How to put a laminate?

Laminate is a popular floor covering today, which is characterized by its simple installation and high performance. The process of laying the laminate involves the preparation of the substrate, the laying of a layer of insulation material and the actual installation of the coating. In order to understand how to properly put a laminate, you need to study a number of extremely important nuances. Let's understand together.

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Requirements for laying laminate

Laminate is a pretty whimsical version of the floor covering, if it comes to installing it:

• The room temperature should be constant or at least without strong drops( the optimal range is 15-30degrees), and humidity should not be above 70 percent.

Important! Compliance with these conditions is necessary to ensure that the coating is not deformed.

• It is also not recommended to allow the presence of drafts or to include heating devices during laying.
• The maximum allowable height difference for the base on which the laminate will be laid is 2 mm per meter. If the floor is more uneven, then it is necessary to align it. This process is different for each of the gender options.

Important! If you put the laminate on an uneven floor, it will lead to its premature failure - try to avoid it.

• In addition, it is not possible to cover the cover over the electrical system of warm floors. This can lead to drying and deformation of the panels. But if you really need to have under the floor covering the heating system, you can use the hydraulic option. The hydraulic system of warm floors will evenly distribute heat and will not overheat the coating.

Important! It must be remembered that there should be at least 3 cm distance between the heating system elements and the lower boundary of the laminate.

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Materials and tools

The process of self-correct laying of the laminate is quite simple: an insulating layer is laid on the pre-leveled base,laminate flooring.

Important! If laying is carried out on a concrete foundation, an additional waterproofing layer may be required.

For installation you will need the following:

• Laminate.
• Primer for removing uneven floors.
• Building glue, if you plan to install glueing.
• Foamed polyethylene or other type of substrate.
• Skirting boards, and also fastenings for them.
• Wedges for creating deformation gaps.

Important! If you are going to lay the laminate floor with minimal financial costs, you can use pieces of plasterboard or wooden pegs as spacers to create deformation gaps.

In addition to the above materials, you will also need a set of the following tools:

• Roulette and building corner.
• Marker or pencil.
• Electric jigsaw, hacksaw or construction knife.
• Wooden bar.
• Hammer.

Important! After all of the above is prepared, the laminate must be placed for several days in a room where it will be laid. This is done to ensure that the humidity and temperature of the materials are in line with those in the room, otherwise - deformation of the panels is possible.

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Floor leveling for laminate

Probably, many people ask whether it is possible to lay laminate floor by hand on an uneven floor. You can do this only if the difference in height is not more than 2 mm per meter. In the event that the difference is greater, the laminate panels may not easily fit or deform during further use.

Important! Furniture, which will be installed on an uneven floor, may be unsteady, it may not be closed doors, which will cause inconvenience.

So, the primary task of laying a laminate on an uneven floor will be its alignment. For each type of base, there is a special way:

• The newly installed cement screed is preferably primed with special building mixes. For this purpose, Ceresite-17 or Ceresite-15 may act.

Important! This primer not only can level the base, but also will not give it dust, it will prevent an unpleasant creaking of the floor under the laminate.

• If you want to know how to level the floors without screed, then this is possible provided the sand-cement mixture is used. With its help, the concrete floor is leveled, cracks and grooves are poured. For better alignment, all openings in the base coat should be expanded. In the event that the irregularities are too large, a special self-leveling mixture can be used which, after solidification, needs to be ground.
• To lay a laminate on an uneven floor from wooden boards, it is necessary to disassemble the old covering, eliminating and replacing all the failed parts. Also, align with plywood sheets.

Important! Please note that this method will significantly raise the level of the floor. Therefore, with a small ceiling height, this method is undesirable.

• If a plywood or board cover acts as the basis of the floor, the uneven irregularities can simply be cut using a grinder. Before this, it is necessary to deepen the fasteners' hats.

Important! After the base of the floor under the laying of the laminate becomes smooth, you can start the installation of the substrate.

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Substrate for

laminate A substrate is a must if you use floating technology for laying a laminate.

Important! There are models of laminate with an already glued substrate to the panels. Laying such a coating is much faster and easier than other types, but it is more expensive.

Substrate functions

Substrate under the laminate is necessary in order to ensure the following qualities:

• Moisture insulation - the basis of any kind of laminate is pressed paper, which means that the coating is sensitive to moisture, because of which the panels are able to swell and deform. It is especially important to make a moisture barrier if you lay a laminate on top of a concrete floor.
• Noise insulation - if not cover the substrate, a wooden or concrete covering under the laminate can be unpleasantly creaking.
• Thermal insulation - the substrate layer prevents the cold from the cement or concrete floor from influencing the temperature of the laminate. If you use a system of warm floors and are wondering what to put under the laminate so that the quality of heating does not decrease, for this there are special versions of substrates that conduct heat well.
• Aligning small defects - remember that the substrate can mask only small irregularities. To eliminate the more serious differences in altitude, there are the above-described methods.

Types of substrate

There are several popular types of substrate, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Cork panels:

• Environmentally friendly and safe for health. They are made of pressed oak bark.
• The plug perfectly hides minor defects, boasts a high level of heat and sound insulation, as well as a long service life.

Important! From the disadvantages of such a substrate can be identified that it does not tolerate moisture and is quite expensive.

Polyethylene foam:

• Very simple in operation, and also it very well resists to influence of aggressive chemical substances, its surface does not reproduce fungi and bacteria.
• Another advantage of this material is its increased moisture resistance, therefore it is recommended to make such a substrate in rooms with a high humidity level.
• In addition, foam polyethylene is easy enough.

