Installing Dream Home Laminate Flooring – Learn how to install laminate flooring with this step-by-step tutorial and video. It’s a great DIY that can give your home a huge refresh!
This blog post was originally published in May 2013 and talks about the construction of our house and the installation of our laminate flooring. I updated it today with a video tutorial, below. We still love our laminate flooring over 5 years later, and would definitely recommend laminate and this particular brand to anyone looking!
Installing Dream Home Laminate Flooring
Check out my video to see how we install laminate flooring and a peek at another room we’re renovating in our home this year:
How To Install Laminate Floors
We’ve just survived a really intense, really successful week of working on Our House Alone. Our biggest achievement this week? Completing the installation of our beautiful laminate flooring!
It’s amazing how flooring can instantly turn a construction site into a home, and this laminate has done just that.
Lowe’s Canada was generous enough to partner with me on our flooring project, and we chose to install a beautiful, high-quality laminate from Allen + Roth called Provence Oak.
What I love about Allen + Roth is that their products are really on trend, but they don’t break the bank. For example: my delicious laminate. It’s a smoky gray-brown tone with a ton of rustic texture. The boards are nice and wide, and they are textured to match the wood grain on them. One of my favorite features of this laminate is the gray and black beveled edges that define each piece. The wood looks a little blown out, but in a
Worker Installing Wood Parquet. Carpenter On Work Laying Laminate Or Parquet Flooring. Installation Of Parquet Stock Image
I wanted nothing else. Indeed! In my opinion, laminate floors are the best choice for family homes with small children and/or pets. Laminate is highly scratch and scratch resistant. It’s really simple to install yourself (I kid you not!) and great if you’re on a tight budget like us.
We installed all 2000 square feet of our Allen + Roth Provence Oak laminate flooring from Lowe’s in about 5 full days. These days were divided into several parts of several hours at a time. The team was diverse – myself, my husband, my father, my brother and a few friends got involved.
The floor was available with very detailed instructions and pictures, PLUS a number to call for help. It was fool proof!
We made sure to put our boxes of laminate on opposite ends of the rooms we were starting from so we could work towards them.
Dream Home 12mm Sunswept Ash Laminate Flooring 8 In. Wide X 47.64 In. Long
This floor doesn’t need underlayment, but we decided to use a cheap foam underlayment just to hide all the little dips and inconsistencies in our floor. We simply laid the mat first and let it float (we didn’t use tape or staples).
We left some space at the beginning and sides of our rows as the instructions suggest. This helps cushion any movement the floor may make later down the road. You can buy spacers made for this, or we cut small pieces of laminate to use as DIY dividers.
We decided to stagger our boards randomly (which is actually not random at all because you have to watch out for repeating lengths or patterns of wood). We simply cut boards to different lengths to start the rows to make the staggered effect. (I used my new friend, the circular saw.)
After finishing the first row, we started the second. These boards click really easily – the long side clicks first. You simply lift it up a bit and push it into the row before.
Laminate Flooring: What Makes It An Ideal Choice For Homes?
Then it’s time for the short join. Using a hammer and a plastic block made especially for this purpose (it has a groove in it to prevent the destruction of the tongue of the laminate), we hammered the laminate into the previous piece of the row.
We made sure that every joint is nice and comfortable. We currently have laminate flooring in our house in the garage and it’s holding up really well except for the joints that weren’t buried properly.
We used a circular saw, a table saw and a really handy hand held Japanese saw to make the smaller cuts.
One person can install laminate flooring (and we sometimes did), but we’ve found it goes fastest with a team of two. One person can lay the laminate while the other cuts, or you can have two rows going at the same time.
Allure Plank Flooring » Dream Home Enterprises, Llc
We managed to have no transitions or joins from room to room, which is amazing given our layout. Upstairs, we had to start in two separate rooms and hopefully the laminate met in the same place on the stairs. That did it! That’s another bonus of laminate – every piece is perfect and square.
Hubby was pretty proud of himself when we got to the finish line (and aren’t you jealous of his Hulk pants I made for him last Christmas?).
On these floors. I am so happy with the finished product… and more excited than ever to move in!
What do you think of our laminate floors? What type of flooring do you have in your home – do you love it?
How To Install Dream Home Laminate Flooring
(Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Lowe’s Canada. The views and opinions expressed here are purely my own. Thank you, Lowe’s, for making my flooring dreams come true. In fact, reality is better than my dream!)
This post is part of my “Our DIY House” series where I’ll be sharing with you my most exciting DIY yet – building a farmhouse from the ground up with my talented husband! We’re crazy, we’re creative, we’re on a tight budget, and we’re planning to finish it in Spring 2013. I’m excited to tell you guys that we are finally working on the floor vs. the house. With the help of Golden Select, we add beautiful laminate flooring to the house and replace carpet, mismatched hardwood and more. In the process, we have become experts on how to install laminate flooring.
*Golden Select sponsored this post, but all thoughts are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make PMQ for two possible.
The quality is outstanding. We’ve done some quiet research beforehand, and the Golden Select floor matches up to heavy traffic or everyday life quite well.
Where Can I Install Laminate?
The price is right for the amount of flooring we need to install, and that weighed heavily in our decision – as it does for most.
We can buy and order Golden Select Flooring through Costco, which means we don’t have to do anything special to get our hands on it. And if a store is running low, we can order it in. Win!
Splash Shield technology means it’s waterproof for up to 24 hours. That’s music to my ears with a soon-to-be toddler.
Golden Select is available in Canada at Costco. So if you’re not already a member, do so! And if like us, you’ll be redoing the house, get the Executive Membership with 2% cash back so you can recoup the cost of your membership and then some.
Times “wood Look” Is As Good As (or Better Than) The Real Deal
You can find your nearest Costco using their store locator. Our local store had a case for $31.99, and that’s a pretty good price when you’re looking to decorate the house.
Depending on any previous laminate flooring installation you have done, the basics are the same. The main difference here is that the Golden Select floor is installed from left to right. So choose the side of the room to start, accordingly.
Start by clearing the space. In our case, we rolled up the carpet and moved all the furniture into the hallway.
Make sure you have a level floor before installing. We didn’t go down to the floor because a) we needed to raise the floor to match the kitchen tiles b) the floor was level c) the hardwood surface that dominated most of the room was like the floor.
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T
o install them, measure the space needed, then cut the strapping piece and laminate using your miter saw.
Dan starts by measuring, then traces the outline of the door frame with a pencil. He uses a reciprocating blade to make details.
Once the strap is down, you will install the boards and then add the laminate piece at the very end.
Leave a 3/8 inch gap around the perimeter of the room. We have rods that we cut and put around the room (sticking to the wall with painter’s tape) to keep the gap. This allows the boards to expand and contract with the house.
How To Easily Install A Laminate Floor Over Concrete
No board should be less than 16 inches, so after measuring the length of your first row to the length of the boards, you may need to cut the first board to ensure the last board is not less than 16 inches .
You place it with the long edge against the wall and the groove facing you (so the other pieces can click into it).
Raise the right side of the second board at a 30-degree angle and place its tongue with the short end into the groove of the first board.
We often use a drop piece and a rubber mallet to tap the pieces into place if
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