What is important to know when installing a laminate floor?

There are a few critical things for installing a laminate floor. Whatever you install it on has to be perfectly flat or it will break at the seems. It also does not hold up well to moisture (it’s basically heavy-duty cardboard with a photograph of wood ontop, coated with a very hard and transparent protective layer. Just like getting a cardboard box wet is a bad idea, so is getting your laminate floor wet. You should leave gaps around the edges to the wall (I think it’s like a quarter or an eighth of an inch). This allows the floor to expand and contract in summer/winter. You should also acclimate the laminate to your house’s temperature and humidity before installing. You do this by slicing open the plastic packaging of every box of laminate and letting it “breath” for a while (I think it’s like 24–48 hours or something like that), prior to installing it.

As far as underlayment goes, I just bought these rolls of foam they sell. It’s a moisture barrier and it prevents the “clacking” sound when walking on it, making it sound more natural. You just roll them out onto your floor and tape along the seems. The laminate just rests ontop. You shouldn’t have to buy the kind with the underlayment attached. I think it’s cheaper to buy the rolls—check with the sales guy. Also note that the coating on laminate floors will tear up saw blades. You might want to buy one just for this job and then throw it out when you’re done.

One more thing to add is that you have to work from one direction across. Think carefully about where the best place to start will be, because there can be tricky corners to deal with and you don’t want to figure that out after you laid out 70% of the floor.

You might check this question I asked last year.
Get the padding, and weigh down the end pieces when you start.

@gorillapaws Excellent advice, thank you! So if we get the foam underlayment you talked about, we don’t need the laminate with pre-attached padding?

@ItalianPrincess1217 Yes. You shouldn’t need both.

You’ll want a miter saw for sure. One thing is the stuff can’t get wet at the seams or it will fall apart quickly. After I installed mine for the second time I used some clear silicone on all of the seams to keep water out. That makes a HUGE difference when you have spills. You can’t tell it’s there if you wipe it flush. You don’t need both padding and underlayment just one or the other. Make darn sure your first run is straight but don’t be surprised if your walls are not true. Mine were not. Leave a1/4 inch or so of gap between the walls and the floor to give it room to expand. As you lay the last board on a row and saw the excess off use the excess to start the next row. If you don’t do this all of the seams will line up and will look ugly and obvious. I used ¼ round but I don’t like it. They sell base boards that extend out over the gap which look much more classy to me.

Make sure you get the tools for the job. They have spacers for the wall so that when to tap the pieces together the wall gap stays . also there is L-shaped bar for tapping in the end piece for each row. and of course the hard rubber block for tapping the pieces together. Over all it’s easy with the right tools.

Put down a plastic vapor barrier. Allow some space around the edge of the room for expansion. Do not nail through it when replacing the ¼ round trim (or other edging trim) at the baseboards.

@gorillapaws ItalianPrincess1217 Your suggestions about opening the plastic and allowing the laminate to “breathe” might apply to some laminates, but when we installed ours, we were cautioned repeatedly NOT to break the plastic seal until we were ready to install it or it would warp. So it’s best to check with the manufacturer on specific instructions for installation.

@snowberry That’s good to know. Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a detail everyone will have to check depending on what product they choose. I know with the one I installed it was critical to let it acclimate to the house before installing.

Take some pieces out and play with it for a while. See how it attaches; get an idea of what the right fit feels like. Make a long strip almost the length of your room and see how straight your walls are; you may need additional spacers in some locations.

Have a rubber mallet handy; also a box cutter and a sharp wood chisel (mainly used for “shaving” pieces).

After the first few cuts you will have some small dropoffs. Save these to click into place and hit with the mallet rather than hitting the boards directly. Unclick them and use them again and again.

After the first row, take that last piece you cut off to make it fit and use it as your starter board on the next row. This will alternate your joints, reduce the amount of waste at the end of the job by making the most efficient use of your materials.

Take into account that your walls will not (probably) be parallel or square. Most of the time this can be hidden by the shoe mold (or quarter round) that you put around the perimeter but sometimes you need to adjust your starting course to make sure the gap in one corner is not greater than your trim. .

If you prefer, and in the overall scheme of things the cost is minimal, remove the baseboard before you start and then install new after you are completed. This gives you the opportunity to eliminate the additional trim (shoe mold) on the baseboard and also update the look of your room. If you are going to paint or stain the new baseboard put down a thin strip of paper (you can buy a 6” roll of kraft paper from most paint or hardware stores) on the floor and put the baseboard on top. This will let you paint without getting it on your new floor and then you can just throw it away when the painting is completed.