Installing laminate flooring

[Catshrink]

Has anyone tried this? I bought some of the Costco glueless laminate flooring and I'm struggling to get going on it. The instructions are crap so I'm trying to muddle through but.... I'm feeling very dense! Any experience here?

[Stinky The Clown]

1. We installed a different brand, but it was also a glueless click lock ....

.... like yours. Here's a link to their installation page. I found their instructions pretty good. You can download their instructions here:

http://www.alloc.com/index.php?t=cat_det&id=10&sub_t=install

[Catshrink]

2. Thank you!

That was exactly what I needed. I was getting it, sort of anyway, but this answered some questions. It's looking beautiful! I can't believe it's this easy.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Our install started slow and tentative, but once we got the hang of it ...

... the rest of the job went pretty fast. We think we're gunna do a second room with it, maybe this summer.

We may also do the entirety of one of our rental houses. Its indestrucable. The kind we bought even has a 25 year water damage guarantee, That impressed us a lot and allowed us to do the first job in our kitchen.

[Catshrink]

4. Costco has another coupon on it in early July I think...

$20 for 17 sq. ft. I paid full price for this room -- it's small and I wanted to see if I could do it and I wanted to get it done before my sister came to visit. I can do it! But I may not get it finished by the time sis gets here. Oh well.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Make sure you have a circular saw / jig saw

The melamine/laminate material is almost impossible to cut without a power saw.

The Spouse & I did our daughter's room years ago, using the old glue system, and it would have been a piece of cake, except for trying to saw the pieces without power tools. We finished everything in a day and a half despite these obstacles.

I'm sure the snap and lock type of laminate is incredibly easy to work with. And it will look great. Go for it!

[Stinky The Clown]

7. You know ... this is very true ..... in fact .....

I'd recommend one of these be bought when yu buy the lminate. I add tools to my collection this way .... when I take on a project that needs one, I add the tool to the cost of the job.

This is a power miter saw. They also make what's called a cop saw that looks similar but doesn't adjust for angles. Make sure the saw is capable of cutting a plank wider than your laminate flooring planks. These are probably in the $100 to $300 range, depending on what you buy. And use a carbide tipped blade.

[eleny]

6. Just adding 2 cents

We got rid of our rugs and now have the laminate throughout our home. It's so easy to keep clean. And I feel that the house is cleaner since I can easily swipe under furniture so much easier than the wall to wall carpets. I use the pivoting dust mop on them all the time. And for deeper cleaning, I use a product that you just spritz on the floor and clean with a terry towel buffer mop.

The funny thing we noticed is that the floor is cool in summer and sort of neutral temp in winter. It's very comfortable all year round.

[Catshrink]

8. It's finished!!!

It wasn't so bad after all. I got waylaid by unexpected family events, but just finished it. I've decided to do the installation for wet areas, which means to "caulk" with silicone sealant before putting the baseboards on. I decided this because I have a cat who occasionally decides to show me he's boss.

Hey, I even cut out the area for the floor vent! I'm feeling quite impressed with myself right now. Time for a :toast:

[NMDemDist2]

9. i saw your lounge thread but where are the PICS???? congrats though

now tell me what you are doing for baseboards........

[Catshrink]

10. no pics yet...

For baseboards I'm just going with a basic plain one. It will be white like the rest of the trim. You can mail order the matching baseboards, etc., but I'm going cheaper. The house isn't worth that much!

[Catshrink]

11. I just bought 40 more cartons of it!

That's 40 x 17.1 sq ft or 684 sq ft. OMG!!!! Now I've got to put it in. God help me!!!!

[NMDemDist2]

12. I feel for ya, we're putting in about 1100sf in our new house

we're pretty much doing the whole place that isn't already tile or laminate

we start next Wednesday and it's gotta be FAST as we aren't unloading the truck until the floor is down but we did hire some help (thank heaven!)

[Catshrink]

13. Don't you need to "condition" the flooring?

The directions on this stuff say it needs to stay in the room it will be installed in for 48 hours or so to get its shrinking/expanding business done.

But dang, 1100 sq ft??? I can't imagine!

