So have taken advantage of the BHW sales at the DIY store and picked up some laminate flooring for the kitchen for a fairly good price.
I have some decent foam underlay, some underlay tape and some flexible joint sealant (it’s a no glue click fit type laminate). It’s going down on a suspended wooden/chipboard floor.

Whats the best method for successful laying of the floor, and what should I definately look out for? Where’s the best place to lay the first board?
I’m also tempted to lay diagonally/45 degrees to the walls – is this DIY masochism or fairly straight forward? I have my own chop saw with an angle bed so cutting the boards will be easy.

Expansion gap around the edge, 10mm? All the way round? Fill it with cork edging or leave a gap? (In which case can’t the floor theoretically slide around?
Can I get away with using my tack gun for pinning the boards down or is room to breath imperative?

I should add that im planning on removing the kitchen unit kickboards and laying just beyond them (ie not the entire square floor surface). Therefore should I think about tacking the edges of the hidden boards down?

Oh, and do I really need to acclimatise the wood in its packaging for 48hrs before opening?..

Much obliged in advance.

The best advice I was given was to get someone else to do it.

Presumably they’re supposed to be floated, so no tacking. Take off the kickboards and or skirting. Undercut door frames. The gaps will be covered.

Some boards will need cutting along the length so you’ll need a suitable saw for that too.

Try and get some random lenghts at the start of runs or you’ll end up with repeating join patterns. Unless that’s what you want…

knee pads

Lots of questions, some possible answers, I’ve lived in places with a few laminate floors and laid some, and did my research…

Laminate in the kitchen? I’ve lived two places where that’s the case, both rented, one was fine and the other had some water damage. Laminate doesn’t like getting wet – particularly in between the planks. So whatever you’ve got, make sure you have spare planks and I’d be looking to lay so you finish nearer the areas likely to get wet – easier to replace planks.

The long cuts are hardest to do well, so I think laying with them in a less obvious place is best…under your cabinets springs to mind here.

Leave an expansion gap (did you not get some spacers to use round the edge as you fit? and ideally a block to tap boards together. Angle bar thing helps the tap in the end ones too. Don’t nail the planks down unless the floor’s designed to do that, the floor will move as it expands/contracts.

You let it acclimatise to prevent problems with movement once fitted, so I’d leave it.

45 degree angle – sounds insane to me… you’ll end up with more wastage too I reckon as it’ll be harder to use off cuts for the next row etc as you’ll have to cut the angles off.

Laminate is hard cos of the covering, you might find yourself needing a spare saw blade. On your chop saw you might want to try face down cutting if face up is tearing up the top coat. Any nicks in the top coat at joins will just get worse with time.

How do you plan to make the lengthways cuts? I used a jigsaw, which is fine if you don’t need it to be that straight (hide the edges under skirting if you’re removing it, or beading).

For fitting tips, try youtube, sort of thing it’s easier to see than explain.

Yep diagonal sounds like a world pain unless you want avoid laying parallel to walls/units which are out square. Before you start work out how many planks across you will need and crucially how wide the last one you will have to cut down length ways will be. You don’t want to be cutting and fitting boards less the 2 inches wide. This may mean you also cut down the first row as well to centre the entire floor.

A customer i hadhad laminate flooring fitted on the stairs, on the steps looked lovely till i fell down the bloody things like a sheet of ice they where.

Undercut door frames using a piece of lam over the top of the underlay to get thickness, wear knee pads, and glases when cutting, its sharp stuff the plastic copating and MDF will irritate your inside your chest and arms, start from a corner cut a plank in half and but up to a fuill plank that should start you off, dont glue or tack, oh and brush and mop floor before you start and allow to dry .also remember if you ever ned access to floor for pipes cables then most of it will have to come up. Which it most probably will in a few years when the wahing mc leaks and leaves a horrible smell and that spongy feeling.

when the wahing mc leaks

Exactly what had damaged the floor in the place I rented…

Stumpyjon’s point about checking the widths is good, easiest way to be sure is just to lay a load out width-ways to check the measure.

