What is the best way to install laminate flooring? How to lay laminate flooring yourself - step by step instructions for laying

Knowing the necessary tricks and tricks, which are described in the article, you can quickly assemble and lay the laminate panels on the base, thereby mounting a new modern floor.

Of all the types of existing floor coverings, laminate is now the most popular. With proper use, it will last a long time. Laminate flooring is easy to maintain and looks great. This type of floor is also good because, with the necessary knowledge, it can be laid not only by a professional, but also by a beginner with their own hands. The panels are assembled according to the principle of the designer, “in the castle”.

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Necessary tools and materials

Materials and tools that you will need for laying laminate flooring:

a hammer;
roulette;
a block for knocking down a laminate - a boss;
jigsaw;
pieces of laminate used as expansion wedges for wall gaps;
angle-ruler;
clamp;
sound-absorbing substrate or its substitutes.

Before laying laminate flooring, the panels must be allowed to age for two days at room temperature and humidity. At the same time, laminate packs cannot be opened, they must be sealed. This is necessary so that the flooring adapts to the laying conditions.

What you need to know

Attention! Laminate is not laid in showers, bathrooms, saunas and similar rooms where there is high humidity.
The laminate is mounted in a floating way, so it is not attached to the base. Rigid fastening of boards to the base with nails, screws, glue, etc. is unacceptable.
Laminate is laid on a clean, dry, solid and even base: on chipboard, cork or plywood sheets. They must be covered with a lining. If the floor on which the laying is not too deformed, you can use the old parquet as a base,. In this case, you will avoid painstaking work on dismantling and removal, removal of elements of the old floor.
Some make underfloor heating. In this case, the laminate is laid on a base with water heating. This type of heat will not give a sharp heating of the floor, which would be highly undesirable for this type of flooring, as it can break the lock connection, which will lead to the formation of cracks.

Laying the first layer of laminate

Start laying the boards so that the light from the window is directed parallel to the seams. Otherwise, if it falls perpendicularly, the seams between the laminate flooring will be more clearly visible, and this does not look very nice.

So, the substrate is laid, you can start laying the first row of laminated parquet. Between themselves, the boards are fastened with a locking connection.

First, the first two parquets are laid, not forgetting to install spacer wedges between the wall and the laminate. The gap should be 0.7 to 15 mm. Then the laminate after laying will be able to narrow and expand without hindrance, and the wall will not interfere with it. If you do not follow this rule, then parquet floors can stand on end. Lay the laminate with the lock towards you. This will make it easier to snap the panels into place.

Second row laying

The first row is mounted, you can begin the formation of the second. Laying the laminate in half boards is considered correct. In this case, the floor pattern will look like half-brick brickwork. In addition to the aesthetic appearance, this method will help to evenly distribute the pressure between the laminate boards when narrowing and expanding the panels. It is possible to mount a new floor with a shift of 20 cm as stated in the instructions.

The panel of the second row must be brought to the panel of the first at an angle, inserted into the lock and snapped into place. At the ends, the laminate does not snap into place yet, but is “tried on”.

The second row has been created. Now you can take the boss, attach it to the edge of the second row and gently tap on it. This will help the boards of the second row to go into the panels of the first, without the formation of gaps between them. It is important not to forget to insert wedges between the laminate and the wall around the entire perimeter of the room. At the end, the ends are fixed.

How to make cuts, laying the last row

Usually you have to make cuts near the door frame and where the central heating pipes run through the floor. To make a rectangular hole, you need to determine its length and width with a tape measure and carefully cut out an extra piece using a wood saw or an electric jigsaw.

Round holes for pipes can be made with a drill. First, a small circular hole is made, and then it is expanded using the same saw or jigsaw.

To install the last board, which will adjoin the wall, use a clamp. It will allow you to easily connect this one with the previous panel.

After the laminate panels are laid, they are mounted. It is convenient to use the plinth with clips. If ventilation underlays are used, then the plinth must be positioned so that its lower part does not prevent the evaporation of the residual moisture of the screed.

Video about the installation of PVC plastic plinth:

If the laminate is laid in large layers, its total area in length or width exceeds twelve meters and is more than 120 × 150 square meters, then it is important to leave expansion joints, which should be at least 12 mm wide. Otherwise, gaps will form in the laminate web.

If there are obstacles in its path when laying the laminate, you need to cut off part of the lock, and then you should fix the panel with laminate glue.

