Laminate flooring installation isn't a difficult thing to do, but you need to follow a simple set of steps in order to complete the job correctly. The installation of laminate flooring always winds up wasting some, so make sure that you purchase at least 10% more square footage than you will use for the job. Then, when the flooring arrives, be sure that you unwrap it and line it up in the room where you will be installing it for at least three days before the actual installation. By allowing the flooring to sit in the rooms for awhile, it will wind up getting used to the temperature of the room. If you don't allow the flooring to acclimate to the temp and humidity it will shrink and expand, contributing to ruining the floor. Clean the sub-floor before starting the installation of the laminate floor. The sub-floor needs to be clean, so that the new floor will lay flat. Ensure that anything attached to the walls is up high enough so that the new laminate flooring can slide underneath it, and if you need to, remove anything you have to. If you are laying the laminate flooring over a concrete type sub-floor, this concrete needs to be cured before you even bring in the planks to acclimate themselves. After the sub-flooring is clean, and before starting the floor installation, lay down a vapor barrier. A vapor barrier will ensure that the flooring doesn't experience any damage from moisture, which is especially useful in homes with damp crawl areas. Read the manufacturer's installation guide for the preferred method of installation, but most vapor barrier is either overlapped or just butted up next to each other. If your door jams have molding, which is characteristic of most of them, then trim them so that your new flooring slides clean underneath. Then, you're going to want to place the manufacturer's suggested width of spacers up against the starting wall, ensuring that the first row of laminate is with the grooved side against the spacers. The spacers allow the floor to expand and contract, and will be covered by molding when finished. Now you'll want to install the rest of the laminate, row by row, ensuring that each flooring groove is tapped snugly to the tongue of each preceding piece. Also, ensure that the ends of each piece of laminate is offset 6 to 8 inches from the neighboring piece. Upon completion of the project, make sure you install the door thresholds and baseboard molding to finish the project. Todd writes construction and building How-To and Do-It-Yourself articles, as well as building databases of contractors in Washington State. For more information visit http://www.spokanevalleycontractors.com.
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