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Diy Guide On Fitting Laminate Flooring

One of the most common DIY tasks in the world is fitting laminate flooring. This is mainly due to how easy it is to fit a hard wearing floor that looks fantastic, however, even though it is easy to fit laminate flooring it is also very easy to make mistakes if you are not prepared. In this guide there are step by step instructions on laying your laminate floor. First of all you should verify which sub-floor you want to fit your laminate flooring onto because the individual floorings are not suitable for every type of sub-floor.

Sub-floor for laminate flooring

Fitting laminate on screed

The floor must be absolutely level, dry, clean and firm. It is very important to sand down and fill any unevenness of more than three millimetres over one metre. You must use PE foil as a moisture barrier.

Fitting laminate on wooden planks

Loose floorboards must be fixed and uneven surfaces should be smoothed out to ensure a flat, firm surface to fit on. Fit the Krono Original laminate flooring at right-angles to the lengthwise direction of the wooden planks. You may not use PE foil on wooden sub-floors.

Laminate on wooden boards

Loose wooden boards must be fixed and any unevenness levelled out. The boards must be firmly connected to the sub-floor so that there is no creaking later.

Fitting laminate on PVC or linoleum floorings

These types of old flooring must be removed.

Fitting laminate flooring on hot water underfloor heating

Please ask a trusted heating specialist to heat your floor until it is dry as they have the necessary skills and records to ensure this is done correctly. A surface temperature of 25 degrees Celsius is advisable; you should never exceed 28 degrees Celsius. Old flooring must be removed.

Residual moisture

The screed should never exceed the following residual moisture values:

1. Cement screed: With underfloor heating 1.8 percent CM; without underfloor heating 2 percent CM.
2. Anhydride screed: With underfloor heating 0.3 percent; without underfloor heating 0.5 percent CM.

Before fitting your laminate flooring please make sure you go through these checklists.

A.) Tools checklist

You should have the following tools ready to hand at all times when fitting your laminate flooring:

• Spacer wedges
• Circular saw, Jigsaw or handsaw with a finetooth
• Angle for undercutting the doorframes
• Tapemeasure, pencil
• Laminate fitting kit
• Tapping block, Hammer
• Acoustic sound underlay (for floorings without a Sound Absorb System)

B.) Materials & accessories checklist

• Precise measurements of your room
• Laminate flooring
• Clicseal one tube is sufficient for ten square metres of laminate flooring
• Skirting boards – Solid wood, PVC or MDF with real wood vaneer
• Scotia or quadrant beading, threshold t-bar and edge profiles
• Vapour barrier layer, Gold/Silver dune underlay
• Foam underlay

Please also note that additional transmitted sound insulation is necessary for laminate floorings without S.A.S (Sound Absorb System). Under certain circumstances you may also need Clicguard or a comparable joint seal, joint sealing compound and glue/bonding agent.

Before fitting: Store the packs of flooring for 48 hours under the same climatic conditions as for fitting.

An important requirement for installation and long durability of the laminate floor is a room climate of around 20° Celsius and a relative humidity of 50 to 70 percent. The sub-floor must be absolutely level, dry, clean and firm.

When fitting on a mineral sub-floor such as concrete, cement screed, anhydride screed or stone tiles you must measure the moisture first. The screed should never exceed the following residual moisture values:

1. Cement screed: With underfloor heating 1.8 percent CM; without underfloor heating 2 percent CM.
2. Anhydride screed: With underfloor heating 0.3 percent; without underfloor heating 0.5 percent CM.

Before fitting on concrete underfloors you must fit a suitable vapour barrier underlay (Gold/Silver dune underlay) to protect against moisture. Fit the sheets with a 20 cm overlap and fix with aluminium tape.

Carpeting is not a suitable underlay; you must remove all remaining carpeting before fitting the laminate. Laminate flooring is laid as a "floating" floor; you may not fix it to the sub-floor. Please use 2 millimetre PE foam underlay or another suitable underlay, maximum 3 millimetres thick, as transmitted sound insulation for floorings without S.A.S impact sound insulation. Please lay the sheets in the same direction as the panels. You should lay opened packs of flooring immediately.