In order for the new coating to last for a long time and not lose its original appearance, you need to properly operate it. Usually, the laminate is wiped most of all where chairs, armchairs are moved, under the legs of a sliding sofa. Therefore, it is recommended to use rubber tips on chairs, sofa legs. Swivel chairs and chairs with rubber wheels will be appropriate. Felt pads will also help, they are glued to frequently moved and moved objects.

Laminate care includes both wet and dry cleaning. It can be swept, vacuumed, washed with lukewarm water. Do not use aggressive detergents on the surface of such a floor, as this can spoil the appearance of the coating. Abrasive cleaners are also unacceptable when cleaning laminate flooring. When washing the floor, it is necessary to squeeze the rag well so that excessive moisture does not harm the material.

Externally, the laminate flooring is difficult to distinguish from the flooring of precious woods. However, the cost of laminate is an order of magnitude lower. In addition, laying laminate flooring requires significantly less labor than natural wood flooring. Also in favor of this material is its fire resistance, high resistance to external factors (it perfectly resists abrasion, temporary and permanent loads).

Compared to natural wood flooring, laminate flooring is also preferable because it does not require periodic polishing (which is necessary for parquet). Thanks to a wide range, you can choose a laminate that imitates the texture of almost any valuable tree, this material is widely used.

Types of bases for laminate

One of the disadvantages of laminate flooring is the high demands on the quality of the base, in particular, on its evenness. It is necessary that on 1m of the floor the irregularities do not exceed 2 - 3 mm.

Laminate can be laid on both concrete and wooden base. The main thing is to comply with the requirements for evenness of the coating. Self-levelling concrete can be used to even out minor unevenness on a concrete base; preparation of a wooden base is somewhat more complicated.

For proper laying of the laminate, it is necessary to chop off all the protruding parts of the boards, and the nails must be finished off so that the hat is at least flush with the floor surface. If any board sags (even slightly), it must be replaced. Otherwise, the laminate floor will begin to creak and sag after a while. If damaged logs became the cause of floor deflections, then you will need to completely re-lay the floor.

To level the wooden base, it is allowed to use sheets of plywood, fiberboard, chipboard, OSB.

Instead of completely re-laying the floor, it may be more appropriate to pour a concrete screed. True, in this case, the laying of the laminate will have to be postponed for 30 days - the time of complete drying of the concrete mixture.

Laying laminate on linoleum or tiles is also allowed, the only condition is compliance with the required evenness of the surface.

Laminate installation tools and materials

In order to properly lay the laminate you will need:

substrate, vapor barrier layer;
marking tool (ruler, tape measure, pencil);
saw with small teeth, it is better to use a jigsaw;
miter box, useful for diagonal laying of the laminate, which requires sawing the laminate at a certain angle;
a hammer. Used for joining panels;
glue, only if adhesive bonding of panels is used;
laminate;
baseboards, corners for them;
pipe linings;
threshold.

Laminate laying tools also include special kits containing a bracket for fixing the last panel, expansion wedges and a special template that ensures the safety of the interlocks when tapped with a hammer.

How to lay a laminate with your own hands + Video

The answer to the question of how to properly lay the laminate on the floor with your own hands is quite simple, for this you just need to follow the rules listed below. The whole process of laying a laminate can be divided into 2 stages:

Preparatory, includes leveling the base, cleaning it. You can even vacuum the base.
The actual laying of laminate panels, with preliminary spreading of the vapor barrier and the substrate.

It must be remembered that the floor of the laminate belongs to the category of floating floors. This means that when the room temperature changes, the coating expands and contracts, constantly moving. Therefore, the correct laying of the laminate does not provide for rigid fastening of the panels to the base. It is also important to allow the coating to move freely, for this a small gap is left near the walls (usually 10 - 15 mm).

If the laminate is laid close to the wall, then when it expands, it will swell and the lock joints will collapse.

In order to properly lay the laminate on the floor with your own hands, you must adhere to the following rules of the instructions for laying the laminate:

A vapor barrier is spread on the prepared and cleaned base, for example, a polyethylene film and a substrate. If the base is not a fresh screed, then you can get by with just one substrate.

The first row of laminate panels is laid.

It is important to choose the right way to lay the panels. If the room has a corner door, then the best solution (from an aesthetic point of view) would be diagonal laying of the laminate. True, in this case, you will have to come to terms with the increased consumption of the laminate. For a square room, up to 15% of the laminate will go to waste, but if the room is stretched out, the amount of waste will become even higher.

