Laying the laminate with your own hands: photo instructions, material calculation

We will show you two ways to lay laminate flooring – in whole rows and a row set one board at a time. The choice of method depends on the type of interlock for joining the boards. For most types of laminate on the market, one of two options will definitely work..

To lay the laminate with your own hands, you will need the following materials and tools:

• the substrate for the laminate (it can be different, in the presented example, a substrate made of polyethylene foam with a thickness of 2 mm is used);
• masking or ordinary tape for fixing the substrate;
• scissors for trimming the backing;
• laminate;
• jigsaw or hacksaw for wood;
• tape measure, pencil – for marking;
• chisel (or chisel) and hammer – may be needed for trimming in places where it is difficult to work with a jigsaw.

The calculation of the required amount of laminate is made according to the formula: (rounding up (Sр / SD)) / R.

Determine in which direction the laminate will be laid. The width of the wall perpendicular to the direction of installation must be divided by the width of the board. The resulting number is rounded up to the nearest whole, and multiplied by the width of the board. The resulting number is multiplied by the length of the wall along which the laminate will be laid. The resulting number is Sр (calculated area).

Sd is the area of ​​the board. To get this number, multiply the length by the width of the board.. Divide the estimated area by the area of ​​the board and round the resulting number up. Thus, you will calculate the number of boards required.

R is the number of boards in a pack. Divide the resulting number by the number of boards in a pack, and by rounding the resulting number up, you will get the required number of packs of laminate.

Advice! If you have insufficient experience in laying, do not take the amount of laminate “back to back”. Have 2-5 boards in stock in case of damage during installation.

When laying the laminate in a strict checkerboard pattern or at an angle to the wall, add 3-10% of the stock to the number of whole boards obtained. For a more accurate calculation, you can draw a layout on a sheet of paper.

Laying should be done on a flat floor, without bumps and pits, even horizontally, without a large slope and height difference. The floor must be cleaned of debris and dust. In our example, the laminate is laid on a flat wooden floor. When laying the laminate, it is necessary to leave technological gaps between the wall and the covering of 1 cm. When laying laminate with a tongue-and-groove lock or laying on a large floor area, it is necessary to use assembly wedges. When locking in a small area, mounting wedges can be omitted.

Work begins with laying the substrate – the roll is rolled out and fixed to the walls and floor with masking tape to avoid displacement during the installation phase.

The backing must be trimmed along the walls.

At the same time, the substrate should go a little on the walls, thereby filling the gap between the boards and the wall and will not allow the laminate to easily move during installation..

Let’s start laying the first row. Laying is done along the wall. The row in this case will consist of 2 boards – whole and cut.

We use a jigsaw to trim the board. We outline the cutting line with a pencil and make a cut to get a board of a given length. It should be remembered that the ends of the boards have grooves for fastening, so the cut must be done on the side that will fit against the wall, leaving the assembly groove intact.

Now you need to connect 2 boards along the end side. The connecting lock may differ for models of different manufacturers, but there is a general principle of connection – the protrusion of one board is inserted at a slight angle into the groove of the other, then the board is lowered and the lock snaps.

Top view of connection:

The first row of two boards is formed and placed in place.

Let’s start laying the second row. The first board in this row will be the board sawn off in the previous step, the cut is laid against the wall. If the length of the sawn piece is not enough, then you need to saw a new board. It is not recommended to use boards shorter than 30-40 cm. When laying, we will adhere to the staggered order of the end seams, this is what determines the size of the first board of the row.

We try on the next boards of the second row and outline the cutting line for bypassing the corner of the room.

On the same board, it is necessary to make cutouts for pipes. We outline their position with a pencil and tape measure.

We make parallel cuts for pipes using a jigsaw, and in the perpendicular direction we punch the board with a chisel. A complex-shaped board for bypassing the corner and pipes is ready.

We collect the boards of the second row into a single element using end mounts.

The row will be laid entirely. This method of installation is quite common, and is suitable for click locks and their various variations..

Consider the principle of attachment to the previous row using the example of one board.

First, we insert the board into the groove of the previous row at an angle of 30-45 degrees (the exact angle is recommended by each manufacturer, depending on the type of lock).

And then we lower it to a horizontal position. The board fits into the groove and is securely fixed.

Advice! Often in the locks of inexpensive laminate boards, you can find remnants of the board core, after cutting the lock. If they are not removed, then the lock does not snap into place and a gap remains.

Using the same principle, we insert the entire assembled row. If there are more than three boards in a row, then it is advisable to lay them together in order to ensure simultaneous and even lowering and insertion into the groove of the entire row. With enough experience, 5-6 boards are happy to be connected by one.

The second row is ready. Neat piping bypassed.

By the same principle, we lay the following rows: we select the boards of the required length for the row so that the end seams go in a checkerboard pattern (strictly or approximately – depends on your preferences), we collect the row, we connect the whole row with the previous one.

As we move, we roll out the substrate, fix it with tape and continue laying row by row.

Let’s see again how the whole row looks like – the row is inserted, but not yet dropped.

Some locking systems allow you to lay the rows in a slightly different way – one board at a time, and each of the subsequent ones is attached simultaneously to the previous row and to the end of an adjacent board in its row.

Let’s consider this method in more detail, the selected laminate allows you to use it.

We lay the first board of the row.

Insert the next board at an angle into the groove of the previous row, aligning it with the end of the first board.

We lower the board and simultaneously connect (push and snap) the end mount.

This method is more difficult in that it is necessary to clearly connect 2 locks at the same time, but with a certain skill and training, it is very convenient.

We continue laying in the most convenient way until we reach the opposite wall..

In this case, there is not enough space in the last row for the whole board, so the boards of the last row must be cut along the long side. The width of the board must be selected so that there is a small gap to the wall (about 1 cm), it will allow you to conveniently lay the last row.

We put the last row.

This completes the work on laying the laminate..

Many laminate manufacturers use their own patented lock technology, but they all share the same operating principles. For most popular laminate models, one of the described installation methods is sure to fit.