Laying Down Laminate

When I decided to lay laminate, I looked around YouTube for an instructional video, but the one I found just said exactly what everyone else said. 1) "It just snaps together" and 2) "Try to vary the seems."

I am here to tell you, that those two little worthless utterances won't help you a bit if you're installing laminate for the first time; and the boxes that the laminate comes in, won't include instructions. So I apologize to those of you who don't care to read this, but I feel it is my duty to share some helpful tips with anyone thinking about installing laminate in the near future. If you know someone who might be interested, do them a favor and share this with them!

These are the things that no salesman, hardware store Rep., or Do-it-yourself video, taught me. I had to learn them on my own. Male or Female, Old or Young, Carpenter or Not, you can do this, but I don't see why you should have to make the same mistakes I did.

Helpful Hints:

1. You need a special tool called a "pull bar" that can't be bought at any regular tool store, but must be bought where laminate is sold. I actually had a gentleman at a hardware store argue with me about what I needed. Here's what it looks like and with out it, you won't be able to get those seams as tight as you would like.

2. You will also need a block to put next to the laminate for purposes of hitting with your rubber mallet (you will need a rubber mallet too) so that you do not hit the laminate directly and hurt the tooth or grove.

3. *This is important for your sanity!* There may come a time when the piece of laminate you are installing attaches beautifully at both ends but not, at all, in the middle. It will appear as though the board is warped. It isn't. The floor is warped -- it's natural. Put aside the piece you are trying to install before you beat it to death and throw it out the back door. Then grab your mallet and block and bang in those two areas on the laid floor where the new piece seemed to attach nicely. Give them a good 5-10 strong whacks! That will even out the line and the new piece will go in easier. I took one for the team and beat a board to death before I figured this out. It was a small price to pay if I can now share my knowledge with you.

4. You don't actually have to try to vary the seams. Say you lay the laminate from left to right across your floor. If you start by laying a whole piece on the left, you will have to cut the very last piece on the right. But the piece that you cut will leave you with a piece to start with on the left, and since you started with a whole piece on the left last time, your seam will be varied. I wasted some boards in the beginning trying to be a good little seam vary-er. It isn't necessary. After about 5 rows I realized, that I had naturally started to alternate the left between whole pieces and cut pieces and my seams were varied, just like that.

5. When you finish the laminate and before you re-attach any trim, take the time to walk the floor and check out your seams. If you see any gaps that look larger than you'd like, now is the time to beat them in. This will be impossible to do once the trim is attached. No one else will notice those seams, but you will want to check for them especially if you put laminate in the house where you live (I have a few seams that haunt me now because I didn't do this).

Good luck!