Laminate is one of the most popular andpreferred types of flooring. If you really want to, you can lay it yourself. You just need to figure out how to lay laminate flooring correctly. The existing types of material and laying patterns allow you to do everything so that the finished flooring fits into the interior of the room in the best possible way. If you follow the instructions in everything, you can lay the laminate flooring no worse than an experienced craftsman.
Laying laminate flooring diagonally visually expands the space.
What should I know before laying the laminate?
requires compliance with a number of rules, without whichthe covering is unlikely to serve as it should. Laminate flooring cannot be installed in rooms with air humidity below 40% and above 70%. The air temperature in the room should be within 15-30°C.
Laminate flooring installation technology.Before work, be sure to check the horizontality of the floor. This can be done using a building level or a ruler. The permissible deviation is 2 mm per 1 m of space. It is important that the surface on which the laminate will be laid is rigid. You cannot lay the material on creaking wooden floors or carpet. If there are significant irregularities or the wooden base has lost the necessary rigidity, you will have to additionally level the floor. If you are laying laminate with locks, you must remember that its rigid attachment to the base is unacceptable. Glue, screws, nails - you will not need this. The finish must be "floating". This requirement also determines the need to leave gaps of 1-1.5 cm around the perimeter of the room. Laminate can only be laid on a special underlay. Due to it, the sound and heat insulation properties of the floor will increase. To provide additional moisture and vapor insulation, a thin polyethylene film should be laid under the underlay. Laying laminate flooring will require the use of the following materials and tools:
Mistakes when laying laminate flooring and their consequences.
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Guide to preparing the foundation
Laminate is a material with excellentperformance characteristics. And to prevent them from deteriorating over time, you need to properly prepare the base before laying. The panels can be laid on a concrete floor, a wooden structure, floor tiles and linoleum.
Scheme of laying laminate on screed.As for concrete, the new screed can be covered only after it has completely dried, i.e. after about a month. If the laminate is to be laid on a finished screed, you must first make sure it is intact. Minor cracks and unevenness can be eliminated using a self-leveling mixture. To repair significant damage, you will have to make a new screed. The concrete base must be covered with polyethylene film. Use tape to secure the joints. The film is laid with an overlap, with an overlap on the walls. Dry screed does not require this layer. If the laminate is laid on a plank floor, it is important to make sure that they are even and that they are firmly attached to the joists. The boards must be screwed in with self-tapping screws. If the joists are poorly secured, you will have to lay a new floor. If the boards themselves are uneven, you will have to work with a scraper or a plane. It is important that the surface does not protrude anywhere. Remove all protruding elements and replace damaged boards in advance. If desired, you can level the wooden floor with plywood. Sheets of at least 6 mm thick are suitable. It is also permissible to use other sheet materials, for example, fiberboard and chipboard. However, plywood is the best option in terms of quality and cost. Before work, be sure to calculate the total thickness of the plywood, underlay and laminate panels, so that as a result it does not turn out that the doors to your room cannot open. It is for this reason that during repairs, the installation of interior doors is performed at the very end. Laminate can be laid on tiles or linoleum. The technology allows you to lay the material on any hard and flat surfaces. So if the tiles and linoleum were previously laid according to the rules, you can save time on dismantling them. It is not necessary to use a vapor barrier in such situations, the underlay will be enough. Return to the table of contents</a>
Features of different ways of laying a laminate
Types of laminate locking joints. Laminate flooring can be laid using 3 main methods of panel fastening, namely:
The adhesive bonding resembles the laying of a simpleparquet. The edges of 2 panels are covered with glue, after which they are pulled together quite tightly. This option is suitable for rooms with a heavy load, when it is necessary to create a moisture-proof and durable connection. The method is used quite rarely, because it has significant drawbacks: the greatest labor intensity, fragility and the exclusion of the possibility of disassembling the coating. The most popular is the Click lock connection. The panels are attached using the tongue and groove method at an angle of 30 °. The laminate panel is lowered and fixed with a lock. This is the most convenient, fast and modern type of fastening. Provided that the quality is good, the joints are almost invisible. As for Lock locks, they require some experience. In addition, such a connection is more demanding on the evenness of the base. If handled incorrectly, the locks are easily damaged. And they are more difficult to disassemble than Click, and assembly requires additional joining of the panels with a hammer. Return to contents</a>
What are the ways of laminate location?
In most cases, laying laminate flooringis performed parallel to sunlight, but if desired, the panels can be laid perpendicularly or diagonally. The existing schemes are shown in Fig. 1. In addition, the laying schemes are further divided into the following:
Figure 1. Methods of laminate placement.
Regardless of the exact schemepanels will be laid, each new row must be laid with an offset of the end locks. This technique allows for increased strength of the connection. The minimum permissible offset is 20 cm relative to the previous row. Return to contents</a>
Step-by-step instruction for laying the laminate with your own hands
Rules for laying insulation.First of all, thoroughly clean the base, preferably vacuum it. First, lay the polyethylene, then the underlay. Use tape to fasten the rows. It is necessary to provide a sealed and reliable surface. It is recommended to lay the underlay as needed, so you will stain it less. To lay the 1st row of laminate, insert spacer wedges between the product and the wall of the room. Instead, you can use unnecessary scraps. This is done to create an even gap along the entire length of the wall. Gaps must also be observed near pipes and other similar obstacles. If there are no gaps, the panel will change size and swell as a result of temperature deformation. Owners of wooden doors have probably encountered the effect of wood expansion when the temperature changes. With laminate, everything happens in approximately the same way - the panels decrease or increase. Inserting one laminate panel into another is done at an angle. If necessary, the locks are coated with sealant. First, the side locks are fastened, then the connection with the whole row is made. The next row of panels is laid with a shift of at least 20 cm. The maximum shift is half the length. It is best to start laying the laminate from the corner where the heating battery and pipes are installed.
rules for laying laminate near door framesand pipes. It is important to be able to make holes for pipes. They are done very simply: you drill a hole slightly larger in diameter than the pipe and make a cut at its level. After that, the panels are inserted using the standard method into the previous row. In the future, you will close the gap around the pipe using plastic trims. A very important point concerns interior doors. If they are already installed and open inward, then the material must be laid from the door. Otherwise, you will have to remove the panel from the hinges. Be sure to calculate the width of the panels. You cannot allow a narrow finishing strip to be laid near the door to the room, it will look unsightly. To secure the last row, in most cases, you have to cut the panels lengthwise on the long side. As a rule, the walls in apartments are not completely even, so be sure to take measurements at the beginning and end to prevent unsightly gaps near the baseboard. This point is especially important if you plan to install narrow wooden baseboards. The panels are attached according to a standard scheme, to make it easier to join, you can use a special Z-bracket. Finally, the skirting boards are installed. The most budget options are attached using screws and dowels. In the case of more expensive variations, special fasteners are first screwed to the wall, after which the skirting board is put on them. It is most convenient to use skirting boards with special channels for cables and wires. Even if the laminate is laid in several different rooms, there should be an expansion joint between them, which will later be hidden using a threshold.
