Laying Laminate Flooring

[Mark Cotton]

Hi everyone,

I know this isn't a particulary comlpicated task, but not having done it before i would appreciate some "local knowledge".

we were planninng on laying some laminate flooring, probably pergo (is it worth it ?), any hints, tips or sites you could point me in the direction of which would help me plan this job out ?

what tools would you absolutely not be without for a task like this ? are there any brands you would avoid ?

any help would be much appreciated

regards

mark

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

must point out due to a frivelous poster on here there is two ways of doing it ie proffesionally or as the poster called it... *Bodge job of the highest order*,meaning the guy on the link is doing it without taking the skirting off which most people do anyway.

One tool you will need amongst others is a *pull bar* to pull the flooring together at the ends of each row. These can be got from local sheds or laminate stockist.

[RzB]

Hmm - I'm going to be doing some of this in a few weeks time.. I don't quite understand about the pull bar. Why does the flooring have to be pulled together at the ends - surely it just clicks together? Yes/No? Don't understand...

Roy

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

You'll understand it alright when you start it. ;-)

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

One important think is to unpack all or a few packs of the flooring overnight to allow for swelling with them being in the plastic.

[Guy King]

The message from "Mark Cotton" contains these words:

Take the skirting boards off, lay right up to the wall (allowing the expansion gap, of course) and put the boards back on top of the flooring. It looks /so/ much better than having those narsty quadrant beads all over the place.

At doorways etc, use a cover strip to neaten the join.

[The Medway Handyman]

Laminate clicks together on all four edges. Clicking the long edges together is easy, but when the last board in the row is laid you can't get hold of the short edge or tap it with a block - so you need the pull bar to hook over the end.

Better still get one of those laminate strap clamps and pull the entire row together in one go.

[Peter Johnson]

I'll support this one. Did my hall and cloakroom a couple of years ago and was intimidated by the prospect of removing the skirting so used the quadrant - it looked a right mess. A few weeks ago, ripped it all out, took the skirtings off, relaid with new, fixed new skirting, looks fantastic though I say it myself

B&Q have a range of these, much better than the 'one size fits all' available from my floor supplier.