Also open a few packs at a time and shuffle the boards, helps avoid repeating patterns etc.

Forget 45 degrees, just a pain in the arse to do. Not a fan either of laminate in a kitchen, but as you have bought it its easy enough to do. I did leave mine a day or 2 to acclimitise and never bothered removing skirting, just covered the gap with an additional edging trim, that was about 12 years ago and its still good.

Laminate is the hard plastic finish usually about 0.2mm thick on an Mdf base. This is cheap and very nasty and should be avoided at all costs.

However an engineered board is usually an approx 5mm hardwood veneer on a plywood base which is fitted a floating floor on a foam underlay with expansion joints ideally corked. There are various levels of quality.

I’m just explaining the lingo for those reading this.

Fortunately if lay sideways on i will run up and under the existing kitchen cupboards/kickboards, so I won’t need to worry about the width of the final board.
Point noted about kitchen usage. I’ll make sure to put plenty of joint sealent on boards, especially in area of WM and sink.

It’s real wood laminate, does that make any difference to fit and longevity?

Does it say it’s suitable for kitchens?

Tiles in the kitchen for me I’m afraid. And bathroom.

I fitted some Quickstep in the living room and hallway of the flat that looks pretty good. I bought some wide oak D profile to use across thresholds and screwed it down with some brass slotted screws (all slots aligned the same way) so it could be taken up easily. You can get click in place ones but the screwed down ones won’t lift up and are not aluminium with patterned PVC over the top that can get damaged easily.

I would put some DPM down first that kicks up under the units, that way if you do have a leak back against the wall you have a better chance of the water not getting up into the laminate. Put the underlay on top of this and then the laminate. You could fold over the ends of the DPM back onto the laminate and tape it down all hidden by the units.

Oscillating multi-tools are great for cutting door frames but if you only have a couple then probably not much point.

Buy a new saw to cut it. I like fitting Pergo, but it will blunt a decent saw in no time.

The number 1 don’t is don’t have laminate flooring. Kitchen or anywhere.

Dubbel post

Acclimitisation is important. sounds like you’re doing a floating floor. when its all clipped together the weight stops it moving, so dont tack down (apart from which you dont want to break the damp proofing layer).

put a DECENT underlayer in and make sure you use a knocking board to ensure everything is well fitted. Despite what you’ve been told, the click together stuff doesnt like being repeatedly clicked/unclicked.

oh and if you insist on that 45 degree lark, can you video it 😀

final words: laminate floor in kitchen is a disaster waiting to happen. if you do it, be sure you have sealed all the joints well.

Hmm. It says not suitable for bathrooms on the packaging but no mention of kitchens. I imagine I’ll be renting this place out in the next year or so therefore I don’t fancy having to replace the floor again should a tenant decide to soak it.

Maybe I’ll take the flooring back for a refund and consider vinyl or tiles. Just not convinced about timing onto a suspended floor (chip board panels I believe). Any ideas on best practice for ensuring good adhesion and no cracked tiles?
I don’t think I have clearance for adding a second level of boards prior to tiling.

*tiling onto suspended floor

Just laminate it. Unless you plan on getting the floor soaking repeatedly then you’ll be fine. It will last long enough. I had it in my old kitchen for 10+ years. Survived a washing machine change and fridge thaw just plain laminate cheap in a B&Q sale.

A chop (mitre) saw will save you alot of time / hassle. There is quite a bit of cutting. Spacer kit for expansion round edges. Knee pads! An extra pair of hands when putting together long sections is a big help. Plenty materials as there will be wastage and there might but duff lengths.

Ok. Thanks.
If i decide to crack on i may just remove the skirting and lay underneath skirting line. Surely I can use off cuts as a spacer ‘kit’?

Laying laminate flooring really is a Piece of P*ss to do, it really is not worth paying someone to do it for you. No need for a chop saw, a jigsaw is fine, you’ll never see the cut edges so no need for them to be perfectly straight or neat. Definitely better to invest the extra time to remove skirting boards rather than use trim around the edge – i’ve done it both ways and i’ll never use the trim again.

