Which direction to lay laminate.

myhooose

I am about to lay some laminate flooring in my dining room. I'm trying to work out the best direction to lay it and from which edge to start. I have removed all the skirting and have a jamb saw to undercut the door jambs. The room has 2 doorways facing each other on opposing walls, hard against one of the walls. My problem is I'm not sure how to get the last piece in around the door. I need to be able to slide the last piece in under the door jamb. This will be difficult as the two doors are facing one another.

Does anyone have any clever ideas?

jimbo_the_jetset

Normal practise is lengthways parallel to the light coming into the room, so that means lengthways towards the window(s). The reasoning being that if you lay it the other way the light will catch every join and even the best fit will becoming very noticeable in sunlight.

As to the other query I'm not too sure as I haven't attempted to fit myself yet

ormus

1. you can either lay them the wrong way. ie across the room.
2. or you can trim the last piece so that it just sits on top of the previous plank. and glue the joint. ie make it into a lap joint and not a click joint.
a bit like cutting the tongue off a floor board.

3. or remove the skirting and the door architrave on the last side. i always remove the skirting now anyways when doing laminate.

myhooose

Thanks for the reply I have done a small sketch to show the room layout.
I may do the hallway in the future but not sure yet. As you can see do I lay it length ways from door to door or at 90 degrees parallel to the incoming light from the main window

zax47

Parallel to the light from the incoming window! It's usually laid parallel to the longest wall in the room (which is the same way in your case, left/right on your sketch). If you lay it "across" the room (i.e. from door to door or up/down on your sketch) it will given the illusion of foreshortening the room and just look wrong.

underlay_guru

Hi,

Lay the whole lot so the plank is running left to right on your diagram. For 3 reasons:

1. The joins will be less noticeable when sunlight comes in from the large window;
2. It will give you and visitors an impression of space when they enter by the front door...ie the hall area will appear longer than it actually is;
3. Running the boards from left to right should eliminate the problem of fitting the last piece around the door. It should simply fit as normal.

...Fitting the last piece should be effortless: Simply take the door off, cut and fit the laminate piece, then rehang the door. Dont forget to leave an expansion gap of around 8mm around the room, or else the laminate will damage prematurely!