My daughter, Ashley, and her husband, Eric, recently asked me to help them install some laminate flooring in their house. Twice, I put some laminate flooring in the house that we used to live in, so now I’m an expert with that sort of thing…LOL!
That was an interesting story. In fact, I told my daughter that the only way I would help them with that project is if they purchased the snap lock type of flooring, because I had some experience with the tongue and groove type that you have to glue together. I’ll never use that style of material again.
The glue together type of laminate flooring is what we first put in the dining room in the house we were living in at that time. I was so careful and worked so hard to pull them tightly together and I strapped them and waited for the glue to dry before moving on to the next board. No matter how careful I was, it seemed that the gaps between boards got bigger and and bigger. By the time I made it to the other end of the room, there were some easily identifiable flaws in my workmanship.
I don’t remember if it was the next Winter, or if it was a year or two later, but we had a problem with some water leakage from our roof that ran down the wall and under our flooring. The water caused the edges of the laminate to warp and buckle. (Note here – always sop up any water that gets on your laminate flooring and don’t give it time to soak in through the edges of the boards.)
We ended up having to pull up that flooring and re-do it. This time I was wiser and used the snap together type of boards. It was so much easier and looked so much better. Lessons learned!
Anyway, I dug through YouTube to find some good how to videos to get some pointers for putting down the flooring. This is partly for me to remember how to do everything and to do it correctly. It’s also for Ashley and Eric to become a little more knowledgeable of the process before we go to work on their flooring.
This video gives an overview of the process of laying laminate flooring, including a list of the tools necessary for the project.
Another video with some good prep tips.
Learn here how to tap the ends together with a tapping block.
Here are some installation tips and tricks.
That gives a pretty good overview of the process, but the best thing to do before beginning to install laminate flooring is to Read Through the Directions That Come in the Box of Flooring Material. Oh, and be sure to ask question to the service people at the store where you purchased the material.