Generally you have three options for fitting laminate flooring:

1. Fast, glue-free laying.
2. Laying with Clickseal or comparable joint sealing. This ensures the floor is permanently protected against the effect of moisture from above. The floor can be nevertheless be taken up again and relaid.
3. Laying with glue also provides permanent protection against moisture; however, the work is more time-consuming and complicated and the flooring can no longer be reused.

Laying Laminate

If the walls are not straight, please trace the line of the wall onto the first row of panels and saw the panels accordingly. Before laying the panels measure the depth of the room first. If the last row of panels has a width of less than 5 centimetres you must evenly distribute the remaining measurement between the first and last row of panels so that both rows are cut to size with the same panel width.

Always maintain a 12-15 mm distance from walls, heating pipes, columns, door stoppers etc. You can use spacing wedges to fix this distance. Expansion joints (at least 2 cm wide) are needed if the laying area is more than 8 m long or wide. Please also note that these are also required when laying flooring continuously over more than one room. Here the laying areas have to be interrupted in the area of the door frames. To this end, use profiles from our range. These movement joints can be professionally covered using the appropriate profiles.

Tip: Lay the panels lengthwise in line with the main Light Source!

Start laying in the left-hand corner of the room. The protruding lower groove cheek should be facing the layer. Lay the 1st row of panels by joining together the first two, and then each further panel, with an installation aid (panel off-cut with lengthwise tongue profile). Tip: In general, you should set the fitting aid lengthwise in the area of the two head joints and then finally align the elements. This prevents damage when sealing the panels.

Now knock the panel to be laid, in a flat position, with the flat of your hand until a pre-latching effect is achieved over the whole width of the panel.

To do this the chock is placed on the panel lengthwise to the head joint. Please ensure the tapping block protrudes by around 5 - 10 millimetres beyond the edge. This ensures the surfaces of both panels joint flush with each other. Repeat the above procedure to lay the whole of the first row of panels. Use spacing wedges to ensure a 12 -15 millimetre distance is maintained from the wall!

Start the second row left-hand side by inserting the long tongue side of the panel at a 30 degree angle slant into the bottom groove cheek of the panels that have already been laid (the 1st row) and twist it in and downwards with light pressure. Begin each new row with the remaining piece (at least 20 centimetres long) of the previous row. The space between the transverse joints of one row of panels and the next should be at least 40 centimetres.

The following panels are first inserted on the lengthwise side and then just before lowering the head side is pressed tightly against the previous panel until the overlays joint together.

Now tap the Flat Panel with the palm of your hand in the area of the transverse joint until a locking-in effect is achieved across the whole panel width. Then lock the head joints by lightly hitting them with the hammer and chock. Use the fitting aid too. Lay all the remaining panels by repeating the given sequence.

If necessary, close the transverse joints by tapping them from the side with a suitable tapping block. To cut the last row in the panel to size, rotate it through 180 degrees; place it with the decor side facing upwards next to the already laid row (groove cheek to groove cheek). Allow for the wall spacing on the end face. Mark the panel and saw off. To avoid splintered edges the décor side must be facing downwards if you use an electric compass saw or circular saw to cut the panels. Otherwise saw the panels with the décor facing upwards. If necessary use the drawbar to fix the last panel in a row. After laying panels remove the spacing wedges.

Holes, which are 3 centimetres larger than the pipe diameter, must be cut out for heating pipes. Saw out a V-shaped "adapter piece", glue, fit into place and fix with a wedge until the glue has hardened. Then cover the cut-outs with radiator rosettes.

Please shorten wooden door frames so that an element with impact sound insulation fits under it, so that the laminate flooring can move without restriction here too if the room's climate changes.

For a perfect finish at a wall, fix the skirting board clips at 40 - 50 centimetre spacings along the wall, and then attach the matching skirting boards suitably cut to size.

About the Author

Ruth Shann has been an expert in wood flooring installation and finishing since 1999.

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Haiku:
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