Laminate Floor Fitting Advice

[Andrew Thelwell]

Hi,

We're about to lay laminate floor in our louge and dining room.

In fact, it's more of a 'dining area' -- an extension of about 9ft x

9ft at the back of our lounge, with an archway about 4ft wide between the two. The archway is through the former external wall of the house, so about 10inches thick. It's not a doorway (no jamb or anything).

Here's the issue... We would like to be able to floor the dining area first, then the lounge. This is for practical reasons (namely, we haven't been able to move everything out of the rooms, so we're dealing with one room at a time). The problem here is that all the advice talks about fitting complete rows at a time, which we would not be doing if we used this method.

Our flooring is the clickety-click stuff - glueless, so obviously there has to be access to the groove side of every plank in order to fit the next.

Now, common sense would suggest that as long as we stagger the edge between the dining room and lounge so that the 'tongue' side of the planks is always longer than the 'groove' side, we should be OK... ie. there'll always be more visible 'groove' than 'tongue'... so therefore enough space to fit the next set of planks.The problem is, this is entirely a theory in my head and I've never fitted a floor before, so I'm hoping some one can help before I start.

I'm sure the standard advice would be to remove all our furniture from the room completely, but this throws up no end of difficulties, so I'd like to avoid if possible.

So, two questions really:

1) Is the above theory OK? Is it viable to fit one part of the room at a time rather than full rows at a time? 2) Is it safe to walk and put stuff on the part of the room with the floor fitted, while we fit the rest of the room?

Hope someone can help.

Thanks,

Andy

[George]

A flooring person would not expect the rooms to be devoid of furniture and the like when they come to fit the flooring,they will shift furniture to one side and put it back when enough flooring is down to accomodate it and space to fit in the next row of flooring.

HTH

[John]

Tip - use a vacuum to ensure no bits of grit are in the tongues - otherwise you may end up with bumps where it joins up. I think cleanliness is important to ensure a really close joint.

[Dave]

Are you forgetting that each piece of flooring has to join up with the other pieces at either side of it. If so, you will not be able to join the the new flooring to the first laid flooring. Each piece of flooring will have at least 3 sides of it joined to adjacent pieces. I hope you understand what I am trying to say here. Staggered longitudinal joints that form a blank U shape will not take another piece of flooring.

Do as a another poster says and start in the dining area and continue into the lounge until you meet a wall and build out to either side walls. Moving furniture as required.

Dave

[Ed Munton]

Andrew's staggering approach makes sense to me if he means staggered like a set of stairs, not a series of U shapes. Wouldn't that work? (He would need to start with staggered board lengths.)

Ed.

[Ed Munton]

Or run across the rooms instead of along??

Ed.

[Dave]

I was always told to run the long run of the floor from the window.

Dave

[Micky Savage]

Andy, Hi, Just done my whole house as I have a dog.Get your first row down, with good underlay.Then overlap your joints on the next row by at least 10"As was said earlyier keep joints clean. When you get to the far side of your room you will need a fitting bar ( comes in a kit from B&Q.) If you have a big room you may need two pairs of hands. Make sure you leave a 10mm gap all the way around, mistake I made. Oh and make sure your blades are fine cut and bloody sharpe.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards.

Micky Savage . Leeds. W.Yorks.

If you walk on your floor part finished be careful of the open joint dont damage it.

If you need any more advise mail me.

Enjoy.

[Andrew Thelwell]

Exactly... Like a set of stairs, never allowing any 'U' shapes to form... so row 1 is always longer than row 2, which is always longer than row 3 etc.

Only problem then is, getting from the dining area to the lounge, which is wider, therefore taking me into row 0, -1 and -2...

[Andrew Thelwell]

I've put a floor plan up here:

our furniture is currently in the lounge. The dining area is clear and we've begun laying the underlay (as well as popping a few packs of laminate in their to acclimatise).

Any further opinions appeciated, especially on whether this 'staggered stairs' approach is ok or not!

Cheers,

Andy

[Micky Savage]

I've put a floor plan up here:

our furniture is currently in the lounge. The dining area is clear and we've begun laying the underlay (as well as popping a few packs of laminate in their to acclimatise).

Any further opinions appeciated, especially on whether this 'staggered stairs' approach is ok or not!

Cheers,

Andy

Hi Are you doing the stairs ? big mistake if you are.

If I have got this wrong I am sorry.

Micky.

[George]

I've put a floor plan up here:

our furniture is currently in the lounge. The dining area is clear and we've begun laying the underlay (as well as popping a few packs of laminate in their to acclimatise).

Any further opinions appeciated, especially on whether this 'staggered stairs' approach is ok or not!

Cheers,

Andy

I presume those packs have been opened and stacked on each other to acclimatise?

The only logical way to do this start at the patio doors and when you come to the opening between lounge and dining room you will have to do the dining room wall upto opening opposite the fireplace otherwise you will run into problems of fitting the planks together.

[Andrew Thelwell]

Nope, definitely no stairs! What gave you that impression?

[Andrew Thelwell]

Hello George,

Can you clarify what you mean? I'm not sure what you mean by 'opening opposite the fireplace'

Thanks,

Andy

[George]

Hello George,

Can you clarify what you mean? I'm not sure what you mean by 'opening opposite the fireplace'

Thanks,

Andy

Start at the patio doors in the dining room and continue through into the lounge on the same wall as the patio wall,there is no other way to do it. That is why when laying flooring you have to shove all furniture and the like on one side of the room ie shove everything on the chimney breast side of the room then when you have reached halfway you shove all the furniture on the finished flooring side of the room to complete the rest.

[Micky Savage]

Nope, definitely no stairs! What gave you that impression?

Don't know man, I am going mad.

Micky

[pjlusenet]

I'm not an expert - only recently did a nice rectangular room. However, I'd do both rooms together. Start in the lounge from the hallway/kitchen door side - I found doors a right pain. When you get to the dining area opening start the dining area. I found it possible to slide around a fairly large section of laminate flooring. So I think you could get your full length sections of laminate to join up without much of a problem. (by moving the dining area part - as it's smaller)

I found there was a definite technique to joining the sheets, especially when doing several pieces. You need to get the angle you join them correct and 'shouldn't' need to hit them too hard with the fitting tool.

As others have said - take great care of the edges. Hoovering is a good idea. If you do as I suggest you MUST make sure that the laminate is lying in straight rows - for both rooms - otherwise it will get harder and harder to click together as you go.

HTH