How to Install Laminate Flooring for beginners

my neighbor asked if I could come over and install new floorings they did a lot of heavy lifting by removing the old carpet they're also happy that the walls were painted and all they needed to do was install the floors right then I knew this was going to be a little miserable in a perfect world I'd like to remove the baseboard because that would make the installation of the new floor much easier this is what it looked like before and here's what it looks like now in this video I'm gonna show how to install these floors but a very first time so if you're a newbie this video is for you before I take you back to the concrete floor I want to thanks today's sponsor Noor board the main reason I started making things is the fact that I enjoy working with my hands and off this job is not for everyone I personally enjoy being in the trenches and taking part of the building process seeing things come together Noor board's mission is to shed some light there's a shortage of framers in the construction industry this is an amazing opportunity that has great pay and there's no college requirement becoming a carpenter is something you can do in a short period of time knowledge is power so picking up a new skill would set you apart I learned to do what I do by trial and error but there's an easier way there's training and apprenticeship programs that you can take part in it's never too late to try something new and it's never too early to start check out become a framer comm slash DIY creators to learn more information on becoming a framer and enter for a chance to win a home depot gift card and its really cool s twing pro framing hammer now if you take the baseboard off this would allow you to run the laminate closer to the wall and eliminate the need for cord around if you don't have the tools or you're intimidated by it all you just don't have the time that's a legit reason to go at the cord around as I said this video is for complete beginners so we're gonna take you all the way back to the basics let's talk about how to measure your room and get the right amount of materials the way this room is laid out I would divide it into three different parts where I would take the measurements and then add those together and with that information you can now pick out the flooring you want you'll also need underlayment and if you're not removing the baseboard you'll also want to pick up quarter-round and to get the right amount and that all you need to do is just measure a baseboard going around the entire room and that'll tell you how much you need and finally you'll need some transition pieces to go from one floor to the next let's assume you have all the materials you need the very next thing you need to do is clean the floor this room previously had carpet and there was a few remaining nails from the texture a pry bar do a really good job of removing those with those removed I can now clean up all the debris on the floor and start off with a clean slate now let's shift our focus over to underlayment and you may have seen that there are a few different versions available at different price underlayment in general is meant to be a moisture barrier and that keeps the 11th floor dry normally you'll see a standard or premium version some of these provided hydrating for sun blocking and the more expensive brands say there are mold and mildew resistant since I'm working with concrete slab here I want to make sure I cover the entire slab with these depending on the brand you get you'll need to pick up a roll of tape to cover the scene this is the standard version and it already comes with its own tape on it so all you have to do is peel and stick the tape is only on one side so once you place the opposite side to the wall you just work your way out from there tape it to the next one and then so on [Music] after working the underlayment in place it's time to move on to the floor so choosing the direction of the floor can stump a lot of people I personally think this boy down to your taste in which you want if you carry this throughout the house then probably make more sense to just carry it right into the bedroom or if you're just doing different Lemony in different rooms you can go with the length of the room or you can go the opposite direction for this installation I'm gonna lay the floor following the longest distance in the room if I was to do this floor again my starting point would be different with the baseboard on it would have been easier to start from the door and work my way to the opposite side so let's head over to the miter saw and I'm gonna cut a few pieces that's gonna be for spacing and these are gonna be for the gap expansion and that means over time the floor is gonna change State due to temperature changes and what you don't want is the floor to buckle because it doesn't have room to expand so I'm gonna place the spacers at the starting point this way I never lose my gap when it comes to the first row I like to spend a little time there trying to prep it and get it all ready to go it's also a good idea to cut off the tongue on the first row of planks the first roll call for three planks two of those are full and one of those I need to cut that and I need to modify the trim going around the closet while it is possible to cut trim without using a oscillating tool if it's possible use an oscillating tool it's just so much easier now I have to cut in the bottom of the trim off you see that the laminate plank can slide right under I now need to cut the profile for the plank so that it can slide onto the trim but before committing today I needed to use tape so I can mark where I wanted to cut because it's really hard to see if I marked on the laminate piece itself the tape also cut down on a chip in from the laminate now that I have this all sorted out I'm gonna make sure I have the proper spacing going around at laminate flooring so let me point out how I like to go about the first three rows of the plank and then it's all repetitive from here on out for the first row I use an entire plane for the second row I went half of that and for the third row only half of the second plank and if you want to carry that consistent look all the way out you could but it may take up more planks by just trying to keep a consistent design if that's not that important to you you can utilize the last cut off plank to start the next row the way these go together is fairly simple you want to take the tongue place it in the groove at an angle and then snap down and this gets pretty repetitive until you make it to the other wall so a quick tip is anytime you're cutting the last plank in that particular row what you want to do is flip it around mark it that way and then make your cut now I like to use a cut off section from the planks and use that as a way to tighten up the joints even if they look tight I tap it a little just to make sure that everything is locked together now I've kept these joints pretty tight going the entire distance across the floor but when you get to the last roll you'll want to use what they call a pull bar to tighten that one up as I said earlier it would have been easier for me to start on this out of the room and the reason for this is the molding did not come off which would have made it easier so now I have to work almost backwards and trying to get it to go under the doorframe and that was a little challenging but keep in mind I do have a little wiggle room here with the quarter round molding which I can hide any gap issues and speaking of quarter round I'm gonna shift my attention to that now normally I'd install the transition and leave the quarter round to the end as I was doing the installation of the floor I realized two different things was happening here the two inches into the room there were different levels one was high and the other one was low my only concern there was I didn't think that the transition piece we had might have worked so I pushed that off to the end and shift my focus over to the quarter round for me to cut down on the back end for I like to cut all the pieces and laid them out before I started and I'm on I cut all the quarter round to a four to five miter which gave the cleanest look I can't think of any rear starting challenge on these so you can pretty much start anywhere and just work your way around a room you can use a nail gun or you can go nail and a hammer now I prefer to use a pin nailer it's not as strong as an 18-gauge nail gun but it leaves the smallest holes in which you can cover while you apply and caulking as you're working on the quarter on you'll find that you need to extend some of these the best way I found to approach these is cutting those out of matter as well these are very easy to cut you can cut those on the miter saw or you can also use a miter box if you really want to finish off the quarter on with a nice touch I'd say matter the ends and cap it off now that I put my undivided attention to two doors it's time to install the transitions when you have two floorings that meet up at the same height you'll want to go with a tea mode transition like this so after a trip to the store and my neighbor informed me that they didn't have any tea moding at the store I do find it to be odd but I didn't want to help the job by not having what I needed so I wanted to see if I could make some modification here at the door and I was able to make it work I druid and install the motor track and they also gave it a bit of a shim so that it's at higher than the tile and also the laminate floor after installing the metal track all I have to do now is hammer the transition piece right into the metal track there is enough tension on the metal piece to hold the transition piece down so these can be pried off if needed even though they have a nice finish on them they're not high quality products so they will come apart if you disturb it too much now I shift my focus over to the bathroom this is a situation I never been in before one I already had an existing transition here in the bathroom and what make this different is the fact that I have to cover a transition with another transition in a way I wish I had a better way to address this but for now this is it a transition please not only provide a decorative solution from one floor to the next but also provide protection to the edge of the laminate I installed a metal truck similar to the one I did at the other entry the only difference is I put the track on top of the laminate flooring for the final touches that tirana trim and also between the baseboard and the quarter round and again this is a perfect opportunity to touch up all the little nail holes there is a bigger than normal gap under this trim I'm not sure if the purpose of that was so that the carpet can go under it or not but I want to fix this by using some caulking and although I'm not fixing it in a sense of taking the issues away I'm gonna mask it by using caulking to make it look more presentable and once I'm done here all my neighbor have to do is paint the baseboard and trim or just do some touch-up work before turning this over to my neighbor all I had to do was clean up my mess and my job was done here you [Music] you