The lowest consumption of panels gives the classic way of laying - while the laminate is laid in the direction from the windows, along or across the light flux. The amount of waste does not exceed 5%.

With a chess or brick laying pattern, the panels of each next row are shifted relative to the previous one by ½ length (by analogy with brickwork).

Regardless of the laying method, it is necessary to shift the end connection by at least 1/3 of the panel in each subsequent row. This will give strength to the coating.

Laying the laminate starts from the corner through which the pipes pass. In order to provide the required gap between the wall and the laminate, special expansion wedges are used, although a panel trim is quite suitable instead. In the future, these same wedges are used to provide the required gap between the wall and the laminate. If there are irregularities in the lower part of the wall, then wedges of different thicknesses will have to be used.

In order for the substrate not to become clogged, it is not recommended to roll it out over the entire room at once, it is better to do this as the laminate is laid.

When using a locking connection of the “Lock” type, tapping with a hammer is necessary to ensure a snug fit of the panels to each other. If the blows fall directly on the lath of the laminate, then the interlock will be destroyed. To prevent this from happening, panel clipping is used.

The "Click" lock connection is more convenient in terms of connecting panels. The panel spike at an angle of about 30° is inserted into the groove of the horizontal panel, fixing is carried out automatically when the panel is lowered. The last panel most often should be somewhat narrower than the rest, for this it is cut in the longitudinal direction.

The final stage of the correct laying of the laminate can be considered the installation of skirting boards.

What to pay attention to when installing

When doing work, builders often forget about the level of the door. As a result, after laying the laminate, the door has to be removed from its hinges. So if the door opens inwards, it is better to start laying from it.

In order to ensure the accurate passage of the pipe through the laminate, you first need to make a hole in it, with a diameter slightly larger than the pipe, then a panel cut is made in the center of the hole. In order to give this place a complete look, a plastic stroke is used.

In order to get a really high-quality coating, it is recommended to withstand the laminate for 2 days in the room where it will be laid. Thanks to this, its dimensions will not change much in the future. Laying is allowed to be carried out at a temperature of 15 to 30 ° C and humidity in the room from 40 to 70%.

Properly laid laminate flooring is in no way inferior to a precious wood floor.

Laminate has long won the minds of consumers. This is a very profitable replacement for expensive parquet, in addition, its range is constantly expanding, thanks to new developments and designs. Today, many are interested in the order of laying this material, especially those who wish to master this technology and put it into practice. The installation of laminate floors is a fairly simple process and involves a number of simple but important operations.

Calculation

At the first stage, it is necessary to correctly calculate the optimal amount of material. To do this, you need to know the dimensions of the room, overall and determine the method of installation. Along with the traditional in-line, with each next one shifted by ½ boards, diagonal mounting is often used.

First you need to draw a plan of the room with dimensions. It is important to take into account all the corners and the mandatory laying on the threshold. Knowing the dimensions of the rooms, you can easily calculate its area by multiplying the width by the length.

By dividing the quadrature of the room by this value, you can get the optimal number of packages. The value should be rounded up.

However, in practice it is quite difficult to take into account non-business waste and possible defects during the installation process. Therefore, experts recommend increasing the volume, depending on which laminate laying scheme was chosen.

Row longitudinal + 10%.
Row transverse +15%
Diagonal +20%.

Having acquired the right amount of decorative flooring, you should take care of other consumables and tools.

Tools and materials

Laying laminate without a pre-prepared set of tools is almost impossible. Despite the fact that the connecting elements of the panels are easily assembled into a homogeneous layer, before this it is necessary to cut some of them not only in width, but also in length. It is also important to leave a gap between the decorative layer and the wall (10-15 mm), which is necessary to compensate for thermal expansion.

The minimum set for laying laminate flooring should include the following components.

Cutting tool. It is best to use a jigsaw with a wood saw. But in the absence of such, you can use a simple hacksaw for metal.
Measuring tools - level, tape measure.
Styling set. It consists of spacers, a special Z-shaped steel profile and a padding profile.

It is understood that before starting the laying process, the floor screed was prepared. It must be perfectly flat. No level drops. Even a small depression can cause a characteristic creak, and in the future - deformation of the panel below it.

Note that it is not recommended to violate the order of laying the laminate. It all starts with the fact that, according to the technology, the newly acquired material is allowed to lie down for several days in the room where it is supposed to be laid, take the proper dimensions, and get used to the temperature and humidity.