Important! There are also disadvantages - this is short-lived. It quickly loses its shape and working properties, so it is necessary to be prepared for the fact that such a substrate will have to be changed frequently.

Styrofoam

Optimal variant of the substrate, which combines a relatively low price, durability and good performance:

• , it responds well to the system of warm floors;
• is easy to install;
• is able to mask small defects in the base.

Important! The disadvantage of this material is that over time, panels from it can lose shape.

Pressed needles

Recently, a rather popular type of substrate, as it well passes air, is environmentally friendly, but thicker than other substrates, and its price is much higher.

Important! If you decide to use coniferous slabs as a substrate, then you need to lay them diagonally.

How to properly lay the substrate?

Before starting to lay the substrate, it is necessary to thoroughly study all the nuances, only in this way you will be able to put the laminate correctly:

• To lay the substrate under the laminate correctly, if a freshly installed concrete screed is installed, a thin layer of polyethylene should be placed on the floor before installation.
• Any kind of base layer must be thoroughly cleaned from any debris. To do this, it is better to use a vacuum cleaner, and not a wet rag, because the foundation must necessarily be dry.
• The selected material can be cut using a knife or conventional scissors. In the process of calculating the dimensions of the substrate, take into account the overlap on the walls, which in the future will be covered with a skirting board.
• You can not lay several layers of the substrate in order to compensate for floor defects. If the selected material is small in order to make the base layer even, it means that you have poorly leveled it.
• The backing sheets should be laid butt-end, not overlapped. If you do not want the material in the process of operation to shift, you can glue it to the floor with a double-sided tape.

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Laminate laying directly

In principle, it does not matter how to lay the laminate with your own hands - either along or across. The right way is considered to be when:

• The laying begins with the installation of the first panel in the corner of the room near the window.
• Between the wall and this panel, the wedges should be installed in order to form a deformation gap.
• Then the next panel is attached to the first panel and so on until the whole row is executed.
• The second row should start with the piece on which the first one was completed.

Important! If you are laying a laminate and in the process from the last panel of the first row there is a piece less than 30 cm, then to start the second row you need to use half of the new panel.

• The second row is initially stacked without connecting it to the first one. Only after all the panels of the first row are interconnected, it can be fixed along the entire length to the previous row.

Important! For greater reliability of the connection at the junction point, you can attach a wooden bar and gently tap it with a hammer.

The same way the whole floor is mounted.

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Diagonal laying

Diagonal laying is considered one of the most common methods for installing a laminate.

Important! To put the laminate yourself in this way, during the calculation of the amount of material, you should add 7-8% to the total area of ​​the room.

Operation procedure:

1. Diagonal laying starts as well as transverse or longitudinal - from the corner near the window.
2. Before starting the installation, it is necessary to stretch the line at an angle of 45 degrees from the corner to the wall - later the rows of the cover will be aligned along it.
3. With the diagonal method, the edges of the first panel are cut at an angle of 45 degrees, and the wedges for the gap are mounted between the wall and it.
4. Next, measure the two strips of the laminate so that the joint between them is in the middle of the first row, and the edges that are cut off at an angle - near the wall.
5. The same way the whole floor is filled.

Important! In residential areas there are many difficult places for laying the cover, for example, doorways, heating pipes.

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Laying near heating pipes

Bypass heating pipes or other communications is one of the most difficult nuances in the process of solving the problem of how to properly lay the laminate. Here it is necessary to listen to such recommendations:

• The correct laying should begin in the layout of the panel under the future hole.
• In order to create a hole in the laminate, it is desirable to use special drills - "ballerinas".
• The diameter of the hole should always be slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe. So it is necessary for the cover to "walk" under the influence of humidity and temperature fluctuations.
• After the required holes for the pipes are drilled, the panel is cut into two parts. One of them is mounted between the pipe and the rest of the floor, and the second is between the communications and the wall. Pieces are fastened together with the help of building glue.

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Mounting near the ledge of the walls

If the walls in the room where the laying is done have irregularities that match the shape, the cutout is made directly on the panel. With the correct laying of the laminate, in the case of uneven walls, it is also necessary to make a deformation gap.

Important! There is a feature with the combination of locks: from the bottom of the end, you should cut the protruding edge. Because of this, the reliability of the connection may suffer, so the joints must be lubricated with building glue.

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Laying in large rooms

If the room dimensions exceed 8 by 8 meters, then in order for the floor covering not to deform, it is advisable to make compensating seams. For this, it is necessary to use special profiles that are mounted between two unconnected sections of the laminate.

The top of this profile is an overlay, like the ones used in the upper apertures. This is due to the deformation of the floor from the temperature fluctuations.

Important! Also, such a profile is mounted on the boundary of different segments of the warm floor within a single room.

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Install skirting boards

To properly lay the laminate on the floor, you also need to know about installing the skirting board:

• One of the main features is that you can not fix the skirting to the floor or to the laminate itself - the fixing should be done only to the wall.
• For each of the skirting models, there is an ideal fixing option, and the instruction in its installation is attached to the product.

Important! If you do not have perfectly flat walls, it is better to use plastic skirting boards, since they will exactly follow the contours of the wall. Wooden views are desirable to use with even walls.

• Most models have special grooves in which the wires are hidden.

Important! Wires should not fall into the gap between the wall and the laminate, otherwise - with expansion, the coating can be deformed.

Correctly laying the laminate, you get a beautiful, inexpensive and durable coating on the floor, which, if properly maintained, will please you for many years.