of using more skirting, as there was already some in situ, I used some edging strip, 90deg curve to edge the room.

Going back together... you can just see the edging bits there. As Mrs makes up some new units.

With it all finally in place. Next up is building him a desk in the alcove to the left of the last pic. He has a poor desk in there at the moment, but want a better place for his computer and raspberry pi activities!

Oh, and I'd also like to get him a few cork mats that I can trim up and stick on his wall as a big pin board, so I think I'll get ordering some tiles now for that too.

Was pretty pleased for a days work for the difference it's made, even though it's not my place ha

theleg · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:51

randomshenans · 22 Apr 2013 at 09:57

Wish it was my place, I'd be on to the kitchen next ripping that out

ci_newman · 22 Apr 2013 at 10:42

Much better!

bartdude72 · 22 Apr 2013 at 11:49

looks way better, huge difference for a days work

theleg · 22 Apr 2013 at 12:22

randomshenans · 22 Apr 2013 at 12:35

bigjohnsonrichard said:
I bet your landlord is well happy youre paying to sort the floor in the bedroom

Probably! We've so far had the dishwasher implode with water everywhere, which he had to replace (for a crap cheap one, no less), the boiler went in winter so we had no hot water for 4 days, which he had to replace and our oven went as well, which he blamed us for, even though it was a 20yr old cheap oven anyway!
I don't think he likes us as stuff stops working with us here

I honestly don't mind the 150ish it cost to do the floor for the difference it's made. Couldn't give a hoot if it lasts longer than our time here to be honest! A rug would have cost us similar!

Mirmo · 22 Apr 2013 at 14:59

Very strange reading this today, sat at work right now aching after laying my first laminate floor all weekend too lol. Glad it went well, he looks really pleased with his new room in that picture, can't put a price on that!

panthro · 22 Apr 2013 at 15:49

Did you slot the flooring underneath the skirting board or use scotia?

randomshenans · 23 Apr 2013 at 09:53

The skirting was already there, but isn't very deep, so it didn't quite slot underneath the existing stuff. Especially when leaving 10mm around the edge, so I used some scotia, sort of thing anyway.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Apr 2013 at 21:28

Awesome change! Hopefully got the balls to start mine! Starting with the spare room!

Russinating · 25 Apr 2013 at 22:36

Probably going to be doing some laminate floor laying soon, on the cheap.

When you say best method is overlapping, do you mean so the middle of the second row of boards lines up with the end of the first row lot?

randomshenans · 26 Apr 2013 at 09:09

Yes, that's it. Which obviously means cutting some boards to start off with, in half, so they will overlap and then you can start with; 1 full board, then 1 half, etc.

I used this:
http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wc...eateTheLook/how_to_lay_laminate_flooring.html

Pretty useful for a quick reference guide! Not that I exactly followed it, but you know. I know what I was supposed to do anyway ha.

Russinating · 26 Apr 2013 at 11:35

Cheers. It's for an office we're moving into next month and I was looking at some from Wickes. Underlay works out at £45 and flooring about £180 (http://www.wickes.co.uk/african-walnut-laminate-flooring/invt/205598/). Not bad really for a 35sqm room.

Did you find you needed much excess wood for mistakes/finishing? We need 14.2 packs exactly so 15 gives us some excess but not much (just over 1 sq m).

Nightglow · 26 Apr 2013 at 11:47

Remember the rule, measure twice, cut once.

randomshenans · 26 Apr 2013 at 13:23

Russinating said:
Cheers. It's for an office we're moving into next month and I was looking at some from Wickes. Underlay works out at £45 and flooring about £180 (http://www.wickes.co.uk/african-walnut-laminate-flooring/invt/205598/). Not bad really for a 35sqm room.

Did you find you needed much excess wood for mistakes/finishing? We need 14.2 packs exactly so 15 gives us some excess but not much (just over 1 sq m).

I found we did need a fair amount for finishing, as you can only use one side, the correct one that fits due to the grooves, and I did several measure once, cut several times, wrongly. (When you're measuring, if you flip the board over to draw the lines for cutting, then double check you're going to be cutting it right with the lips on the right side!)

I'd get a little wooden block (you can get proper things that you use to hit the boards together but I used a small bit of offcut oak I had) and a hammer, but when you're doing this, don't hit it against the groove of the plank. It sounds obviously, but on the ones we had they will crumple if you do this. The same with clamping the planks for cutting. Use a clamp that clamps over/under the wood if you can.

Also, make sure you leave your 8-12mm round the edges. Not only is it much easier to get the panels together, it's supposed to be a "floating" floor. For the edging, if you have skirting already you can use a scotia like I did, or some skirting that goes over the top of what is there also.

That's all I can think of at the moment though, you should be fine!

Russinating · 26 Apr 2013 at 18:44

Thanks for the tips

. That'll be the benefit of buying from Wickes; can just pop back for another pack if need be.

Unsure what the skirt's like as it's currently got carpet tiles and only popped in briefly to measure up. This is the room, so nice and square but only tricky bit will be the the exclave on the right wall. The width of the boards we're looking at are 192mm whereas the enclaves are ~160mm so would it best to start on the right side or left side do you think?

Ignore my colleague posing

.

Mirmo · 27 Apr 2013 at 17:57

Hey, I fitted a room full of that African walnut last weekend! Can't complaint at a fiver per square metre and looks a lot better quality once laid. You will probably need an extra pack, I did. There was at least one board per pack with done weird white splotching.

Russinating · 27 Apr 2013 at 18:18

Awesome, thanks Mirmo. Do you have a photo of the laid floor or was it for a client?

Mirmo · 27 Apr 2013 at 19:09

I do, it was for one of our rooms. Will send it to you or upload it soon as in home, in an hour or so :-)