How to prepare the floor

The base under the laminate should be as flat as possible. If it is placed on a wooden floor, all loosely fixed elements should be strengthened, and, if necessary, replaced with new ones. With a concrete base, check it for horizontalness. A self-leveling screed is applied to the detected uneven areas. The concrete surface can be covered with sheets of 10 mm plywood, this allows you to increase heat saving.

A layer of waterproofing made of polyethylene film is laid on the leveled surface at a right angle to the direction of the material flooring (it is also necessary in the case of a ceramic tile base). At the same time, the minimum overlap of adjacent panels should be 20 cm. So that the film does not move, it can be fixed pointwise with adhesive tape. Next, the substrate is laid. Note that some modern substrates already include a waterproofing layer.

This intermediate layer should perform the following functions.

Prevention of moisture ingress on the inner surface of the lamellas.
Improving the soundproofing and heat-insulating properties of the coating.
Partial compensation of external mechanical impact. The surface, as it were, absorbs, then returning to its original dimensions.

If the old floor is made of linoleum, you should not remove it. It is enough to check its evenness and rigidity. Since linoleum itself already plays the role of waterproofing, it remains in this case to lay only a substrate.

Such a device of laminate floors will make it possible to independently perform the correct installation. In order to avoid the expansion of the panels, they must be placed in the room for 5-6 hours so that their temperature matches the operating temperature.

Step-by-step rules

The laying of the laminate is carried out in the direction of the light beam. In this case, the shadows from the joints of the boards are almost invisible, the lighting hides the irregularities and the appearance of the coating is preserved.
In a long narrow room, say, in a corridor, the task is different - to visually expand it as much as possible. Therefore, the panels are laid only across, regardless of the location of the light source.
Installation, as a rule, begins along the wall across the windows. Coating boards are often subject to deformation due to changes in temperature and humidity conditions in the room. Therefore, along the perimeter of the room and various structures, for example, heating pipes, a technological gap of about 8–10 mm is required. It can be provided with the help of expansion wedges, after completion of the work, the wedges are removed. In the future, the gap is closed with a plinth.
It is recommended to close the gap between the boards of adjacent rooms with the help of a profiled metal strip - “sill”, which looks like the letter “C”.

Today, however, laying without thresholds has become more popular. Of course, the absence of thresholds makes the transition between rooms much more aesthetic, but there are also probable disadvantages in this method of placement. Firstly, it is much more difficult to perform it, and secondly, it is necessary to carefully calculate the geometry of the room beforehand. The optimal area on which seamless laying is acceptable is 45–50 m 2, and the larger the area being laid, the greater the likelihood of technical complications.

Let's see why it is still recommended to leave a technical gap between rooms in any instruction. First of all, there is always the possibility of parquet swelling in the area of the doorway of one of the rooms. Further, it is far from always possible to ensure ideal evenness of the base over larger areas. And this is a prerequisite for a seamless version of the work. And yet, if during operation it becomes necessary to replace a damaged lamella, you may have to disassemble almost the entire coating in order to get to the damaged one.

Laying scheme

direct way

When placing the first row, 2-3 wedges are inserted to provide a gap between the plank and the wall. Directly connecting the strips is carried out as follows. Its end groove is coated with glue and inserted into the comb of the previous one, already installed. To press the boards located close to the wall, use a special device. The bottom of the tool has a felt pad that protects the coating from damage.

When performing work, it often becomes necessary to measure the length of the last incomplete strip of a row. In order not to measure its length each time, the whole board is applied to the previous one and a cut line is drawn on its reverse side.

At the beginning of each subsequent row, a piece of plank is laid out, which remains from the previous row, which allows you to shift the joints.
After the installation of the first two rows is completed in several places, their joints are fastened with wide adhesive tape, preventing the planks from moving.
The longitudinal edges of the planks are pressed against each other by attaching a piece of plank to them and tapping it with a rubber mallet. You can also use a wooden lath and a hammer.
Laminate cutting according to the markup is carried out using a circular saw mounted on a bed, an electric jigsaw or a hand hacksaw with fine teeth.

Today, the interlock is replacing the adhesive, leaving it for the most part for cheap low-density material. Laying laminate flooring is very fast. The laid floor can be used literally immediately. A damaged panel can be replaced. To do this, it is necessary to disassemble a part of the floor from the final fragment of the assembly to the location of the damaged one. By design, the locking system is more elastic. Compared to adhesive bonding, the adhesion of one board to another is not as rigid.

