How to Install Your Laminate Flooring – Step by Step Guide

Laminate flooring is a great option for each home as it is not so difficult to install and brings in a sense of style and comfort. The laminate planks come in different width and colour, so you can choose whichever type appeals to you the most.

This type of flooring is resistant to damage, fading, wear, stains and scratches. Laminate usually comes in planks, but there are also laminate squares that resemble ceramic tiles. One can install laminate with just a little effort, following a couple of steps.

Prior to installation, laminate flooring needs to be prepared

As humidity and temperature can affect your laminate, you need to acclimate it in your household for about 48 hours before you start installing it. Remove all plastic wrapping, stack the planks and let air circulate around them.

Be sure to have at least ten percent more flooring than the total square meters of your room. This way you will be sure you have enough material.

Subfloor needs to be cleaned and bass molding removed

Clear the subfloor of all sorts of debris and mold. If you are to be applying the laminate atop a fresh concrete floor, be sure to wait until it is fully dried.

Installing the Vapour Barrier

The vapor barrier has to be laid one row at a time. Start from your room’s longest wall. Whenever two sheets have to be joined, look at the instructions the manufacturer has provided. Some require you to overlap the sheets, while others will have you butt the rows against one another.

Trimming the Door Jambs

Get a piece of flooring and set it set on the subfloor, up against the jambs of the door. This is to be used as a guide for the jambs to be marked so that your new flooring will slide under the jamb. Use a coping or a flat saw so that you could cut the jambs. Just make sure you cut parallel to the subfloor.

Installing the First Row

Installing is to be made by laying planks parallel to the room’s longest wall. The first plank has to be installed with its groove facing the wall. Place some 1//2” spacers against your wall and then push the plank against them.

This way an expansion gap is created in order for the floor to breathe and not buckle or warp. The spacers need to be put approximately every twelve inches along the wall as well as at the end of every plank against an adjoining wall.

Installing the rest of the Flooring

Match each plank tongue to groove by tapping it into place with a rubber mallet. Use a wooden scrap piece in order to protect the plank. Make sure all pieces fit neatly together, leaving no gaps along the plank’s length.

Installing the last plank

You will have to trim the last plank in order for it to fit. Carefully measure the remaining space between the wall and the plank next to the last. Cut a piece of the last plank with size, corresponding to the width of the aforementioned space. Now you are ready to install the final plank.

Installing Thresholds and Base Moldings

Between the spot where the flooring ends and any open door, there needs to be threshold installed. They are different in style so that you can match the height, color and kind of the flooring your new laminate blends into. The spacers have to be removed so that you can install base molding and cover all expansion gaps.