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There are so many great reasons to install laminate flooring in your home if you’re remodeling. It’s more stylish than carpet and more homey than tile.
Carpet, on the one hand, attracts dust and stains easily — it’s becoming rarer and rarer in homes because no one wants to deal with the maintenance and replacement costs. Who wants to vacuum when you could just sweep? Who wants to deal with the disasters that pets and children create in carpeted homes?
Tile, on the other hand, doesn’t provide the warmth that wood or laminate flooring does. It’s not as ‘natural’ or ‘welcoming.’ A further benefit of laminate flooring is that its environmentally friendly. If you buy a laminate floor you can get any kind of luxury look you want–Brazilian cherry, Mahogany, whatever!–and not one tree will be harvested to provide you with that floor. Not one forest will be disturbed. Since the prime ingredient of laminate floors is particle-board, that means it is an essentially recycled product.
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The other two advantages of laminate flooring are even more compelling: they’re easy to install and they’re highly affordable. Cheap laminate flooring is often very high quality–low price is not an indicator of poor quality. Not only is solid Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring many times more expensive than its laminate equivalent, you may also have to hire someone to install it. Laminate flooring, on the other hand, can be installed by most homeowners themselves.
So how do you install laminate flooring? Let’s break it down for you in a five step process:
1. Design Considerations
Since laminates are a floating flooring–meaning that they’re not nailed-down and they need to have a little bit of space to move around or else they might break apart, positioning spacers around your room is an essential first step to get ready when installing laminate flooring. This gap will later be hidden by your quarter-round or wall base–whatever you use for your transition.
2. Lay your first row starting in the top left-hand corner of your room.
Put your first board in the top left-hand corner of your room. Put your weight onto the board that you’ve laid. Angle in your end-joints to where the corners line up and touch and just lay the next board flat. Continue this process until you come to the other side of the room. You will have to measure and cut your last piece. You can use your cut-off piece to be the first piece of the second row.
3. Make sure that your end-joints are at least 8″ apart.
Make sure that your end-piece of the first row with which you are beginning your second row is at least 8″ otherwise you need to cut another piece. Making sure that the end-joints are at least 8″ inches apart is the step that insures the stability of your floor.
Slide it all the way down to the spacer and drop it down.
4. Lay your second board.
For the second piece angle the end joint piece of the first board that you laid. Get those two pieces hooked up. Then you will need to pick up the whole row to angle the piece that you’re laying into the track of the first row. You may need to tap it with a mallet or the butt of your hand.
5. Installing the field.
Continue in the pattern described above throughout the rest of the room. And that’s really all there is to it!
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Note from the host: A shout to JJ; he writes on behalf of floorstoyourhome.com. I hope you enjoy this one, but truth — we are already discussing future assignments. And why not? Initials, come on — he’s a can’t miss. Anyways — thanks for reading and happy day. ~jb
A great flooring option for the basement, you can find more about Laminates in our Flooring category.