How to lay slats diagonally

In addition to this method, there is another mounting scheme - diagonal. It is more time-consuming, but for some types of interior it remains the only possible one. How to lay the laminate diagonally so that its surface is even with no gaps between the panels? Laying starts in this case from the corner of the room. In this case, the long joints of the planks are best placed in the direction of the light. Just as in the case of the direct method, expansion wedges are installed to form a technical gap.

When assembling the corners, as a rule, it is found that the rest of the panel to the wall, located at an angle of 90⁰, does not fit, and a considerable piece will have to be cut off from it. Take your time, put this panel aside for a while, it is more suitable for the opposite wall.

First, the locks are connected to the end - at a slight angle, one board is tightly inserted into the other and the lock is latched by pressing to the floor. So connect all the panels from the row.
The technique for connecting long rows is the same. True, the longer the row, the more difficult it is to snap it. The opposite edge is lifted, the panel is inserted into the lock and latched by pressing to the floor. You may need to wiggle the panel slightly until it snaps into place.

To measure the end panel of a row, proceed as follows:

1. measure the distance to the wall, including the temperature gap;

2. the size is transferred to the whole material;

3. in the same way, the distance is measured on the other side. The size is transferred to the panel.

3. Having connected the obtained points, cut the board from the wrong side.

This order of laying the laminate can be used for installation in an apartment or a private house. It is important to choose the right model, the technical parameters of which will correspond to the operational characteristics.

One of the most common and popular flooring is laminate, an example of which can be seen in the photo. In addition, its installation is a fairly simple job that you can handle on your own. Property owners often think about how to lay a laminate on the floor with their own hands, because in this case, repairs will be much cheaper than if you turn to specialists for help.

Preparation of the concrete base

Before laying the laminate, the surface must be leveled. If you carefully examine the panels, you can see that there are locks around the perimeter of the slats. With their help, they are folded into a solid coating, located on the same plane. If this recommendation is not followed, the locks will loosen, the gaps will increase, and in case of a significant deviation from the norm, the floor will be damaged.

Due to this feature of the laminate, certain requirements are imposed on the base. Although the SNiP does not contain special instructions for this material, its manufacturers advise not to exceed the maximum allowable height difference on the base surface, which can be no more than 2 millimeters per 2 square meters.

For this reason, after removing the outdated floor covering, the surface must be checked for unevenness, using a rule of 2 meters in length. It is applied to the floor in different places and directions, thereby revealing the presence of depressions and bumps.

After completing the arrangement of the screed, be sure to wait for it to dry completely. This process may take several weeks, depending on the height of the layer, the temperature and humidity in the room, and the composition of the mixture. Additional efforts to dry the floor are not recommended, because concrete cracks when it dries quickly.

For this reason, you need to let the screed dry on its own, even if it takes a long time. Experts even advise specially covering concrete with polyethylene so that moisture does not evaporate so quickly, and accordingly, the base turns out to be more reliable and durable, without microcracks, which can subsequently increase.

To check the dryness of the screed, a piece of polyethylene film measuring 1x1 meter is laid on the floor. If by morning no traces of moisture appeared on its surface, then it is completely dry, and you can proceed to the laminate flooring.

wooden floors

How to get the job done:

sheet plywood is placed on the floor surface in the direction of installation, trimming is done. The joints of the products are displaced in relation to one another according to the principle of bricklaying;
the sheets are numbered and the joints are marked with a marker, you can use a pencil;
along the marked lines, a crate is made of wooden slats. The constituent elements of the structure must be leveled horizontally. You can adjust the rails in height using glue-impregnated plywood pads (read also: "");
plywood sheets are fixed to the rails, according to the assigned numbers. Self-tapping screws are screwed at a distance of 15-20 centimeters from each other, sunk the hat;
after laying, the plywood surface is treated with a grinder so that it becomes perfectly flat.

The joints of the sheets, if desired, are treated with a special wood putty or a mixture of small sawdust with PVA glue. After that, the preparation of the base is completed, and you can start laying the planks.

As for whether it is possible to lay the laminate in the apartment with your own hands on an outdated floor covering, this can only be done if the surface is even. It is permissible to lay new material not only on laminate, but also on linoleum or parquet. The exception is carpet.

