Laminate clickn lock Flooring installation - how hard is it really?

[sbj405]

I'm thinking about putting some down in the basement of my rental property. It's about 300 sq ft. There is a bar that juts out from one of the walls, so there might be a lot of cutting involved. No real carpentry skills, but I'm generally pretty handy. Also, what is the best type of saw to use to cut the flooring?

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. Easy

I built our house over the last year or so, and I got a good deal on snap laminate flooring at a garage sale. I used a carbide blade in my chop saw. It worked fine, but the blade is now in need of replacement.

My only advice is to follow the directions, and allow the stuff to equalize for the proper time in your room before trying to install it.

[sbj405]

3. Your kitchen looks great.

I'll need to buy or rent a chop saw. I only have a jigsaw.

I'm trying to figure timewise - all weekend or more? It looks so easy on TV, but I'm well aware that it never is that easy.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Putting it down is easy. Moisture might be an issue in a basement.

Be sure to check with the manufacturer that the product you choose is okay to use in a basement. You may have to put in a vapor barrier or make some other adjustment to use in a basement.

[politicat]

4. It's really easy.

Measure twice, cut once. Let it acclimate.

We have it throughout our house -- 1500 square feet of it, no seams. The hard part is going around things that are fixed to the floor, like cabinets. Pull up the baseboards, label them (like KIT A, LR B etc) and label the walls where it will be hidden by the baseboard. (You really don't want to be playing baseboard jigsaw puzzles....)

As much of a pain as this is going to sound, don't do it in the summer. The laminate is at its largest when it's warm and humid. You want to put it down when the laminate is at its smallest (but after acclimatization.) We have a couple cracks where we got it together right on a nice warm, humid rainy day... and in mid-winter, it gapes.

We used a compound miter saw (what someone might have called a chop saw) and a table saw. We also used a bandsaw for some of the more complex cuts.

If you're doing a bathroom, take the toilet up. It's not worth going around the base, and a wax ring is cheap.

We used the scrap to cover the toe-kicks in the kitchen, too. It looks really nice.