As we have two messy kids, planning to put down a water resitant laminate floor down on our ground floor livingroom, roughly 40m², some tricky corners, none of the walls are that square to each other either, its a U shapped room, so not a simple job.

Been told to add 10% (44m²) when ordering, plus does a decent underlay really make that much of a difference?

Can it be done in a day by myself, (will do all the prep work in advance, old flooring out, doors and skirting off, etc) or will I need to book more bodies to help and more time off?

Ta,

How old’s the house? You might have some perfectly good floorboards underneath whatever is there at the mo. Sand and varnish them, definitely cheaper and IMO better looking.

Funnily enough, I did our bathroom last night. Only 6 square metres but was enough of a faff. Like you, old house so none of the walls were square. Add to the fact that the plumber we bought the house off was a complete tool and did everything on the cheap/as quick as possible, I had to spend a lot of my time fixing the problems he’d caused.

But, its not too difficult. I bought a Stanley saw from B&Q which is specially for cutting laminate which made the job easy (even easier if you’ve got access to a mini table saw thing). Time consuming bit for me was around the door and around/under the bath. Oh, and unplumbing and replumbing the bog!

Thought it’d take 2 hours, took me 6 including removing the old stuff and fixing stuff.

Suspect a big room wouldn’t take too much longer to be honest…

Good call headfirst, but its only 15 years old… 😉

It’s pretty easy really as it’s been designed to be quick and simple to install. I’d stand fast on taking the skirting off though as I found a bit of beading on the bottom to cover the edge looked fine and saved a lot of hassle.
About 10% added sounds right and I’d second a decent underlay.
Make sure you take time to mark out a decent reference line to start from so it all remains square and a jigsaw makes life more bearable when you need to cut along the entire length of a piece as you finish off.
There’s plenty of sites about offering guidance and those little tips that make for a professional finish.

Oh, and in response to headfirst – our floors downstairs are all stripped/sanded. £200 for someone to come in and do them all in 1 day. Best money I’ve ever spent.

If you have no floorboards you could also consider buying untreated solid or engineered wood and sealing it yourself with something like Osmo hardwax oil then you can repair as and when needed – and it looks far nicer than laminate too.

DaveyBoyWonder – Member

Funnily enough, I did our bathroom last night. Only 6 square metres but was enough of a faff. Like you, old house so none of the walls were square. Add to the fact that the plumber we bought the house off was a complete tool and did everything on the cheap/as quick as possible, I had to spend a lot of my time fixing the problems he’d caused.

But, its not too difficult. I bought a Stanley saw from B&Q which is specially for cutting laminate which made the job easy (even easier if you’ve got access to a mini table saw thing). Time consuming bit for me was around the door and around/under the bath. Oh, and unplumbing and replumbing the bog!

Thought it’d take 2 hours, took me 6 including removing the old stuff and fixing stuff.

Suspect a big room wouldn’t take too much longer to be honest…

Hmmm, sounds like I might have to book extra time off work, thanks fro the saw tips DaveyBoyWonder.

Oh, and unplumbing and replumbing the bog!

Why did you need to do that?

A bit like tiling its the cuts that take time rather than the actual laying of the floor. Always helps to have an extra pair of hands so someone can cut and someone can lay.

Remember and leave a gap between the wall and the end of you boards for expansion, You cover this gap with your beading when you finish, it actually make the job a bit easier esp when your walls aren’t square as the cuts don’t have to be that precise

wear your kneepads as its murder on them otherwise.

Laying is quick but its all the fiddly cutting that takes the time. A chop saw helps speed up the easy bits but the rest is painfully slow. Bodies don’t really help as you need to cut each piece as its laid. But they would relieve your bad back! Try to keep doors on unless you know you will have to shorten the door. Skirtings can stay on as well if you use an edging strip which looks fine. And underlay is essential to allow the floor to float as it expands for the room (which reminds me schedule it so you can leave the board in the room for at least two days to acclimatise!)

BTW, what type of mask did you use when cutting the stuff?

It can be a pain the arse to fit but different makes go together better than others. With all of them a 10mm gap between the flooring and Walls needs to be kept for expansion otherwise you will have to refit it in a few months

m_f – bog had been put on top of the old laminate and it was bolted down, not screwed. So had to unplug the bog, lift it off the bolts, get rid of them, lay the floor, replumb it and then screw it down properly.

I’d go with what was said about knee pads too. Mine are wrecking today.

10mm gap? I read about that but ignored it. I’m not all that keen on the floor I laid but the missus loves it so if it all warps in a few months I’ll put it down to shoddy materials and just get someone in to put some proper tiles down 😉

SORRY The gap is even more important in a bathroom as the flooring will expand with moisture

My brother moved into a flat that had just had laminate floor put in the fairly large living room.
It was fine for about 6 weeks and then when the heating came on (and the heating from the flat below) it all expanded and he woke up to a really badly warped floor.

He contacted the seller and went a bit nuts and the bloke agreed to come round and sort it. I think he had to trim some off the whole edge & fit a bead.

I have fitted two floors; one with a mate & one with my other half’s dad. It definitely goes quicker with another pair of hands. Laying the bulk of the floor is really quick, but it’s the edges, particularly corners & doorways that slow you down. We used a jigsaw to do most of the cutting.
As above; kneepads will definitely help and make sure you start off on a good straight line; the one I did with a mate ended up with a slight gap that tracked a diagonal line across the floor from where we didn’t get it lined up perfectly to start. We thought it would all come out in the wash and wouldn’t show, but although small it was noticeable and it didn’t go away as we proceeded across the floor.