Laminate installation

Laying is often trusted to specialists. Yes, this allows you to get a good result, but the cost of the service is quite high. At the same time, this work is not so difficult that it could not be done on your own.

Instructions on how to lay the laminate yourself:

Before laying the laminate, check the floor slabs or the old floor covering for horizontality and height differences.
If there are irregularities in the base, a screed is installed or the floor is leveled with plywood, sanding or in another way.
A PVC membrane or a special polyethylene film is laid on the prepared dry base. This layer will serve as a waterproofing and protect the neighbors below from flooding. The film is laid in such a way that it captures 5 centimeters on the walls.
Waterproofing sheets are placed with an overlap of 30 centimeters, and the joints are connected with plumbing tape.
Lay the underlay. It is advisable to use the material recommended by the laminate manufacturer. But it is also acceptable to use expanded polystyrene, cork or a special combined substrate 3 mm thick.
Then you should find out the width of the room, subtract 20 millimeters and divide the resulting value by the width of one panel. If the remainder is less than 5 centimeters, then cut off both rows located near the walls. The first one is about half, and the second one is according to the free space.
Now about how to quickly lay the laminate. Installation starts from the far corner of the room. The first panel is placed in a corner, the gap with the wall is controlled by wedges 10 mm thick. The next lamella is inserted into the end face until the lock is activated. Thus, a line is completely assembled along the wall, and the second row is made, starting with a panel cut in half, directing it with a cut to the wall (in more detail: "").
Then they insert a side lock, take the next board and again put it sideways at an insignificant distance from the end of the previous element. Next, the panel is knocked out with a hammer through a block of wood and the end lock is snapped into place.
If the laminate has a “Click” system, then the first and second rows are assembled at the end, and then placed completely in the side lock and snapped into place.
When the last panel in a row has a "Lock" system, a clamp is used to tamp the part.
Thus, the entire floor covering is collected. In those places where the pipes pass, holes are cut to size in the panels. Then a part of the lamella is sawn off so that the cut line divides them in half. The places where the pipe entrance is located are covered with cuffs made of wood or plastic.

This is how the instructions look like how to lay the laminate in the apartment yourself. After the installation is completed, you can use the room. Laminate is a fairly reliable coating that retains an attractive appearance for a long time. The decorative layer of products is covered with sufficiently strong protection, which preserves the material from mechanical and other types of damage.

Nevertheless, it is recommended to handle the laminate with care. Most often, the coating is damaged by furniture, heels, sharp objects. So that the planks do not suffer, it is recommended to stick rubber or felt pads on them on the legs of tables, chairs, which will protect against the appearance of marks and dents.

All it takes to install laminate flooring in an apartment is time and patience. The work is simple, you can handle it yourself, without spending a lot of money on the services of specialists. It is only necessary to carefully level the base - this will take a lot of time, but if this work is not done, the floor covering will not be so reliable and durable. And then, according to the instructions, lay the laminate itself.

In this two-part review, we'll show you how you can install laminate flooring alone. The instructions for the laminate indicate the installation method, but it is almost always designed for two people, since the row in this case has a length of 4–5 m and will fall apart when laid by one person. We will show you an easy way, using which you can lay the laminate alone. In the second part of the review, we will discuss some of the details of this process.

Part 1

Here is our room of about 17 m² in which we will lay the laminate. The laminate is ordinary, inexpensive, class 33, has standard dimensions, its thickness is 8 mm. For installation you will need the following tools:

This set consists of a corner, a pencil, a tape measure, a clerical knife and a tool for sawing laminate - a jigsaw or saw. If there is neither one nor the other, you can use a hacksaw. The first thing to do in this case is to check the floor for large dips and bumps. The floor must be more or less even, otherwise the laminate in such places may burn through and the lock will disperse. After we have done this, we spread the substrate.

We do not line the entire substrate, we first roll out one row, lay the laminate to the edge, then roll out the next row.

Laying is done from left to right, that is, we lay out several boards, starting from the left side. We lay the first row and see what the rest is.

It is undesirable that the remainder is less than 30 cm. If the last piece is too small, then we cut the first one and make sure that such short pieces are not obtained anywhere. The laminate board has two different sides. We lay the laminate with a wide lock on ourselves:

Here is the other side of the board:

We begin to collect the first row. To our left is the first board, we raise the second, connect it, make sure that the joint matches in width, then we fasten it:

We do the same with the next board. This results in a line like this:

We retreat 8–10 mm:

Cut off this part, from which we will make several linings:

We do markup. To do this, we put the laminate sheet with a wide lock towards us, then turn it over, rest against the wall and mark about 8 mm less:

We take a square and make a mark:

We always mark and saw from the wrong side, because in this case, when sawing with a jigsaw or a circular saw, chips are obtained on the wrong side, and not on the front side. When the board falls into place, the cut will be on the far right side of us, on the left we will connect the joint.

