How to Install Laminate Flooring (Tap-End Joint) Including Moisture Barrier | LL Flooring
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- How To Install Laminate Flooring (Tap end joint Method). Flooring 101 Tips to avoid problems, and things to look out for when you lay laminate flooring to make it look and hold up the best.
Many of our customers are the DIY type, or Pros themselves. Hopefully this guide will help you with installing your laminate flooring.
Before you get started, make sure you have carefully prepared your floor (concrete, wood, sheet & tile flooring, carpeting, or radiant heat) properly for smooth installation and that the subfloor requirements have been met.
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The trick with using the other board to hold them down while you tap them in saved our asses. Thank you!
I thank you very much.
I am trying to install laminate flooring for the first time.
The first line was simple.
The second row, I didn't know how to place the second board, there was no way they would match.
On the manufacturer's website, the video describes everything except the connection itself in the same line.
I've looked at dozens of tips and this is the first one that mentions leaving a gap and then embossing with the tool provided.
Once again, many thanks!"
This was really useful. My only feedback is that it would have been good if the demo included how to fit around the doors and corners.
You measure and cut
This is a great way to turn an 8 hour project into 3 days.
but safe
Thanks for this DIY video. Taping the spacers to the wall, and drawing a chalk line was what I needed. I saw a few people asking why the chalkline, in my case, the walls in the room were not precisely straight, so my first rows kept getting crooked and unlocked. The chalk line helped keep them straight.
97
Great instructor on how to do this!! I was concerned that this would be over my head, but after watching this I feel confident I can tackle this project
Great video. This guy has the patience of a very good teacher. We will start laying our floor next weekend and feel confident after watching this video.
When starting your first row (tounge facing the wall), use a table saw to cut off the tounges before installing with spacer. Otherwise, you may end up with a gap larger than the original, or new baseboard molding can cover with one piece. This eliminates the need for a shoe molding in front of your baseboard molding, thus reducing your trim material and installation expenses.
Your instruction is very good and helpful for women and not a handyman husband. thank you.
great tip on using the bridge to maintain height when tapping in the plank....
thank you for the video....
Very helpful that you gave specific tips and showed the details of installation. I really appreciate that you gave a couple of different ways to accomplish each step. Thank you!
Excellent. Couldn't be more efficient in this video instruction. Thank you very much.
you make it look so easy but I know I'll run into other issues I may give it a try in a smaller room looks so nice and I hate carpet.
I have been installing all kind of floors for over 30 years, from Carpet, Vinyl, VCT and wood When this type of flooring came out no one knew how to get a tight fit when you could not lift the wood up on a 45* angle like toe kicks in kitchens or around door jams. Finally figured it out by cutting off the locking lip bead and slipping it together with good wood glue. Never like this type of flooring to me it didn't look like real wood or sounded like real wood walking on it.
This guy is gangster. Good job homeboy
long time pro and seen about everything. But there's always something new. Thank you.
Hi Ed, chalk lines are to help keep the floor straight, whether it is a nail, glue or float installation. The lines help to ensure the rows are running straight & the floor has not gotten out of square. When you have longer runs it tends to sway or move so the lines help keep everything in check. Also, if the wall is not straight it can cause the floor to gap at the ends when the two pieces are not square with each other due to the wall being out. A chalk line can help alleviate this problem!
PMak1984 makes a good point. Need to measure the width of the room and divide by the width of one floor plank to make sure you will not end up at the last row with a plank 1/2" or 1" wide. You may need to rip the first row of planks lengthwise so that the last row is at least 2.5 - 3" wide. Other than that this video was very helpful as it showed 6mil plastic, cushioning underlay, and use of spacers without baseboards. Thanks for posting
Great video. Thanks for showing How to Install Laminate Flooring.
I think the chalk line is to get the first row started straight and the spacers keep you from pushing all your rows out of position while you are tapping the pieces into place.
this is the best described instruction i have ever seen.Thank you
One of the better videos out there. Thanx.
Great detail. I will be working on my floors soon. Thank you.
Hey GrillingNetwork, you can add additional pad under the attached cushion laminate, however we only recommend 3 products!
Bellawood Premium
Eco Silent Sound HD
6mm Cork.
