Laminate Floor advice

hobo28

Hi all

I'd like to put a laminate floor down in my lounge. Never done it before. My house is a new build and the lounge is a nice rectangular shape with only the door and the fireplace to work round.

I've got several questions which I'm hoping others can help with:

1) What's the best underlay? The 7mm felt boards from B&Q or the more expensive rolls of the gold foil stuff?

2) What should I use for the edges around the fireplace?

3) My floor is concrete. Do I NEED to put down a DPM if I use the felt boards or can I get away without?


Thanks in advance

raymond

1. felt is ok, rubber based is better noise absorbancy, foil is crap

2. edging trim

3. definately YES

hobo28

Thanks for that.

Ok, just one more thing. My fireplace is curved at the corners rather than straight corners. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to go round and have it still looking nice?

Thanks

woodbutcher_2

Had the same problem in a hallway i did recently with a bullnose stair tread.I went round it in a series of small pieces of edging so it looked like a hexagon shape if you know what i mean.I had to fiddle about getting the length and the subsequent angle correct but managed it in the end and it looked good.The customer was happy with it.

libra10

Son and OH recently fitted a laminated tile floor in the bathroom. They got round the curved parts by making a paper pattern, placing over the laminate and cutting to shape. Looks very good.

Good luck

Mumstheword

we've done laminate floors a few times, and things I would consider with hindsight are-

Try a bedroom first, if you can, or another smallish room which isnt the main room and doest matter as much for practising in.

Dont buy the cheapest rubbish. It doesnt 'snap' together as you would expect it ought to, which makes the job more difficult.(not that i've ever bought expensive stuff....that could have the same problem, but I doubt it!)

It should usually be laid running towards a window, not side to side parallel with the window. dont know why, but it's a 'rule' I've seen before, and having seen it done the 'wrong' way, I agree.

We've made mistakes and taken shortcuts (like using the old carpet as underlay - ahem!! Brill sound insulation, but a bouncy walk!!)

What are your skirting boards like? If there is any chance you would consider changing them in the future, you could do that now instead of using edging trim. Can the fireplace be lifted so you can run the laminate underneath it, thus avoiding curved cuts?

I love laminate flooring, it looks really nice as long as you make a half decent job of it. The only downside I've found is that little boys can't 'put' toys down, they insist on dropping them from a great height!

gardnt1

Underlay: always use a dpm with ground floor rooms.......if you can get a combi floor, which has dpm attached even better...if you can find timbermates excel gold flooring (ebay is a start as floors2go have stopped doing) use this as it acts as a DPM and has a good thickness to it. You will need moisture barrier tape to join segments though.

Fireplace: As previous posts, try and get around curved edge by using lots of small angled bits and backfill gap with coloured silicone, or if not too curved, come off at right angle and backfill gap with coloured silicone....only you will know what looks best!

Laying lengthways towards windows is the recommended way as when light falls, the joins are less obvious, but it all depends on size of room and where doorways are etc! With good quality laminate such as quickstep its not so much an issue. Undercut doorways to get a good finish (and always if possible ) easier to lay lengths towards a doorway, but again depends on room size.