SOS - Laminate floor quickie

[michael cane]

Wife has ordered and had delivered 40+ sq metres of click laminate. Last time I laid this stuff it was all glued together.

I will start in top left hand corner of room and work across to right.

Question: Each board, viewed from above is an oblong, approx. 7 x 48 inches. 1 short and 1 long adjacent side have a larger green 'tongue', creating corner 'x', the other long and short adjacent sides have a smaller 'groove', creating corner 'Y'. .

Which corner of the board goes into the corner of the room - or in other words, which way is up? If the tongue corner is up, presumably the tongues on the first row all have to be cut off to accomodate the spacer? If the groove is up, then am I right in thinking that you just need to put the spacers in?

Or does it not matter in the slightest?

No doubt this is as clear as mud, but hopefully someone will know what I mean.

Tongue Here ` X ________________________________________ Tongue | | Here |________________________________________| Y Groove here

Groove Here

TIA

[Nozza]

Hehe!

I don't reckon it matters - but would like to be proved wrong!

I always lay the tongue "into" the room, then when you get to the far wall and cut that last inch off, you trim a bit with the tongue.

HTH

Noz

[Josey]

Sometimes it's still a good idea to glue it, to seal the joins, if it is in a very wet/humid environment (kitchen/bathroom). See what the manufacturer recommends.

You are jumping to a conclusion here, there is a best direction to lay it. See the web reference at the bottom of the reply.

The corner with both grooves goes into the corner of the room. Just play with it a bit and you'll understand why. As you are kneeling down looking at the stuff the tongue-tongue corner should be on the right, near you.

Yes, I guess, it depends how you are finishing it, after all this is a floating floor. Could have a cork edge, or be under skirting or cabinets etc, or have corner strip (like upside down coving) added after.

It does. If you start with the tounge-gtounge in the corner it won't click together properly. And you'd need pullers to put in the last pieces. It's a good idea to have a puller anyway (shaped bit of metal).

Read ALL of this, but especially section 5 for you particular query:

read the bit about underlay, if you don't have any.

Hope this helps (so would a radial arm and band saw).

Jc.

[Mike Mitchell]

And that's the only kind I use! I looked at the click stuff and didn't like it at all. I believe that you get a much tighter finish by being able to push the joints together (I use wedges on sections of the floor, then allow the glue to go "off" for a while before doing the next. Also, the non-click variety seems to be considered "inferior", therefore is often the cheapest!

MM

[robert]

Then it's her problem let her sort it out.