These cushions are firm enough to support the locking systems of the product. Hope this helps!
Very good instructions. Thanks!
yes, beating end together breaks the locking stripe. I will probably do what you mentioned, doing whole row together.
just spent all evening doing this and it's a nightnare trying to get those ends to lock..I'll try the bridge trick now..120' down..only 900 more to go :(
Hoping you did well, got a new flooring to enjoy, and saved a lot of $.
Cheers mate for the video helps a bunch!
how do you keep the floor with out moving after you take the spacers from the walls
Excellent video Wade Thank you
thank you so much, i am going to use your video to do my project...
Very informative. Thank you.
Great video. Thanks for the help.
what happens to the moisture when applying a moisture barrier plastic? It has to go somewhere.. to the walls? or will stay down and start creating dump?? thank you for your answers
Thanks for the DIY video, it was very helpful.
Sorry guys... but this is not the most usefull. First and the most important: You can not always start using a whole width of the board. Because you can end up instaling a very, very slim pieces of boards along a oposite wall. I am talking about a width of 2 inches or even a one inch. Imagine how this is going to look.
So to avoid it - before you start your work, you need to measure a width of the room, and a width of a single board. Then divide a width of the room by the width of the board. Result will show you almost always two digits amount with a fraction. For example: 18,7 or 24,2 etc.
That is how many boards it will take to cover a width (not length!) of your room. And whatever is there after a dot (that fraction) shows what is really imortant now: It shows a width of the last piece of the board to be installed right at the wall.
Now, if you have that width being more than a half of a full width of the board (lets say you use 9 inch wide boards and now your fraction shows 5 inch, or 6 or 8....) than you can strat your floor from the full, uncut board - just like shiwn on video. But if a fraction will show 4 inch or less, and a specially like 2 or one inch, then at the end you would by forced to cut and install these non=sense long, 1-2 inch pieces along the wall. This will not look good!
To avoid that - just imagine that you adding - lets say - 3 inches in width to your last slim 2 inch line of pieces... They would be just wide enough then, right? The simplest thing now to make it happened is just take off these 3 inches from first row of boards.
Yes. Do not install a whole boards, but cut off 3 inches along of them, (all boards in first row) then install them.
The other thing is - in virtually every room there is some radiators... and they did not mentioned anything about it. But if you have some obstacles like radiators, especially a baseboards - the best way to start your floor is right there where baseboard is. Why? Because it is usually low over the floor, but very first row of boards, you simply lay on the floor. You do not need to install them at the angle, to connect it with another line of boards. Then - when forst row is there - it should stick out from under a baseboard, so now you have a full access to install next board at the angle.
Well... A MUST is to determine from wich side of the board you are able to attach a next one under angle. This is only one of two sides! Make sure taking two boards together with one flat on the floor - try to attach another one... Notice the difference between a shape of board's edges. Determine which edge is the one that you can attach next board to.
I'm writing this, to avoid situation when someone decides to cut a 1st row of boards to equal a width of starting and finishing row - and without checking - will cut off a wrong side of the boards... Waiste of time, material and tons of frustration.
Also - in few cases - a room can be pretty tricky. I mean: I did install a laminate floor in the kitchen together with a hall, dining area, lets say - an island on the side and extra litle square area where basement entrance is.
Problem here is that the floor is not a simple rectangle, but it is more like several small, different size rectangles - connected together, but in weird order.
Critical here is finding a perfect (in fact: closest to perfect) position of first row, so when we lay down next few rows and meet the corner - we omit a situation when we need to install a board into this corner - with coutout of 1, or 2 inches wide. To avoid it - we need to calculate our amount of boards needed to cover a width of the room - exactly like I described above. But then we need to calculate that fraction for EACH AND EVERY CORNER on the way, to oposite wall.
