Laminate Flooring Fitting

Peter256

I am putting down laminate flooring in a bedroom. I was working out the measurements on how many board's it would work out in each direction taking into account the gaps for expansion.
Ok so I on the starting wall I would be leaving 10 mm gap provided by spacer's and run the boards parallel with the longer span of the room. The thing is when I would make my way across to the other side of the room ( 15 boards ) where I finish, it will work out that I will have a 45/50mm gap to the wall. I know I will need 10mm of this for expansion. This leaves a very skinny piece to have to cut of the long edge of 4 boards to fill the rest of gap, making a lot of wastage.
Is there any other way that I could do this ?

tradesman

Move the wall closer!😂
Best way is to measure the sqm of the room & add 10%
" It is better to be looking at it than for it"
Shop will take back any unopened boxes. Start off with full length & see what length the end cut will be. If it is too small adjust the 1st piece to have better looking cuts & not too have the joints of the next row too close together

J.R.

cut some off the first line of boards so when finished the boards at each side of the room, which are cut, are the same width and look balanced......probably have to cut about 10cm off all of the first line of boards.

sky6

Get the center of the room and fit Boards out from the center line. Then you will end up with the same size cut on each Wall.

You'll presumably be putting either beading or skirting over the floor, so even if you do end up with a small piece, it'll be weighed down and stuck in place anyway.


That said, as above, what you do here is simply cut a small piece off the first board to avoid a tiny gap on the opposite side. (keep in mind this issue occurs with the other wall aswell that runs in the same direction as the boards, and if you need to cut a small, but long edge, it can be trickier and more frustrating to do it).

Peter256

Deleted User wrote: »

You'll presumably be putting either beading or skirting over the floor, so even if you do end up with a small piece, it'll be weighed down and stuck in place anyway.


That said, as above, what you do here is simply cut a small piece off the first board to avoid a tiny gap on the opposite side. (keep in mind this issue occurs with the other wall aswell that runs in the same direction as the boards, and if you need to cut a small, but long edge, it can be trickier and more frustrating to do it).

Yeah I have actually have decided just to go with the narrow strip on one side. It will save me having to try and cut lengths of boards for the 2 sides of the room ( the first and last line ).
I tried to practice cutting a board length yesterday with the jigsaw I purchased and it's definitely not as I thought so I think I will just use it for end cut's and purchase a sharp fine cut handsaw for full lengths. At least the last row strip won't have to have a perfect cut as the edge will be covered with the beading. And starting off my first row with boards of full width will be better for keeping the floor straight and square, as it's my first time doing laminate.

tradesman

Dont forget to lay 3 rows first then make sure you have them in a straight line and put packers between the boards & the wall to stop movement & this also keeps the line straight

listermint

Peter256 wrote: »

Yeah I have actually have decided just to go with the narrow strip on one side. It will save me having to try and cut lengths of boards for the 2 sides of the room ( the first and last line ).
I tried to practice cutting a board length yesterday with the jigsaw I purchased and it's definitely not as I thought so I think I will just use it for end cut's and purchase a sharp fine cut handsaw for full lengths. At least the last row strip won't have to have a perfect cut as the edge will be covered with the beading. And starting off my first row with boards of full width will be better for keeping the floor straight and square, as it's my first time doing laminate.

Rent a small table or skills saw. You head will be done in with a jigsaw.

Lumen

If the cut lengths are going under the skirting then they don't have to be absolutely perfect, so a good handsaw should work fine.

Power tools often just make a faster mess.

dodzy

Lumen wrote: »

If the cut lengths are going under the skirting then they don't have to be absolutely perfect, so a good handsaw should work fine.

Power tools often just make a faster mess.[/QUOTE]

If you’re laying floors regularly, a skillsaw, jigsaw, and oscillating tool are invaluable.

Lumen

dodzy wrote: »

If you’re laying floors regularly, a skillsaw, jigsaw, and oscillating tool are invaluable.

Sure. But if you're laying just one....