The installation of laminate flooring is somewhat easier than marble, vinyl, and other hardwood tiles because there is no need to use adhesive material, mortar, or grout. But for beginners, this DIY project will be challenging and requires precise skills in taking measurements, cutting, and perfect tile fixing. In this article, Dubai Vinyl Flooring has elaborated on the complete procedure in multiple steps for installing laminate flooring. If you’re going to start your DIY project for this floor installation, you must implement all of our essential steps to get exceptional results.
Laminate Flooring Installation: A Step-By-Step Guide
Laminate flooring is crafted with compact layers of durable and long-lasting materials such as hardwood, resin, melamine, fiberboard, or plastic. Like other hardwood floorings, these are also manufactured with four compact layers: backing, core, decor, and wear layer.
Before choosing the right laminate tile flooring in Dubai, you should overview multiple essential factors such as wear layer, thickness, width, texture, finish type, abrasion criteria, and underlayment. Furthermore, you can also ensure wear and tear resistance and water insulation from the supplier to avoid any inconvenience after installation.
Tools That You Will Require To Install Laminate Flooring
Other than Laminate Floor
- Measuring Tape
- Utility Knife
- Hammer
- Marker/ Pencil
- Circular Saw/Jigsaw
- Pull Bar/Taping Block
- Wood Spacers
- Underlayment and Tape
Step 1: Calibrate Environmental Conditions
Before installing this flooring, you need to calibrate the environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity. Try to place all packages of laminate tiles or planks in the room 48 hours before starting the installation process. This time allows the strips to adjust their temperature and humidity level to the room’s environmental conditions. By implementing this practice, you can surely reduce the chances of tile expansion or shrinkage after installation.
Step 2: Prepare The Subfloor
This step includes the preparation of the subfloor to make the laying surface clean and leveled. You can use a microfiber cloth, a vacuum, or a dry mop to wipe the dust particles from the surface. However, if you find any dents or dips on the floor surface, fill them with reliable compounds or fillers. After cleaning the flooring, leave the floor surface open for some time to make it completely dry. In addition, if you install it in a damp place with high humidity, you can also place the moisture barrier on the floor surface.
Step 3: Test the flooring layout
Now, you can choose any laying pattern to start fixing tiles on the prepared subfloor surface. After finalizing the desired pattern, try to test the layout by placing some tiles on the floor side by side. While testing the flooring layout, don’t lock the joints because you are going to place tiles for just testing. If your room has a large surface area, you should take precise room measurements before installation to get a perfect dimensional approach. In the case of small or medium-sized rooms, you can fix tiles in rows without any cutting or measurements.
Step 4: Install The Underlayment>
This step has a significant role in the maintenance of laminate flooring, so don’t avoid it before installation. For enhanced foot comfort and flexibility, you can install a wide range of underlayment materials, such as thin foam or plastic layers. Besides foot comfort, placing padding materials also ensures unique sound absorption and thermal and water insulation. To place the padding material precisely, cut the padding material with a utility knife and tape the joints.
Read Also: how to repair laminate floors
Step 5: Begin the First Row Of Planks
After ensuring all prerequisites are met, you can now start fixing planks in the first row from any side. If your wall bottoms are covered with baseboards, remove them to avoid irritation in the installation process. In some cases, you need to cut the tongues from boards by using a circular or jigsaw. While laying the first row of laminate planks, when you reach the other end, you need a tile of a specific length. Take the total available length by utilizing the measuring tape or scale.
Read also: What Are the Benefits of Laminate Flooring?
Step 6: Install The Wooden Spacers
After placing the first row on the floor, you should also apply the L-shaped wooden spacers between the planks of the first row and the wall surface to create a ¼-⅜ inch space. The main purpose of using these spacers is to leave an appropriate space for laminate flooring expansion. However, this space will be covered by fixing the baseboards to the wall after completing installation. Ready-made spacers of multiple sizes are also available, but you can make them with little effort.
Step 7: Plan The Next Rows
In this step, we’re going to install the remaining rows with the same techniques that we applied in the installation of the first row. However, the tongue and groove joining technique is different; you will need to fix one laminate strip at an angle of 45 degrees with an adjacent strip. While installing the next rows, make sure that there is no seam or gap between adjacent rows. Before starting the second row, place a spacer at the starting point for expansion purposes. At the end of each row, you need to fix a cut-off piece of laminate strip due to its variable length.
Step 9: Install The Last Row
For the installation of the last row, you should rip the laminate tiles to adjust them against the wall. To rip the tiles, you can utilize the jigsaw or circular saw and install them by implementing the tongue and groove technique. After completing all the aforementioned steps, you need to do some essential things: reinstall the baseboards and remove all the fixed spacers. By doing this, all the gaps on the floor surface will be removed.
Pro Tips For Cutting Laminate Tiles
Cutting laminate hard floors requires precise skills. Please take a look at some of the tips our experts mentioned.
- These tiles are usually fragile, and you need to cut them carefully to avoid breakage.
- To cut these laminate strips, you should always prefer the table saw due to its plain and holding surface.
- In addition, a table saw provides a balanced platform for holding and precise cutting of long strips with little effort.
- However, you can also use handsaws, jigsaws, or circular saws to cut the laminate square tiles in your DIY installation project.
- Another cutting blade is highly suitable if you want to prevent chipping on the laminate tile top surface.
- For custom cutting, such as curves or notches, you should utilize the jigsaw.
Wrapping Up!
To sum up this instructive article, we can say that the installation of laminate flooring requires accurate knowledge and skills in each step. For the DIY installation project, Dubai Vinyl Flooring has demonstrated the entire procedure in a step-by-step guide. Moreover, we have also tried to craft a list of essential items that you will need to initiate your DIY installation project. After reviewing the complete article, you will surely be able to install laminate flooring on your own.