Having these on paper - we can see in which corner, or maybe at oposite wall's end - there is a worst situation: I mean if we have fractions, lets say: 0.7, 0.9, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.1 - that means we need to move the start line of our entire floor to increase those tiny widths like 0.1 and 0.2
And we can do it by cutting 2 inches off of the first row. But carefully: When we do that - our width of 0.1 board width will increase about 2 inches. Good. Same about our 0.2 of board width. What about other fractions? These I call a "good ones"? like .07 or 0.9 of a board width... Well... these will change as well! And if it is 0.9 -it unfortunately is going to "jump" to another board! Making it for sure a skinny one. In that case - the only thing we can do - is moving our planned starting line inch, two or three more - and check how wide boards it will make on each and every corner. Sometimes you need to move like this back and forth, just to find an optimal set of boards to be cut around corners. And yes: sometimes - no matter what you do - you can still have one of these spots only 2 inch wide... In that case, pick the least visible, most hidden corner and make your adjustment so this one will have a worst configuration. But other ones would look OK.
As a matter of fact, with irregular shaped rooms like this, similar issue could happen into oposite direction. So it make sense to calculate (or simply "dry" install just to see) and find out where before a corner - a board will end. It is important especially when we have a floor boards all of the same lenghth.
Sorry if my english suks. I know it is.
Anyways... I encourage to watch several different videos about panel floor installation, to get more important info and some good, usefull ideas.
The best way to keep new installation straight is to put at least three rows together, first....a few inches away from the wall. With the 3 rows locked together, the floor will be straight. Then slide it close to the desired place...measure the 'ends' distance from each front wall. Then, you may have to add or minus your spacers to keep that 'straightness against the wall (keeping in mind that a lot of pressure will be put against the wall each time a new row is added). .
ihiaama5 providing you have no notches or cut outs around anything within those three rows ... a straight shot is easy enough ... now how do I get around that with the previous problems mentioned.
OK, you drew that line than you used the spacers as guides and covered up the line. What was the line for in the first place?
Completely agree, I was thinking the same thing, I don't think you need the line
Sharon Kennedy the guy in the video was showing two methods for aligning the first row; the chalk-line was one way, and spacers was another. given that you'll be tapping on all of this, i'd say that the spacer blocks helps keep everything in place and is probably a better method.
You use the line to stay straight, in relation to the wall. Once you get the 1st row in, you just have to lock them into each other which will by default be straight...again, in relation to the wall. If you try it without the line you will wish you had it at the end.
+slowinfastout54 the spacers constantly move your best bet is to get 3 rows in and on the very ends of the boards(that will be covered by trim) drill a cople hole through the wood and the concrete drill some screws in (only hallway for a 4 in screw ) and bam your floor wont move...
mikeA1 Your floor isn't screwed in...
Doing mine in 2 weeks.
Wish info was given on floor at entry way, door frame trim, etc
Ok fairly easy. Wish me luck 😜.
I wouldn't 'beat' the ends together. That flattens the locking mechanism, and causes it to show cracks later on. Been there. Done that. It's better to put a whole row together first locking the ends together correctly. The new boards are locked together on top of the lip of the last row. Then you lift the entire row and lock it in to the last row. If you have no helper you can make wedges to hold the not yet locked in new row up at a 30 degree angle until the full row is locked together.
Hi - I had my floor installed and it looks beautiful, however I purchased the Dream Home Eco Silence underlaying and ever time I walk I hear a crinkle sound that is driving me crazy! What can I do????
He gave the reason for snapping the chalk line. Not all walls are straight enough to begin the laminate flooring.
Hi Wade,
I also don't understand the need for the chalkline. If you are using the spacer and the width of the board, how is that going to change at the other end of the room? It seems that you'd get the same result just putting down an entire row with spacers. Is it to help for when you don't want to do an entire row as you were showing? Thanks for a great DIY video, Wade!
not clear, do you leave the spacers in? or are you continually shifting the ones used on the short ends of the board and them remove the ones on the long end of the board once the room is finished? If you remove the spacers won't gaps appear over time if the connection loosens?
do you remove the spacers or do they stay there?
what's the point in snapping a chalk line, when you're taping spacers to the wall in which case the flooring will go against anyway during the install???
I sometime snap 2-3 or even 4 snap lines depending on the size of the room just to check that walls opposite to each other are going to work. I will also use this videos method, however sometimes there's a bow in the wall. In this case I do not want to follow the wall. I have to snap a second line in order to get a scribe line to cut the laminate. Then use a jig saw to cut the laminate. After your done, the wall cut you made will follow the wall and your other side will be straight. Double check that all your gaps and that your measurements were ok. And that the wall on the other side is not skewed. (Check that chalk line to that other wall before you start trimming)
Now your starting boards are straight for the next row
Richard just incase the wall in not even across. then all your laminate will be on a slant
wall may be bellied or bowed. the line gives you a straight reference point to locate those problem areas.
