I'm going to show you how to lay a laminated floor.
The tools I'm going to need for this are a nailgun, some packers and wedges, a tape,
pencil, square, a string line, my safety gear, a jigsaw, a saw and a hammer and the flooring,
the underlay, and a level.
First thing you need to do is make sure the floor's nice and clean, no pits sticking up
because if there's little bits sticking up on the floor, it'll lift your floor up.
Our floor's nice and clean, the next thing you need to do is run a string line off the
wall to make sure your first run of boards is straight.
We need to measure the board to make sure that we get the string line in the right spot.
We do need a 10mm gap in between the wall and the board, that's for expansion.
When it comes to time to measure your board, you measure from this very top point on the
board to this very back point on the board.
When it falls nice and clean, we're going to put the underlay down, just offers you
a little bit more comfort when you walk over it.
Now, we've got our underlay down, we'll put out our string line and make sure we've got
a straight line for the boards.
Just before you start laying your boards, it's a good idea to use a piece of scrap timber,
whatever you can find just to keep a straight line in your doorway.
When you close your door, your boards and your carpet should end up under the middle
of the door when it's closed.
I've got my string line set out now, it's time to start laying the boards.
For this job, I need 10mm gap on all the walls.
So, I've got the packers and they'll help me keep that 10mm gap.
That's the first line of boards in.
I need to do a cut.
So, I'll cut this one in half because the joints in the boards can't be together.
You have to have them staggered.
Before you start putting your second round of boards, you make sure you get rid of the
string line.
Just before you start putting in your second row, it might make things a little bit easier
if you click the boards together before you put them down.
Every now and then, you may find you might end up with a little bit of a gap in between
two of the boards.
You can use this little baby to knock them together.
All you need to do with this is sit it over the top over the board like that and then
grab your hammer and give it a bit of a whack and that should close the gap up.
Just remember to do your half cuts so that you've got your joints staggered and you haven't
got all your joints stacked together.
I've got these boards down, now I need to put some more underlay down and we'll keep
going with the boards.
I'm going to start the next row.
Remember, you can start with your offcut from the last board.
Now, I've come up to a corner.
I'm going to have to cut the board.
So the easiest way I find to do it is to sit the board in like that and then mark your
corner with your 10mm gap and then once you've got that mark, you can sit the board like
this and then mark that way as well.
Once you've got your marks, grab your square and then square a line up here and then down
there.
That's the bit that I'm going to cut out.
That's our corner cut.
Now, we've got to move along and do a little rip.
The easiest way to do that is to use your measuring tape and measure them.
When you're measuring, you rip down, remember to leave the gap that's required for expansion.
I've cut out to go around my door jam and on with my arc, I'll just sit this in place
and then, I'll continue on through until we get to the other side.
We've not yet finished our floor, we've come across a skirt, it's the same thing as the
other walls.
You still need a 10mm gap but this time, we'll cover the gap with a piece of quad.
I've done all my measurements and I've cut my board out to go around the skirt.
Once we put it in, we need to cut the quad but we need to put a miter on it so it sits
nicely in the corner.
When you cut your miter for your quad, it's just two 45 degree angles and that should
make it sit nicely into the corner.
I've measured my skirt, I'm just going to transfer the measurement onto the quad.
When we go to cut our quads, the easiest way to do it is to cut your 45 angle first then
sit it in place and mark the length.
On your set square, you should have this here which is 45 degrees.
If you mark that onto your piece of quad, you should get a 45 degree cut on the quad.
Okay, I've cut my 45, I've set it in place and I've marked the length, we just need to
cut this one square.
I've cut my two miters and now I'm going to stick them in.
You should use a nail gun to shoot them in.
Now, the floor is done.
All we need to do is do the skirts and that's how you lay a laminated floor.