A Guide to Laying Glueless Laminate Flooring

It was time for another date night to the home repair store. I know, you envy me, I have all the romance any woman could desire. This time we stopped at the glueless laminant flooring. Hey, it looks like wood. I was impressed and told Mike that it was really neat looking. That was my first mistake. He just laid it that day and I got a lesson on laying glueless laminant flooring.

Did you know that you can lay most glueless laminate flooring over any floor surface, except wood flooring glued to concrete. In that case, you must remove the flooring. The laminate flooring floats over the sub floor so it can expand and contract easily with temperature and humidity changes. The flooring uses a tongue and groove method to connect together, so precise measurements create the best results. Here's a list of the things you'll need to lay the floor:

Pull bar

Utility knife

Tapping block

Wall spacers

Pencil

Tape measure

Power saw with carbide blade

6 foot straight edge

Hammer

Protective gear

"You have to acclimate the flooring to the room temperature. In order to do this, lay the boxes of unopened flooring in the area you will install them. They need to adjust to the temperatures of the room. Maintain a room temperature between 65 and 85 degrees F." He noted.

Hmmph. I don't even get to turn the heat up past 65, yet the wood gets BETWEEN 65 and 85 degrees.

"Make sure that the area isn't too dry or humid. This range is between 45 and 65 percent humidity. Stack the boxes no higher than three high and keep a space at least 4 inches around the stacks to allow airflow. Don't place the boxes next to heat ducts or in direct sunlight.

Then, you have to prepare the floor. Fill any low spots with floor leveling cement. Grind down and sand away any high spots. Remove all the molding except the baseboard and undercut the door frames. Use a piece of the laminate wood for your pattern and cut so that the frame is 1/4 inch higher for expansion. Test for moisture if you attach it to concrete, marble, vinyl tile, stone or ceramic. Lay plastic down for 48 hours and if you find moisture or if the cement darkens, perform a calcium chloride emissions test." He lectured.

By this time I was getting a little hungry and mentioned that to Mike, but he continued on about installing the vapor barrier. That term reminded me of burritos.

Did you know that you install the vapor barrier only if you install the flooring over concrete? Neither did I. I asked him what an underlayment was and he gave me "the look". "You always check the manufacturer's recommendation for the type of underlayment to use. Most of the time, a concrete floor requires a two in one underlayment or a Silent Step 3 in 1 run up the wall at least 2 inches. If you lay the glueless laminate flooring over wood, often the manufacturer has a specific recommendation for underlayment."

By this point my head was swimming and I still didn't know exactly what an underlayment was, except probably something that went under the flooring. .

"Measure the room and divide by the width of the planks," he said. "This gives you the number of planks across and tells you the width of the last plank, the remainder. You want the first plank the same width as the last. Add the dimension of one plank to the remainder and divide by two. This is the width of the first row and last row of planks."

"Plank steak," I thought. "That sounds good right now." I then realized he was continuing what was now a lecture on laminate flooring installation.

"Work from left to right at all times, when you lay the underlayment. Unroll the first row of underlayment against the longest wall." Did he mention rolls? "Run the planks lengthwise along the wall where you laid the underlayment. Use spacers to maintain the 1/4 inch expansion gap, particularly around cabinets and other obstacles in the room. Begin the process of laying the laminate with 4 planks."

He continued.

"Lay the first plank against the wall. Start the second row with a plank cut 1/3 its length to stagger the rows. Lock the planks together using the tongue and groove. Connect the end of the third plank to the end of the first plank and lock together. Put the fourth plank onto the end of the second and lock it into both the first and third. Continue to build on these two rows."

My eyes glazed over by this point and I began to think of the candy and beef jerky at the check out.

"Add additional rows and start with varying lengths at the end, but none less than 16 inches. Use planks from at least 3 cartons at a time for a random appearance. Cut the last row to fit. It should be approximately the same size as the first. Use a spacer to keep it 1/4 inch from the wall. Finish with trim. It's best to use the special trim tracks offered by the company that produced the plank you used to lay the glueless laminate floor."

Finally finished, we started toward the check out, then he noticed a tub surround he also recently completed. I grabbed him by the arm and ushered him away quickly, only stopping to pick up M&M's and yes, beef jerky. Don't worry about the romance in my life, the M&M's were in the Valentine Day colors.