Tips from a weekend warrior on installing your own laminate flooring

Our existing wood floor was less than desirable—and we really didn’t have it in us to sand it down and refinish it, especially with two cats who need their freedom to roam about. In addition, I wasn’t up for the chemical smell nor the labor involved in sanding down the floor. So my wife and I decided that we’d do IKEA’s laminate flooring—it’s inexpensive (averaging $1.29 per square foot) and we’ve been told it’s both durable and easy to install. Don’t be too quick to believe everything you hear. Installing it wasn’t easy… at least at first.

Look in the upper left corner of this photo and you’ll see one of our primary motivating factors for putting in a new floor. I’m not sure what one of the previous owners did, but they had to get at something; bad enough that they had to rip out a section of flooring and the molding on the bottom of the back wall. But besides that, the previous owners didn’t do anything at all to keep the floor’s condition under control. It was highly scratched up and would have required some serious work to get it back into pristine condition. I didn’t have that kind of energy, patience, nor expertise to do so.

So we bought about $575 worth of flooring, which is enough to cover over 350 square feet or so—always buy extra in liberal amounts as you can always return unused boxes of flooring. If you’re purchasing flooring from IKEA, you’ll also want to purchase their floor laying kit and enough NIVA foam floor liner to help absorb sound underneath your flooring. IKEA has worksheets at their stores to help you figure out just how much of everything you’ll need—I found it quite helpful.

I knew the task ahead of me wasn’t going to be easy—unlike the flash/video instructions on IKEA.com, the rooms in our house are NOT plum, so I knew that there would be LOTS of custom cutting going on. So I purchased a nice, portable table saw and now had everything to get started.

The first two hours were painful and EXTREMELY frustrating. I’ve never laid down laminate flooring before and have only done vinyl tiles both in our basement and in the bathroom—so this was a new experience for me. Boards didn’t want to stay put and I found it very, very aggravating when they wouldn’t snap into place or line up just right. Only two rows into the project, I was very close to calling it quits, returning all the wood, and having Home Depot or someone else install the floor for me. But my wife came over and helped me calm down and held down boards for me, which helped exponentially.

I wouldn’t have gotten far without Natalie’s help—while I placed the boards and knocked ‘em in, she spread eagle on the already-installed boards and held them down for me. That really helped a lot and the installation process moved faster.

One other thing that I found frustrating with IKEA’s flooring is that if you have any debris whatsoever in the grooves of your flooring, it will not snap into place and you’ll see gaps in your flooring. So before you connect the rows together, do a sweep with a screwdriver or your finger in the groves and remove any debris, slivers, or other crap sitting in there.

A few other things to consider

Be very careful to consider your cuts in your flooring and that you’re cutting the right side of the boards. I’ve had a few boards that I messed up because I cut my measurements on the wrong side. Perhaps it’s Builder’s Dyslexia, but regardless, just have to take the extra minute to look at your penciled in marks (don’t use pen or marker), think about how the board is going in a time or two, and then make your cut on your table saw.

When you’re using your floor laying kit to hammer your pieces into place, be VERY careful if you’re going to use the metal S bar to hammer in your pieces. Because it’s metal and you’re hammering against laminate wood, you can easily chip your laminate or damage the side grooves. Favor the plastic block over the metal bar unless you absolutely need to use it. Just be careful when you’re knocking the wood into place. There were two or three boards that I had to pull out and replace because I chipped the surface—and it was quite noticeable.

You’ll want to carry a few things with you at all times throughout the process of laying down flooring: a pencil, scratch paper to note board dimensions and measurements, tape measure, and at some points of your installation you’ll want your utility knife (but you don’t need it that often). I wore a sweatshirt with a front pocket type thing and just kept everything there, where it was easily accessible.

If you’re doing more than one room and have to connect them together, you most certainly will have boards that don’t line up perfectly as you’ll see in the photo below:

Don’t panic if you have gaps between the seams of the connecting rooms. Just head over to your nearest hardware store and pick up a tube of “Plastic Wood“—it’s a cellulose filler made for situations just like this. Just squeeze a thin slab of it over the gap and work it in smoothly with your finger until it’s not so noticeable anymore. The gap will still remain of course, but it won’t be nearly as noticeable when you fill it and smooth it over.

I’ve got the kitchen mostly done but am taking a break and should have the remaining rooms done by tomorrow, including laying down the trim. I’ll be quite happy when all of this is done, as I have not gone unscathed throughout this process. My injury count mounts with each passing day:

• 1 bruise on each of my legs (back side of shin)
• 1 minor gash on my knee
• 1 bashed in thumb from hammer incident, which is quite black and blue, and
• 1 bashed in index finger, adjacent to said bashed-in thumb

And of course my hands are completely raw from all this work and my back ready for a break.

I’ll post final pictures when we’re all done. READ PART TWO

March 30, 2007, 5:15 pm

Filed under: Home Improvement

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