I found a bit of beading on the bottom to cover the edge looked fine

*shudder*

“You were trendy 15 years ago, you get all marked by shoes and it’s a
bu££er to clean and if you aren’t installed correctly you go all wobbly and rubbish”.

I found that fairly easy I must say.

I have a friend who put laminate down throughout the ground floor of an open plan house. A full weekend job. To celebrate they had a posh dinner for the couple of people who helped. One of the pair had the habit of rocking back on the back two legs of the chair and did it all evening as the wine flowed. At the end of the evening they looked down an saw he had burrowed a lovely hole through the laminate in the exact centre of the space, equidistant from every wall.

The next day was spent pulling half of it back up to replace the knackered panel.

I’m now of the opinion that laminate flooring reminds me too much of the TV programme Changing Rooms and cheaply modernised buy to let flats and only use it when I need a cheap, throwaway floor. If possible always try to use the better engineered flooring.

My dad and I laid 56 square metres of flooring in an L-shapred living room between us in 2 days. Wasn’t that hard and I’m a girl…

Rachel

Is really easy. Jagshemash

😀 at speaker…took me a second though!

^^^ presumably that means you ‘supervised’ whilst your dad di all the work 😉

+1 for engineered wood floor here in all seriousness if your budget can stretch.

Judging from the house we just moved into, it is exceptionally difficult. Finish is shocking – gaps big enough to fit pencils down on all sides in the main bedroom, and I feel motion sick when I walk across the spare bedroom!

I had a look at sticking down the beading properly in the conservatory (it was just lying on top near the edge) but the gap down the side is bigger than the beading, so there is nothing to stick it to unless I fill the huge gap (might explain the huge number of pens we found down there).

Needless to say we’ll be redoing all of the laminate floors soon. I’m sure you’re much better at it than the previous owners of our house though…

mrben100 – Member

+1 for engineered wood floor here in all seriousness if your budget can stretch.

Will check it out, thanks

Remember and leave a gap between the wall and the end of you boards for expansion, You cover this gap with your beading when you finish, it actually make the job a bit easier esp when your walls aren’t square as the cuts don’t have to be that precise

Far easier/better to just remove the skirting to put the floor down, and once its re-laid it hides the gap – otherwise looks chavvy.

You’ll probably need more than 10% extra, and buy the ‘push’ tool and/or proper clamps.

Easy to get wrong if you’re ham-fisted but otherwise go for it. Buy or Hire a jig saw otherwise you’ll regret it!

I have a friend who put laminate down throughout the ground floor of an open plan house. A full weekend job. To celebrate they had a posh dinner for the couple of people who helped. One of the pair had the habit of rocking back on the back two legs of the chair and did it all evening as the wine flowed. At the end of the evening they looked down an saw he had burrowed a lovely hole through the laminate in the exact centre of the space, equidistant from every wall.

For balance, in our breakfast/play/war room I put the cheapest laminate I could find down as the carpet was horrid when we moved in and I just wanted a quick fix. It’s been amazingly resilient considering the abuse it’s got. Doesn’t look any better though!

It’s very easy to do badly, basically, but some thought and planning goes a long way.

Don’t try and cut it to fit round door frames – Use an off cut to rest a bendy wood saw on, and cut horizontally into the frame, then chisel out the bits, cut the board to fit under this.
I dislike beading. It looks OK at first but goes scruffy quickly and is a pain to paint upto. It’s probably no more expensive to remove the skirting, and replace with new after laying the floor. Paint the new skirting BEFORE fittin for a crisp, professional look. (paint walls first too)
Other than the it’s a matter of getting a level floor to work on and going slowly and steadily.
I’ve done 4/5 now, the last one being wood, not laminate, and I get better every time

Personally, I hate it in large areas, especially living rooms, as they always end up looking and sounding like a 10 pin bowling alley! We just have it in the hall now.

Double post

Doors and corners take the time, worth taking the time to get them right. . Did our front room a few months back with engineered oak from b+q that was on special, much nicer to fit and much better finish than laminate. Took me a long day with some help from father in law.

And take the skirts off, it’ll look much better than using beading.

Oh and just wait until you’ve finished and the mrs buys a massive rug that covers 90% of it….

Looks nice round the edges anyway.

^ that is actually my plan in the flat. I hate laminate but proper stuff is going to be too expensive and too thick. But by the time there is a nice runner up the hallway and a rug in the living room there won’t that much on show in a massive amount. I bought the best stuff I could budget for and it’s not too bad (got it on sale).

Half the flat already has the skirting ripped off, the rest will have it ripped off before fitting the floor. No way I am using beading.

For underlay I am thinking of using the wooden board stuff instead of the foam roll stuff. It’s about the same price but should be better support.

Laminate is pretty easy, but even the good stuff will never convince anyone.
We had unfinished engineered oak put down and finished with osmo hard wax oil. Took the opportunity to replace the naff 70’s skirting with some inexpensive but infinitely superior MDF stuff which I painted before fitting. Looks brilliant now and should last years. Probably cost double what a decent laminate would have, but worth every penny.

56 square metres!? That’s the biggest lounge in the world!

+1 for engineered wood floor here in all seriousness if your budget can stretch.

It’s not as tough as laminate (I have both in my house). I didn’t find laminate too difficult to fit – I used a jig saw with a special cutting blade, and took my time. Also used thick fibre-board underlay, which seems to be effective at reducing noise. I echo the comments about cutting the door frame, and leaving an exapnsion gap. As for beading, I’d use it for a bedroom, but lift the skirtings for a living room.

not read all of the above but my advice is totake skirting board off lay laminate to within 10mm of wall and fit skirting back on top of laminate – will give the best finish.