I’ve used expensive laminate boards and cheap B&Q ones and there is no difference whatsoever. The B&Q ones look just as good and so far have lasted every bit as well. I’ve recently installed some B&Q stuff that is bevelled or grooved and has a texture imprinted onto it. It really does look very convincing and causes many people to think it is real wood. Cost me less than £900 to lay it vs. £5k for real wood (engineered wood), and it doesn’t get damaged like real wood or need any maintenance. No brainer.

Now there’s an answer I liked reading 🙂

Did you lay in kitchen area? If so, any extra proofing around sink/washing machine areas?

making a basin around the floor with DPM really will help against leaks behind the units. But I guess it could trap moisture if it’s dumped directly onto the floor.

First time I laid the one in the flat we had a pipe burst over Xmas (one join the ‘plumber’ did) and I got back a few days later to find my underlay ruined (green cardboard stuff) and laminate wet. Dried it all out over a few weeks and then put down some DPM, then new green underlay and then the laminate.

Ripping off the skirting and refitting it above the laminate looks much better.

Get yourself a decent hand saw with quite fine teeth and take it steady.

If you are doing a big area like a living room or hallway then it’s worth opening up all the packs and grouping the planks into identical patterns as there will be a limited number. Makes it easier to make sure you dont have board repeating too closely.

45deg cuts will waste loads as said above and your chop saw will need to be a decent size , that cut will be quite long in normal laminate flooring boards.
To cut any edges which will be visible, stick masking tape to the face of the board and Mark your cut on that, saw, then remove the tape, the face can break out , or chip, nastily otherwise.

surely the 45 degree ends will just go on the other end as you get with straight cuts but against the opposing wall so in a square room you should be fine. Still a risk of more waste but should be doable. Trying to imagine it in my head.

Imagine harder! 😀

You just end up chucking a big triangle of waste. And it looks shite.

If you number the sides on a square clockwise 1 to 4. Then you should be able to use the off-cuts from reaching side 4 (starting from side 1 and going diagonal to side 4) when you reach side 2 and start heading to side 3.

But I guess you will end up just making lots of 45 degree cuts along side 1 and chucking those and the same at side 3 as you would need the off-cuts along side 1 but not cannot unless you re-jig it all. Could be possible with some very careful planning and the flexibility of going under units allowing cuts to be less exact.

But as you mention it will probably look shite and nothing is going to help that! 😀

Yeah, tbf, you could do that, but I hazard you’d end up with more offcuts than full boards – and that’s an awful lot of planning to get something that looks a bit shite anyway. 🙂

OP, check the little legs holding up your kitchen units – you’ll probably be able to screw them up enough to allow you to slip a full board in, then screw them back down – although if it’s click together stuff, the angle you have to insert the boards might mean this is a crap suggestion.

I cut it close when buying the flooring for 4x4m living room and 6x2m hall way at the flat. Last piece was my last full board (and the sum of off cuts including reducing the width of boards, in door ways, round the fire etc) was less than 2 boards in area with no useble bits and I cut the last board wrong. After a brief panic I shifted all the last run down and put the wrongly cut board at the start – was a “phew” moment!

Doubt you could do with a 45 deg layout!

Second call for knee pads. You’ll be crippled the next day without them. I learnt this the hard way so you don’t have to 🙂

You need to remember the boards are single sided and single edged meaning offcuts can’t be reversed.

Allow at least 10% extra area when you measure the floor area to accommodate the waste. Last job I did the client calculated a wee bit too exact – ended up having to wait 2 weeks for another pack to arrive. To be fair it was a big area “flooding continuously” through 3 rooms (including a kitchen) and 6 doorways.

I know very little about this but can give one piece of invaluable advice. A couple of years ago a colleague decided to lay his own laminate floor and used a knee board to knock the planks into place. One swift bash of the knee whilst down on all fours and he managed to trap the skin of his forearms between planks and pinned himself to the floor. Had to rip his skin to release himself.
Oh how we laughed when he regaled the tale having returned to work after several days off sick.