Richard the point of snapping a line is to keep the flooring straight, no wall is 100% straight as a string/chalk line, the blocks are supposed to keep you to your line as your beating the flooring together when you start
Richard the blocks may not all be the same width
Yeah damn it !! That's what I was missing ..lol wasted like 4 boards today ..
Oh well I guess I'll have buy another box.. He he
can you plz tell me from the start what to put down under laminate floor to voice as hardwood and protect it from moisture
Would have been nice if he had to see how the last row of boards on the opposite wall was laid down ad locked into place.
You don't even show the part where you take off the spacers. I want to see the space that is left behind when the spacers are removed. And I want to a step by step guide of you putting floor trim on top of that space between the wall and the floor board where the spacers used to be
"If you don't know how to read a tape measure..." ...then you shouldn't be doing this yourself. Or driving, or anything really..
Google it! in 30 seconds !
MrF1230n LOL!!!!! you're right
+MrF1230n If they can't read a tape measure.. then they probably couldn't figure out how to remove the plastic covering the pack of laminate boards.
+MrF1230n Men, I had the same reaction. I was like wait, what did he just said
Yannick Boucher
I have known of 3 adults that could not understand that 8/16 = 4/8 = 2/4 = 1/2 = .5 One of them worked on an Autocad station inputting the length of steel beams.. and he had a chart taped to his monitor to tell him those equivalents!
I don't see the purpose of the chalk line if your pressing the plank against the spacers and the wall.
I suppose there is a chance that the walls aren't square.
Walls are hardly ever straight
you must have missed the part where he said (and rightly so) that many, if not most, walls are NOT straight. If you follow a crooked wall on your first plank, by the time you get ten or twelve rows down it will be very noticeable that the lines are off
Ernie Simpson i think at first it seems irrelevant but remember he is giving a tutorial. Not saying, "hey watch how i do it." He is giving 2 options for the same purpose. Also something I thought about is that often times older homes are not perfectly square and having that chalk line will also help you visually see any bowing.
Ernie Simpson some walls have a bulge r even curve and you have to cut first row chalk line just helps you make sure it's straight
Great video, will help a lot if I end up flooring myself.
My whole room drops about 20cm over 6m. Is it a problem if the floating floor is on an incline?
Also my house is really old, the rooms isn't exactly square. If I get it installed rather than doing it myself can I trust the installers to do a good job?
Curious. The room you speak of which has a 20cm drop over 6m, what kind of room is this? A 20cm over 6m sounds like a very acute ramp.
Edward Bournaska
It's an ex garage, most people don't notice the slight slope unless you mention it to them.
Anywhoo I ended up getting it tiled instead.
The tilers used one of those new clip systems and it came up completely perfect.
Better tiling than the rest of the house lol.
Great video...
roofers know why you need that chalk line as a reference ... 😉
Thanks for info!!. What holds the first row?
Good video
Lumber Liquidators, best flooring retailer in the USA!
That sounds grammatically wrong, but it's not 😂
I got lost after spacers =(
That was pretty quick. Unfortunately when you're laying 20/30 or more sq ft it take a bit longer, does it? Also I am not totally convinced by the fact of connecting the long side and then the short side of the plank. If the plank groves and tongue are not smooth, it would be impossible to slide it all along and win the friction of the wood. You may even end up damaging the wall or the skirting. Finally, the vid shows how to draw the line to keep it straight, but doesn't develop the other steps.
nice thanks
Doing mine right now haha
The video doesn't show how to use the chalk line he created. And what should one do with a gap (or multiple gaps) by the wall if the wall happens to be wavy?
make sure none of those gaps are any larger than the width of your baseboard and they'll be hidden
Question: How are concrete slabs laid in America? Do they not have a damp proof course underneath the slab? What's the point of the "moisture barrier" on top of the slab?
Wood can't make direct contact with concrete or it will deteriorate at a lot faster rate. That's why the moisture barrier.
we staggered our floor but my buddy staggered a few like 5 or 6 boards only 2 or 3 " not 6" like the rest, will this be a problem ?
