How To Lay Down Laminate Hardwood Floor

If you are installing the flooring below grade or in a room like a basement with high humidity or moisture lay down a vapor barrier before you install the flooring.

How to lay down laminate hardwood floor.

Lay a loose plank of your new flooring upside down against the door casing over a piece of the underlayment and saw off the bottom of the casing. Lay out a box of hardwood boards ahead of the installation to visualize lengths wood grain and colors of the boards. Next cut strips of underlayment to size and lay the strips down across the exposed floor. When laying out the boards keep in mind.

You ll also want to tear up any carpet in the room and remove the leftover tack strips. After the first few rows have been installed drill pilot holes down into the tongue of each board and hand nail the rolls until there is enough clearance for the pneumatic nail gun. To lay laminate flooring first clear out any furniture in the room you ll be laying the floor in. They should acclimate for at least 48 hours.

Next rotate down until the joints lock image 1. How to lay out a hardwood floor in an l shaped room. Used when installing solid hardwood nail down installation is chosen due to how quickly and cost effectively it can be done. For the next plank join the short end of the plank first image 2.

Floating hardwood floor overview illustration by gregory nemec. You will see a gap on the long side joints when the plank is rotated down. If you have l. This will allow them to acclimate to the room s temperature and humidity.

Raise the outside edge of the plank upward approximately 1. Keep this angle as you push the plank in until the laminate edges meet. Fill any low spots in the underlayment greater than 3 8 inch with floor leveling compound. Engineered flooring goes down over a thin foam sheet which provides cushioning and sound dampening.

Lay out the unopened boxes of laminate planks in the room. The planks glue together to create a floor that floats moves freely as a unit. Here s how to install flooring using the nail down method.