How easy is Laminate Flooring to Install?

[Anne-Marie]

I'm looking at installing laminate flooring but wondered how difficult it is? Anyone got any experience. We're looking at getting Quickstep

[Jim GM4 DHJ ...]

easy but it is crap...

[charles]

I did just that in my daughter's flat 20 years ago.. very easy, just get the real tools.

[nothanks]

Very easy indeed if you have basic DIY skills. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order ... Can you cope with a slightly slippery floor? Could it get wet? Might you walk grit onto it? Don't skimp on underlay and don't buy cheap laminate. As far as possible, plan the cuts before you start. Decide whether you're going to remove/refit the skirting (the best way) or leave the skirting and fit a moulding. Decide how you're going to work around doorway architrave and any pipes. Think about room thresholds. If the floor is not solid then consider whether you might need to provide access to any areas.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Very easy to make an average job. But if it's meant to look like a real wood floor, a lot more difficult.

[Andrew]

Is that the company that has a Tour-de-France cycle team ?

All laminate is easy to lay, provided you have a partner who can finish it off properly and do all the fiddly cutting and edging :-)

Even Adams GF could do it , shes a dab hand with a sledge.

[John Rumm]

Its easy to lay, but takes a fair amount of effort to get a good looking result at the edges.

To look good you need to either remove and refit skirtings, or undercut them to allow the flooring to pass under them. This avoids the need for additional beads applied at the edges to hide gap at the floor to wall join.

Same goes for doorways, you need to undercut the architrave and door lining to get a decent result.

For an example see here - this was an engineered wood floor rather than laminate, the the principles remain similar - its just the boards are thicker:

Go for a pattern where the visual "boards" match the actual board edges, otherwise it will always be obvious which are real joins and which are "printed on".

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I remember some years ago going into a house where shall we say it was installed but had a slight side effect. At times as you walked on it it sounded a bit like it had a tap dancing emulator in it. It also seemed to move just a little in places. Of course never having fitted it myself, it might be this is to be expected. Brian

[JohnP]

"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" wrote in news:rgtbeu$1ot$ [e-mail]:

Have a vacuum cleaner handy - ensure the interlocking features are clean.

[alan_m]

Judging one I'm looking at in a friend's rented property while I write this very very easy to get a completely crap finished result.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. But removing skirting boards to make a nice job is beyond many. And many simply don't care anyway.

[Andrew]

In new houses the skirting boards tend to be glued on with nonails or similar and are made of MDF. Removal tends to be destructive.

[Dave Liquorice]

Hire a door trimmer or make up a jig for your angle grinder fitted with a wood cutting blade?

[John Rumm]

Its slow, but quite easy with a multimaster type tool as well - just flip a flooring board upside down and use it as a flush cut guide with an offset blade.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's what I did round the door frames. Cut a rebate into them to allow the flooring to go under it.

[Cynic]

Very easy if you take appropriate care but it plays hell on my knees. Also for a few weeks until its slipperyness reduced our labrador couldn't keep h er feet together while walking on it. She took to launching herself from th e doorway onto a mat which then proceeded to slip across the room with her on it. It would have been prize winning video but I didn't record it.