How To Lay Laminate On Any Subfloor According To All The Rules

2023 Author: Philip Bishop | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 22:24

• Choice of coverage
• Tools
• Recommendations before installation
• Laying the substrate
• The need for polyethylene film
• Self styling
• Diagonal arrangement

The technology of laying laminate flooring on the floor with your own hands does not have any particular difficulties. But, having studied everything in detail, you will not have to spend money on the services of specialists. The installation process will depend on the availability and type of interlocks, high-quality preparation of the base, as well as the chosen method of laying the laminate. As a result, you will get a comfortable coating, which will only add beauty to the entire interior and appearance of the room.

Choice of coverage

For a laminate, there is no difference in what kind of base will be under it. It can be a concrete screed, wooden floor, other flooring option.

In this case, only one very important quality should be observed - the base should be perfectly flat and strong.

There are also certain requirements for wood and concrete floors that you should be familiar with. The concrete surface for perfect leveling is done by pouring the prepared mortar. To achieve the maximum leveling effect, it is necessary to use self-leveling mixtures that can hide elevation differences and existing surface defects.

More problems usually arise with a wooden base, which loses its appearance, can rot and give rise to various microorganisms. Scripts often appear when walking on such a floor. You can get rid of them by screwing individual wood elements or living them to the logs.

But this method is not always effective. In some cases, it is easier to completely replace individual sections of the wooden floor or get rid of it altogether. In the latter case, a concrete screed is made in accordance with all the rules for a laminate, observing the mixing ratio of all the main components.

Old linoleum, which you don't want to get rid of, can also be used as a base for the laminate. This has its advantages, as it acquires additional soundproofing qualities. But this option can only be applied if the base under the linoleum is really even and at the same time the flooring itself is in excellent condition (does not crumble, does not fall apart, etc.).

Tools

Do-it-yourself installation of laminate flooring cannot do without a certain set of tools. It is fashionable to include among them:

1. A hammer.
2. Knife.
3. Pencil.

4. Electric jigsaw.

   

It can even be called basic tools, which you cannot do without. Additionally, a doboinik or a wooden block, wedges and a special bracket are used, which can be replaced with a mounting. The doboinik is used as a tool to knock on for high-quality joining of individual laminate elements to each other. It is strictly forbidden to strike the laminate directly, as this will not only disable the existing interlocks, but will not allow further fastening of the laminate.

Doboinik with wedges and bracket can be purchased in one set. Such a kit is found wherever laminate is sold. It is much easier and more profitable than finding and buying everything separately. All this taken together will give an answer to the question of how to lay laminate flooring on the floor quickly and efficiently.

Recommendations before installation

Installation should start by studying important rules that you should adhere to:

• After the purchase, the laminate should lie in the room where its subsequent laying will be carried out. In this case, he gets used to the microclimate, and will not deform, even slightly after laying on the floor. This is the first step in how to lay your laminate flooring.

  

• You can visually hide existing seams between laminate elements. To do this, the floor covering should be laid exclusively perpendicular to the existing window in the room. The incident light will hide possible styling imperfections.
• Before laying the underlay, the base is swept and removed with a construction vacuum cleaner. There should not be even minor debris under it, since all this will negatively affect the condition of the material during operation. In addition, it will not be superfluous to lay the plastic wrap before putting the laminate on the floor with your own hands.

Laying the substrate

When the base for the laminate has been carefully prepared, you can begin work directly related to laying the flooring on a wooden or concrete surface. First of all, you should take care of the substrate flooring. To know how to properly lay the laminate on the floor, the choice of substrate should be taken with full responsibility. After all, the durability of the floor covering during operation, as well as the manifestation of all its qualities and properties, will depend on its quality.

The backing can be both budgetary and expensive. The latter option includes cork products, as well as a double backing, which is only gaining interest and popularity among artists who want advice on how to properly lay the laminate on the floor.

If the laminate itself is not expensive, then few people pay attention to the above substrate options. In this case, products from expanded polyethylene, expanded polystyrene and combined options are of greater interest.

The underlayment under the laminate is designed to compensate for human steps on the floor, as well as any external influences. In addition, the interlocks are preserved intact, on the presence of which the durability of the use of the floor covering will depend. Substrates can easily hide minor surface imperfections, but do not purchase very thick material. In the standard version, the thickness of the substrate under the laminate will be sufficient in 2-3 mm.

