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The methods outlined here are the same that Merritt Construction LLC uses to install laminate flooring. You can use this article in a number of different ways. The most obvious is if you are planning on installing a laminate floor in your own home. If you happen to be in the greater Indianapolis area, then you can use this article to learn about how we do things. Learning how a company you are thinking about hiring does their work is important when comparing bids between competing firms. This article will help you understand how we would install your floor if you were to hire us. If you are just looking to do the floor yourself, this should also give you a very good idea of what is involved. It is impossible for an article to cover every variable that might come up in a home improvement project, so if you ever have doubts about what you are doing stop and seek advice from a professional. This article is offered free and Merritt Construction LLC is not responsible for how you choose to use this information.

Step 1 - Prepping the old floor
The first step is to remove any old flooring or other objects in your way. Laminate flooring can be installed in almost any room of the house. Some types of laminate are not suitable for wet locations, while other types are. If you want to install laminate in a kitchen or bathroom, make sure you buy laminate meant for these locations. Manufacturers will print on the instructions were their product is suited or not suited for. Always follow the manufacturers directions over anything else. Each room of the house present it's own challenges. In kitchens you will need to remove the refrigerator, stove, and when possible the dishwasher. New flooring is not always run under the dishwasher, but you want to if possible. New flooring should always be run under the stove and refrigerator. In bathrooms you will want to pull the toilet and set it aside. New flooring should always be run under the toilet, no exceptions. In laundry rooms you will want to remove the washer and dryer. In utility rooms you will usually work around the furnace, and sometimes the water heater. Where possible it is better to run the flooring under the water heater, but not always feasible. Usually any kitchen/bathroom/utility room cabinets will stay in place and the floor will be cut around them. In new construction where the cabinets are not in yet, it is better to run the flooring under them as it is easier to install that way. In remodel situations it is not worth the effort of removing the cabinets to run the flooring underneath. Again check with the manufacturer as to where the laminate can or can not be installed!

Once the objects are cleared out of your path, you need to get the floor ready to receive the new floor. There are an almost infinite number of configurations of old flooring you might have to deal with. In all cases carpet and padding should be removed. You can normally install laminate over any other hard surface flooring as long as it is solid and straight. Again consult the manufacturers recommended installation procedures. Failure to follow their guidelines may void your warranty.

You will need to remove any quarter round or shoe molding that you might have. Removing the actual baseboards is rarely done in a remodeling situation. The new floor will be installed up to the baseboard leaving a gap, and new quarter round should be installed to cover the gap. In a new construction job, if you can install the laminate before the baseboards, then quarter round is not needed. This is an ideal situation, but removing preexisting baseboards just to eliminate having to use quarter round is rarely worth the effort. The jambs and casing of any doors will need to be undercut so that the flooring can slide underneath the jambs. You can use a hand saw to do this and it goes by many names: undercut saw, pull saw or Japanese pull saw. If you plan on doing a lot of flooring a power saw can be purchased or rented to speed things along.

The next step is to check the condition of the subfloor. You want the floor to be as straight and level as possible. Again it is outside the scope of this article to explain all the various problems that you might encounter and the many different methods of fixing them. At the vary least you will want to use a 4' level and check all over the floor, for larger rooms a 8' level or string line will help. Now is the time to check for squeaks in a wood subfloor, go around trying to find them, and drive 3" deck screws (not drywall screws, they break) into the joists. Make sure you hit the joists are it isn't going to do much.


Step 2 - Undercutting a full jamb
Undercutting door jambs is very important for a number of reasons. If you happen to be in a new construction situation were the doors jambs haven't been installed yet, then you won't have to worry about undercutting them. Simply install your floor, and then put the doors in. Undercutting is done in remodel situations were the doors are already installed. Why do we have to undercut the jambs? Well laminate flooring is a floating floor. Meaning it needs room to expand and contract all the way around. If you install laminate tight up against something it won't have room to expand, and the floor will buckle. Take a look at this picture of a door jamb.

Trying to cut flooring to go around this jamb would take quite a bit of time to scribe in and look good. This is how you would have to cut the flooring.


Unfortunately if we cut the floor tight like this it would leave no room for expansion. So we need to undercut the jambs so that the flooring can slide underneath. Even though the flooring will run under the jamb it won't be tight to anything, so it will still have room to expand. Also we don't have to be as exact with our cut, as the edge will be hidden. In order to get the correct height use a piece of flooring as a guide to rest your saw on. A power saw was used in the picture, but a hand saw would be used in the same manner.


Cut all the way through the jamb, door stop, casing, and slightly into the baseboard. Use a chisel to clean everything out.


Now we can cut a piece of flooring to go under the jamb. It should be cut so the cut edges are completely hidden under the jamb and casing, but it shouldn't be tight to anything underneath. The cut edge should still have the proper expansion gap between it and the wall. You will be able to see this expansion gap were the flooring meets the baseboard. Even though you can't see the expansion gap under the jamb, it still must be there.

 

Step 3 - Undercutting a partial jamb
If you have a door like this were another floor covering also exists, a slightly different procedure should be followed. We don't need to undercut the jamb all the way through like above, we just need to undercut the jamb up to the point the carpet is.


Review time:
You now should have a subfloor of some type that is clean, straight, and relatively level. It should be free of nails or screws sticking up, and should have no squeaks. It should be structurally sound, and secure. You should have all large objects removed from the area, any quarter round should be gone, and the door jambs and casing should be undercut. The floor should be swept, vacuumed, and ready for flooring.

Step 4 - The First Row
Installing the first row is usually done with tongue facing against the wall. Check the manufacturers instructions to be sure. You need to space out the first row the proper amount, which is usually 1/4". Getting the first row straight is very important as it will set how the rest of the floor goes. If your room is out of square you will have to scribe the first row to the wall. Once you get the first row down things will go a lot faster. For the most part each row will have a single cut at one end, and the other pieces will just click into place.


Step 5 - What if I can't click it in?
Eventually you will encounter an area where you can't click a piece in. In the first picture you can see we need to stand this piece up like in the picture to click it in. However it needs to slide under the door jamb. We can't pick it up to click and and get it under the door jamb at the same time, it's impossible. So for this scenario which you will encounter eventually you will need to trim the lip off the tongue side of the board that won't go in. Make sure to clean out all the little pieces left behind, as they will interfere with the fit. Because we removed the lip of the tongue the piece will be able to slide together very easy while laying flat, but it also won't have any strength. To stop the piece from sliding back out, we will apply glue made for laminate flooring along the whole seam, and then drive the piece in. Once the glue dries this piece will be just as strong as if we had never removed the lip from the tongue.


Step 6 - Quarter round, transitions, move everything back
All that is left is to install any transitions, quarter round, and move everything back. Again these are outside the scope of this article, but sure be pretty self explanatory.