Laying Laminate Flooring

Meeten

Have laid various laminate floors, and also renovated orignal floors.
Laminate is easy, as long as the room has relatively straight edges. If there is a slight curve / angel, the n it can be a real pain to get small sections into that area.

Plan ahead and make sure you take down correct measuremnets (says someone who didn't first ime round). Also, make sure that you get the block that is recommended to join the pieces together, and I used a mallet with the metal tappety thing (excuse the lack of techical terminology). Much easier than with a regular claw hammer!

If you are unable to get the skirting boards off, then make sure that you take the quadrant price into account as well - it can add up, and you may well have to get a mitre saw as well to join them at the corners. I tried using mitre block but just ended up annoying myself!!
If there are radiators in the room, you will prob need to by small round covers that hide the cuts you made in the flooring, and make it look complete.

All in all, it is not too difficult a job, but it can be tiring and def easier if there is someone there to assist in the cutting and arranging of the flooring.

Good luck!

bleugh

laminate flooring-

go for the thickest stuff you can get,

personally I paid a guy £640 all in to do 26 Sq meters of hallway, dining room and kitchen, and proper skirting board all round

the stuff he used, the cheapest I could find was £12.99 sq/m


DONT forget to price for underlay, and make sure you get the foil backed stuff otherwise your floor WILL get freezing cold in the mornings, exactly what you don't want first thing in the morning

MAKE sure your floor is fairly even, underlay helps a bit here

laying laminate is easy,

doing the detail bits is a real pain

getting it looking good is difficuly

having fitted laminate myself before and watching it pull up, generally look very crap over time i was more than happy to pay a guy to fit it,
cost of materials would have been around £450 alone!

Tom_Jones

Bloomin heck Gardnt1 you have a cheap Carpenter there, I charge £10 a square metre and £2 per length of Scotia moulding with extra charge for bathrooms, and replacing skirting if it's been removed. And people tell me I'm cheap as some charge £15 a sq m around here.

It is a job that can be done DIY but as with everything a proffessional tradesman will do a better job in most circumstances.

shrek101

I have done two rooms now with laminate, its dead easy to lay.

The first room kids bedroom, I got that cheap underlay from B&Q, it was fairly thin stuff on a roll. I wouldn't now recommend that get good quality underlay as boards can be noisy and we all know what kids are like.

The 2nd room I did our bedroom did that recently, we actually used the old underlay which was quite thick and smooth and did that job perfectly.

I didn't plan my room just laid it down making sure there about 5-6mm gap at the skirting board. Once laid got some cheap quadrant, glued it to skirting board with a mastic gun and tacked it with some fine nails until dried.

The only problems I found were near doors, I had to take one door off to get the laminate underneath so that the laminate butts up to the hallway then I got one of the carpet metal rods for laminate floor.

Its also a pain near radiators where the pipes from the rads go to the floor. So I made a slightly bigger hole and filled the gaps with filler that matched as far as I could with the floor.

gardnt1

Tom_Jones wrote:

Bloomin heck Gardnt1 you have a cheap Carpenter there, I charge £10 a square metre and £2 per length of Scotia moulding with extra charge fo bathrooms, and replacing skiting if it's been removed. And people tell me I'm cheap as some charge £15 a sq m around here.

It is a job that can be done DIY but as with everything a proffessional tradesman will do a better job in most circumstances.

Tom_Jones, I havent a cheap carpenter, I fit laminate as a living and here in the midlands thats the going rate. Wish I could get more, But I find that as the original poster, £10 per square metre is quite a shock!
I agree the cost is more for removal of skiting,as half the time doing that risks most of the plaster falling off, especially in older properties! As for bathrooms I tend to persuade people its far better to remove items and re-plumb.......job much neater.

As for £2 per length of scotia, fair play if people will pay. Perhaps I should advertise in Wales !

chillipepper_3

I used to get paid £15 per m2, £6 to £10 is the normal rate now.

there is some good advice on here and it really is quite easy to fit. Always start from the wall with the door on (if you have one that is along the length).
The best way to sort the door frames is to lay a piece of laminate on its underlay against and saw into them, chip out the ends with a chisel and the laminate will slide straight under.
If you have lots of doors then consider paying the fitter, if its a square even large room have a go yourself.
The smaller, more doorways, fiddley areas are the hardest and should be given to a fitter to do if you want it looking spot on!
You will find some laminates are really easy to go together and the real cheap stuff can be a nightmare to fit, so have ago at getting the planks together before deciding.
good luck

chillipepper_3

Also

If you get stuck for a fitter, check your local retailers for who they use as you know they should be of good standard. As another tip (and to those who fit this) you could try ebay, I used to advertise services on there (cheap advertising) and always got a good response and you can check peoples feedback from customers.

gardnt1

chillipepper wrote:

Also

If you get stuck for a fitter, check your local retailers for who they use as you know they should be of good standard. As another tip (and to those who fit this) you could try ebay, I used to advertise services on there (cheap advertising) and always got a good response and you can check peoples feedback from customers.

Well said Chillipepper.
I advetise through Floors2go and most work now comes through recommendations. I too have used ebay now and again to advertise , although only to get responses and not to sell so as to get feedback.

Str4berr3

it costs 17/18 ponds per Sqm to just instal the flooring in a shop in london, iis this because its in london?? i should train as a carpenter or maybe a locksmith in london cos this i really think this daylight robbery!