Laminate flooring

Besides inexpensive cost, it is also easy to install laminate. But the laying of the floor covering requires the fulfillment of its rules and regulations. Study in detail the technology of assembly of laminate flooring, you can implement it installation yourself. Some tips are given in this article.

The main differences of laminate flooring from similar with him floorings (parquet, linoleum) - is fear of water and changing of it size depending on the humidity and temperature. Rules for laying laminate flooring were made taking into account these and other its properties.

Prepare the surface.

Laminate can be laid only on a hard and flat surface. Roughness up to 2 mm at a distance of two meters is the norm. In order to reduce steps echoes of laminate flooring, firstly you must put a substrate made of cork or other absorbent material. If laying the laminate is performed on the floor with a damp (cement screed or otherwise), it is desirable to lay the screed waterproof membrane to avoid "swelling" of the unprotected side parts of the basis of particleboard or fiberboard.

Laying terms.

After taking all precautions you can start the work. Start from the far left corner of the room, gradually moving to its input. If you lay laminate flooring so that the longitudinal joints between the boards are parallel to the light that falls from the window of the room, floor will have the most accurate look. You should leave a gap around the perimeter of the covering, the value of gap should correspond 1 - 1.5 mm per meter of lined covering. Various technical cuts (for heating pipes) should also have a gap. Economical laying of laminate requires early measurements of length and width of the room. These indicators are needed to determine the length of the gap in the row of laminated plates and the width of the last plates of each row. They shall not be less than 20 cm in length and not less than 5 cm in width. Otherwise, it will have to cut the first plates.

Laying

Bulging wall locking mechanism off the first row should be cut. Firstly plates ends are mounted to each other, thus, created the first complete line of coatings. The accuracy of the location of the whole coating largely depends on its precise positioning on the floor. During the work you should use wedges to preserve the technical gaps. End joints of a laminate flooring should have chess order, this making the floor more resistant to heavy loads, and gives the floor more attractiveness. Each subsequent row of laminate you must first dock with ends, and then connect it with the main array of the floor covering. To save laminated cover, the remaining scraps of each row can be used as a starting plate of the next row, with the offset of end joints on the 20 - 40 cm.

Completion of works

After completing all works, wedges are removed and the gap near the walls hide by plinths. Plinths must be attached to the wall, not to the laminate! This rule applies to other floor elements (door stopper), which must be attached to the base of the floor and not to the laminate.

Many nuances of self  laying of laminate flooring have been omitted in this article or not described in sufficient detail. Therefore, you should not take the above tips as a guide to action.