Any gap required for 6mil Poly Sheeting moisture barrier? If not, does it go to where drywall meets floor or even further back (in cases where baseboards were removed and there is a gap between the wall and floor)?
The first row of underlayment against the wall overlap flap is not cut off?
Hi Josh - the vapor barrier should be installed up the wall at least 1”.
Do I need to glue any on tongue and groove joints?
what is the purpose of the chalk line if you have the spacers you are butting against. I do not understand the need for the straight chalk line. . .
hey wade, is there any way we would be able to get you to lend a hand with out installations in NY or can you recommend someone. My husband and I are tryint o look for someone cost effective but everyone is expensive. We wouldnt ming doing it as long as we have someone close by to supervise
Which side up must it go?
So what happens with the sides and Conners that's has a 6 inch gap??? Can someone reply me ? Thanks
+Henry Y molding
Henry Y it's for the baseboards
Is the 6mm just a plastic sheet? Cant i just used a plastic painters dropcloth instead?
So that making a chalkline is squaring out the room?
Hey, I noticed you didn't cute the male lip going against the wall on the first row, some say do, some say don't, what are you thoughts....THANK YOU
it doesn't hurt to cut it, however, the molding/ base board typically covers it. Check the width of the molding to see how much wiggle room you have between the board and the wall.
Will there be moisture/mold problems between the concrete and the moisture barrier in a basement? Where does any moisture go at that point?
Some laminates cant be installed in a basement...go with LVP instead.
thank you sir, ill look into that.
what is the under sheeting for
can I install laminate over a 3000 sqf area? Will gluing it down avoid shifts and movement due to temperature changes?
Hi Kurt - thanks for your question! It could vary by product but Dream Home Laminates are designed for floating installation and require transitions to be used between adjoining rooms, hallways and doorways. They must also be used in the middle of rooms measuring more than 33’ in the direction of the panel length and more than 26’ in the direction of the panel width.
How do you make sure last row of planks are not less then two inches? How do you plan ahead and make first row same width as last? And do you have to do same for length?
What happened to the concept of starting in the middle of the room, like with hardwood flooring installation? Not all walls are square. Might have a surprise when you get to the opposite wall. No adhesive; no nails? I'm thinking of using this in a camper, but I cringe at the thought of the Masonite core.
A+
Umm How about I just hire Lumber Liquidators....
nice, no glue?
+Eudaimonia cat A "floating floor" does not use glue/nails... or any other methos of attaching the floor to the subfloor. This is why it is referred to as a "floating floor" The locking mechanism of the floor is what keeps it from needing any type of adhesion to the subfloor.
Sure would have been helpful that he showed how to get the butt joints together when you have to cut the piece to fit
what is the music in the background
thank you
and happy 2016
you don't need to nail them down?
You're thinking of hardwood. And you can't nail hardwood into concrete.
if you dont have a tape or know how to read a tape dont do your own laminate floor!!
Tapping the laminate together when it is not on a angle it will void the warranty and cause gapping later on. If you do tap a piece together a wood glue can be used to keep the manufacturer warranty
The "extra" Moisture barrier is pointless if you don't run up behind the base 2" for any moisture to disperse away from the laminate. DO NOT put spacers behind the laminate until the 1st 3 rows are complete because any variance in the wall will cause the laminate to pull apart
that str8 line instruction was horrid. if the wall isn't square like my house , you are DOoM i tell you dooooomed. you cant measure off a wall unless you know it's square.
overlapping the underlayment seems like a bad idea to me, i thought it was just the tape that was overlapping at first but it clearly looks like the actual material is overlapping...won't that cause an uneven floor?
Prfffttt
Thanks for watching!
Very good and helpful indeed. Thank you!
Okay how do you fix any unlevels in the floor ?
+Franklin Vaquerano sanding, leveling compound, depends on the type of subfloor and how uneven it is
have to use thinset concrete if you have an uneven floor
do you mean because floor is unleveled? Wouldn't that have been something that you had to consider before laying the wood? Either you level the floor or don't dare to put wood in because they won't snap in, if they do, you got bubbles under, and you'll see that the new flooring does not feel or look right.