Fitting laminate flooring is a job for the able bodied who is willing to bend and kneel for some hours. The laminate flooring industry began in the early 80’s as it was introduced to new homes which kept cost low and was easier to maintain than rugs and carpets. Because of the numerous varieties and styles, it has continued to grow with the housing market. As the market grew, the business of fitting laminate flooring also flourished, especially with the new market of fixer uppers. This market is a specialized segment wherein old houses are refurbished and floors which were previously barren were then fited with laminate flooring to spruce up its look.
These days you can opt to even change your laminate flooring to keep up with the new trends and looks in homes. The process of fitting laminate flooring isn’t very complicated. For refurbishments of existing houses, you would have to remove the baseboards of the room you are fitting laminate flooring and even the door as well.
You would have to take the measurements of the floor area to be fitted and start removing any existing laminates or the like that is present. The tools that you will need for fitting laminate flooring are the following: tape measure, coping saw, rubber mallet, and laminate flooring pull bar, underlayment pad, laminate flooring, hammer, nails and a utility knife.
To prepare the floor, get rid of your existing type of flooring like carpeting by removing its padding and all of the tack strips in the room’s perimeter. Scrape the floor and level out any noticeable dips. After the removal of the baseboards, use the coping saw to cut off the bottoms of case openings and door jambs which would be around ¼ or 3/8 of an inch depending on the resulting thickness of both the underlying pad and the laminate. The thicker the pad, the better the result. Once you know the area of the floor, roll out the underlayment pad and connect them together with wide and clear plastic tape. Stagger the joints of your laminate pads.
Leave a fourth of an inch clearance at each wall as laminate flowing is a type of floating floor that is all connected to itself but not to the house. Use spacers on the initial wall that you start. These spacers can be pulled out before installing baseboards. To snug things up, use your mallet and pull bar as you go along fitting the laminates. The tricky part in this installation is through doorways. Use your utility knife to trim the snapping connections on the adjoining planks. This is done so that these connections can slide together. A few drops of wood glue may be used to keep together. Once this is done, you can install the baseboards.
There are some things to remember when doing such work and the most important of which is that to keep things smooth and snug. Doing so requires a lot of kneeling and pulling the laminates, which may lead to back problems if the technique is not done right. Laminate flooring, once set up is almost like the real thing but at minimal cost to you.
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