The process of laying the substrate will not cause difficulties even for a novice specialist. Here you just need to remember certain rules and requirements for laying the laminate on the floor with your own hands. The underlayment should never be overlapped. It is unacceptable. The laying of the material under the laminate is carried out jointly to joint, after which the latter are additionally glued with tape. Such actions are necessary to hide possible gaps between groomed rows or substrate elements.

The stacking process is no different from roll or sheet products. Only installation work and the time frame for the flooring of the substrate under the laminate are reduced. The greatest simplicity is the roll, which can be spread from wall to wall and proceed with laying the next row.

Some laminate manufacturers put forward their recommendations for choosing a specific substrate option for the type of flooring. This is what you should pay attention to if you want to get a high-quality final result.

The need for polyethylene film

When laying laminate flooring, every novice performer has a large number of questions related to the components of the "pie".

Experts say that under the substrate there is a need to lay a plastic film on the base. And there are certain truthful steps in this.

From the floors below, especially if it is not a heated basement, a large amount of moisture and dampness enters the base of the floor. To protect the flooring from its negative effects, a polyethylene film is used. It is also necessary in case of urgent laying of the laminate on a concrete surface that has not had time to dry properly. Consequently, the main function of the film used during installation is to protect the floor covering from high levels of moisture. This will tell you how to properly lay your laminate flooring.

Self styling

A large number of performers are concerned about one very important question - how to put the laminate on the floor themselves. The beginning of work on laying the laminate on the floor on its own - from the source of illumination, that is, from the existing window opening. Initially, the first lamella is laid in the corner of the room from the window side. From the side of the walls in the room, special wedges are exposed, which are necessary to create a kind of gap. In the future, it will be hidden with skirting boards. There is no way to do without a gap, since the laminate tends to expand during operation. They serve to preserve the integrity of the lamellas and interlocks.

There are special grooves in the end parts of the laminate lamellas, into which the subsequent floorboard should fit. This is how the first row is closed up to the wall. At the edge of the wall, a cut of the required size is made from a solid board. This can be done with a jigsaw or a hacksaw.

The second row will start with the piece of laminate flooring left over from the first row. But there is one important requirement, which is that this piece must have a length of at least 30 cm or at least 1/3 of the total length of a solid lamella. If this is not observed, then half of the whole board is cut off and placed at the beginning of the second row.

Initially, the second row is not connected to the first in the lock connections. It is necessary to collect a full row up to the wall, after which, slightly lifting it, it is wound into the lock and snaps into place. The hammer is used here only in exceptional cases, to relieve stress in those areas where the locks are not tightly inserted into each other. In this case, it is important to initially put a wooden block, and only after that strike. Otherwise, it is easy to face damage to the laminate, which requires replacement.

This is how the laying of the laminate with your own hands continues on all surfaces in the room. When you reach the opposite wall in the room, you have to cut the laminate board not across, but along. There should not be any difficulties here, the main thing is to leave a gap of 10-15 mm between the cleaned flooring and the wall.

Diagonal arrangement

More problems can arise when laying the laminate with your own hands on the floor diagonally across the room. This option will visually increase the space in the room. But in this case, you should be prepared for the fact that you will have to spend a little more materials in the work due to the increased amount of waste.

When choosing and buying a laminate, it will be necessary to add 7-9% to the area of the entire room to be sure that you do not have to be distracted from work to buy the missing quantity.

All work on the preparation of the foundation is no different. Here you just need to pull the line, the thread from the window at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the wall. This will later serve as a guide for laying the laminate on the floor with your own hands.

Laying is done as follows:

On the first strip of flooring, the corners are reversed, maintaining an angle of 45 degrees. After that, it fits into a corner in the room, with exposed wedges and as a thermal gap of 10-15 mm. After that, two more strips are taken, joined together and applied in such a way that the resulting joint falls in the middle of the first strip. The cut edges at 45 degrees should be against the wall, leaving a gap of 10-15 mm.

The further process is faster in terms of time, since there are more solid slats when laying on the floor. It is worth noting that it is easier to initially distribute them over the entire surface of the base, after which it is already time to cut the boards and join them to the walls.

All these actions will allow you to get rid of the "walk" of the walls, when the joints between the lamellas of each subsequent row will differ. As a result, you get a really high-quality laid floor covering, which will perfectly complement any interior in the room.

When laying laminate flooring in any room, it is very important to comply with all work points. Advice from manufacturers, as well as experienced performers, will help to avoid possible problems during operation.

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