[NMDemDist2]

14. don't tell me that! ARGHHHHHH

well it ain't gonna happen

[Catshrink]

15. Your directions might be different...

This is the deal for the Costco stuff. What color did you get? I chose the lighter color "Cabin Maple." I thought with a smaller room, lighter would be better. Anything is better than what I have!

[NMDemDist2]

16. our local lumber store carries Tarkett. I get one choice, but it's fine

[Catshrink]

17. That's nice --

I guess it would be the "Cottage Oak" in the Costco brand. Hope your project goes well!

[NMDemDist2]

18. they call it buckeroo oak LOL n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Yup that's what yer s'possa do

... let it acclimate fer 48 hours

[NMDemDist2]

22. yeah I see that on Tarkett's website too

well guess we'll just have to move the funiture three (or will it be 4?) times instead of just once :cry:

[Stinky The Clown]

23. What's the climate where your moving?

Dry and hot?

The acclimation is to get the laminate floor to expand or contract to a size it will normally remain, assuimng your house is heated and air conditioned. This has more to do with humidity than temperature. If your outdoor climate and the conditions inside are pretty much the same (humidity) than you can probably (maybe) skip the acclimation step. As long as you religiously follow the manufacturer's recommendation for end clearances from fixed walls, you'll probably get away with it.

[NMDemDist2]

24. it's another desert climate

but it is monsoon so humidity is higher than usual, which for us desert rats means it's 25-30% as opposed to our usual 8-12%

and I'm buying it at the local lumber yard :shrug:

[shanti]

19. i did this last year - BY MYSELF

well, three of my four rooms. i got the "light cherry" color from lowe's. the middle room (dining room) has lots of cuts, so i called someone in to do it for me. the $500 was well worth it!

it looks ok now, but i would NOT take a job like this on again! i'm a single woman, and it was just me and my circular saw. it took me 4 days to do it. i was EXHAUSTED when i was done.

tip: use a chop saw, not a circular saw - much easier, imo. also, stock up on blades. they're pretty expensive and hard to find (especially when you run out in the middle of the job!)

the baseboards are STILL not in and it's been over a year :(

GOOD LUCK!

[Catshrink]

20. I used my Dad's scroll saw...

it's ancient and very heavy. But it did the job just fine. I painted the baseboards this morning. I can't wait to get the stuff from the spare bedroom back into the spare bedroom and out of my living room, dining room, study, porch, bedroom, etc.

It's gorgeous. I can't believe I did it myself either!

Actually, I have one more minor thing to do -- I need to nail on the last piece of molding around the door. It needs to have the hinge space routed out -- my neighbor will do it for me but he's recovering from surgery last Monday. Soon... I'm lucky to have a neighbor who knows how to do everything and is willing to advise me. Heck, he'd do it for me if I'd let him -- I told him I need to learn to do it myself. He's cool -- like an uncle to me.

[Catshrink]

25. Update on the big install

This is going slowly -- I'm taking a graduate class that meets all day and then has 3 hours of homework at night. So, the spare bedroom is finished and lookin' good -- but I'm just getting to the living room.

I decided to paint the subfloor with Kilz Odorless Oil-based to seal in the pet mistakes. Their website says it works and I visited a couple other forums that agree. I need to do this in sections so, I have the carpet up in about half the living room. I just painted half of that and I realized I've never painted with oil based pain before. I'm rolling it and it went on very easily so I'm just waiting for it to dry before I can recoat. (The landlord forum said two coats works best and hey, I'm only gonna do this once and it needs to last many many years.)

Ricky decided to walk across it so now there are little paw prints through the paint. Then Sam decided he'd try it. Luckily I am planning to recoat and that will take care of it -- appearance isn't important here. You think the smell (even though it's odorless, it smells) would keep them out of it. It's amazing that the dog has more sense.

Wonder when I'll ever see this thing finished?

[NMDemDist2]

26. wow, that's a lot on your plate! I'm impressed you've done any at all

and the primer idea is great!

but if your furbabies are gonna be walking across oil based paint better figure out a non toxic way to remove it. all I know about is mineral spirits or paint thinners, neither are good for furbabies