Channel: DIY Creators

Views: 10,048,877

Rating: 4.8506327 out of 5

Keywords: DIY, DIY Creators, laminate flooring, how to install laminate flooring, how to install laminate, installing laminate, installing laminate flooring, vinyl plank flooring, Installing Laminate Flooring for beginners, laminate flooring installation, flooring installation, how to lay laminate flooring, install laminate flooring, how to install flooring, how to install laminate wood flooring, laminate on concrete floor, laminate floor installation, diy laminate flooring

Id: lP7B9B7WX1E

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 07 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AJTwinky]

I enjoy fitting laminate flooring. It feels nice to slot it all together.

[u/[deleted]]

You are far and away the best of the bunch of DIYers on YouTube, right up there with Bob I Like To Make Stuff and John Heinz. Haven't moved all your stuff to Patreon, don't spend half your video shilling a product, and haven't turned into the "le random screaming guy" like John Malecki and Dave Patruto. Keep it up brah

[u/slickt0mmy]

This is awesome! Thanks for putting together such a comprehensive walkthrough. My wife and I are about to move into our first house, so I’m definitely subbing to your channel for our future diy projects :)

[u/TheMightyClem]

What's a good price per square foot for stuff like this?

[u/chadwicke619]

Question. The laminate at our new apartment is not smooth. There are thick veins running throughout the entire floor, like a piece of paper with too much glue. Is that normal? It’s the first time I’ve seen laminate up close, as we have hardwood at our permanent residence.

[u/kpag1]

I wish you were my neighbor.

[u/BizzyM]

That crack in the slab is unsettling. Even more so seeing the broken transition and bathroom tile. When redoing my house, I found similar cracks and filled them with a rubberized concrete filler.

[u/eye-corona]

This is a project I am doing next week thanks for this

[u/Vesalii]

It could be that I missed it, but I don't thi k you talked about measuring the room and dividing by the width of the boards, to check if the last row will be nice. Let's say you'll end up with a 10 cm last row, it's better to start with half width + 5 cm for example, that way your last row will be equally as wide.