We sawed this part, made linings from scraps. We put them on the joints:

Here we put the lining at the beginning and at the end. Then we join the extreme board.

Our laminate is even, it has no chamfer. If the laminate has chamfers - and they may even differ in color - then you need to lay it in accordance with the pattern, that is, shift the boards by half or a third, as you like. In our case, the joints are not visible, so we can neglect this.

We begin to lay out the second row. The length of the wall turned out to be such that an offset of half the board was obtained. This is rare, more often cuts are 40-50 cm long, and when such a cut remains, we start the next row with it. Here we started with a whole board, but since there is no trimming, we will start the second row with half the board.

Paste our cut:

Take the whole board, paste:

The joints look like this:

Raise the board and fasten the far edge:

Then we fasten the left edge. Everything - the laminate is connected. Here is a transverse joint, here is a longitudinal one - nothing fell out anywhere:

This is how it looks like:

Then the same on the other side.

There is such garbage on the laminate, it must be removed:

Finishing up the second row. Insert the last piece in the same way:

We put the lining, raise the board a little:

We have two rows of laminate flooring installed. We begin to lay the next row. We put the lining and put the following board:

Up close, the process looks like this:

Raise the board, insert, snap.

One movement - and that's it, the laminate is in place. Now we need to shake it, here and at the beginning:

We continue installation.

Sometimes the laminate is slightly curved, and you can’t fasten it with your hands. After we inserted this edge, the laminate protrudes a little.

In this case, we take a piece of laminate, insert it with a lock into this lock:

The cutting width must be made 20 centimeters so as not to break the edge. We insert the cut and feed it with a hammer, after which it falls into place. First, we do the edge in this way, then the middle, and in this way the board must be pierced several times along the entire length.

All this can be done alone, and in this way you can collect rows of any length, even up to 6-8 meters. You don't have to put them all in.

Part 2

In the first part of this review, we started talking about how you can lay a laminate alone and managed to lay three rows of laminate. In the second part we will continue our story. Here we will touch on some of the nuances of this process: we will talk about how to lay the laminate in the corners of the doorway and under the radiator, what needs to be done in cases where the lock is tight, and we will also demonstrate the advantages of this technology to all those who doubt it.

Laying rows of laminate

So, we continue to lay the laminate. Let's move on to the next row. In this case, the edge of the board is inserted, and there is a small gap in the middle:

To avoid this gap here, a piece of laminate must be shaken by hand:

You don't need to put in a lot of effort. Everything, the laminate is buttoned up.

Laying down the next piece.

If the board turned out to be raised, it can be drowned by shaking it with your hands:

The laminate is recessed, there are no gaps, the locks are fastened. If you find it difficult to drive in pieces of laminate with your hand, you can do this: guide a piece of laminate and knock it out with a rubber mallet.

In our case, this is not required - the laminate comes in easily.

We usually make the substrate end-to-end and glue it with adhesive tape. In this case, you don’t need to do this - the substrate is branded, here you need to get this film and cover the next row with it:

What to do with tight locks

What should be done if the lock is tight? Usually tight locks are on a thicker laminate with a thickness of 10–12 mm.

It is difficult to insert such a board by hand. To do this, we use a piece of laminate, the lock of which is joined to this edge of the board:

The length of the piece must be at least 20 cm so as not to break the edge. This is how we insert it and nail it in:

Laminate flooring in the corner of a doorway

I would like to draw attention to the following point. Here is the doorway:

The instructions for laying the laminate indicate: make a gap 10 mm wide from the wall:

So, in the corner we will also have a gap 10 mm wide:

But we never do this and we don’t advise you, because the door trim usually does not have a thickness of 10 mm, it can be 8 mm, it can be 6 mm, and if it is semicircular, then its edge generally has a thickness of 2 mm. If you make a gap of 10 mm, and you have a cashout, you get a gap here:

We always round this corner on the laminate a little, because if you cut it with a corner, you get a hole. We make a gap of 3, maximum 4 mm from the area where the cashing will be located: