Laminate Flooring Tips Wanted

[countrykid]

I will be laying my first ever laminate floor this coming weekend, and would appreciate any tips from others who have done this before. I am quite competent at most DIY, fitting kitchens and bedrooms etc, but guess I will come up against a few snags I hadn't expected. My flooring is Quickstep Eligna, not the cheapest or dearest, but as far as I can tell, a decent type. My underlay is Timbermate Excel 4mm thick - recommended for its sound deadening properties, and to provide a bit extra insulation. The sub-floor is chipboard. The room is an open plan lounge/hall, with just two doorways. I have bought the relevant fitting kit with spacers, and also bought a special saw tp help cut out architrave.

Is it best to start in a corner?
The lounge has one window in the long wall. I had planned to lay the planks in the same direction as that wall, but have been told you are not supposed to lay them parallel to the light source - puzzled? Is this something to do with the light showing up the join between each panel, a bit like when wallpapering?
I have bought lengths of 17mm scotia to cover the expansion gap around the edge of the room, no problem, and have been advised to slice off the bottom of architrave around door frame, to slot laminate4 under, due to not being able to put rigid scotia around the curve of the architrave, which I understand. But in my case, the difference between the skirting thickness and the architrave is very slight, so where the scotia finishes - where it will meet the architrave, the scotia will stick out. I can't be the only one with this situation, but cannot fathom the answer, but bet someone can!! Hope so. Any tips will be much appreciated. Thanks

[Clanad]

It sounds as if you've got it pretty much together. You're already familiar with DIY and it appears you've done your homework.
I would suggest a couple of things; First, to accomplish a professional looking finish I would deffinitely suggest trimming the bottoms of the door frames for a fitted look. This isn't particularly difficult. One of those tools that's always useful but especially in this case is a Japanese Ryoba hand saw, such as seen here: http://www.garrettwade.com/jump.jsp?lGen=cross Sell&itemID=105165&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID =105165 ... the usefullness of the saw cannot be overstated. The fact that the cut is on the pull rather than the push is ideal for your job. Simply lay a scrap piece of the laminate against the bottom of the wood frame and facing and scribe a line for the correct thickness and cut it with the saw. You'll be pleased with the finished look.
I've just finished with laying a fairly large room and hallway with 3/4 inch hardwood in our ranch house here in the western U.S. and I would have preferred laminate or engineered but found a product that I liked in the real oak hardwood. I also found that no matter how new or well cared for the subflooring is there will always be some unconformity. That's the reason for laying the joint line parralell with the window light source. Any imperfections will be magnified if the seams run perpindicular.
Finally, I try to lay the first course along the longest, straightest wall I can find. I pull off the mop board (I think ya'll call it the skirting board) and lay the laminate with the trim boards back on top (but not tightly) of the laminate rather than butting the flooring against the skirting. Again, to me it looks more finished that a quarter round... I'm sure you'll do well... Best of luck!

[tezestwing]

go with Clanad definitely on the right track the tool is a pad saw over here but dont forget to put your underlay under off cut scrap of laminate to saw bottoms off frame + architraves, but as Clanad says best results are obtained when you remove the skirting (before doing above), use a magnet /metal detector if you need to find where nails or screw fixings are in the skirting, nails can be punched through?(or if you can just squeeze the pad saw with metal fine cut blade down the back of the skirting to cut through nail/screw this will save any damage and subsequent repairs to skirting face) screws clean out + pozi or - slot to remove filler then unscrew if it is painted, any damage can be repaired and over painted later.
Also important is after you have put down up to 4 lengths to put a string line down full length and adjust packers against the wall and laminate to get it dead straight HTH Tez

[whiffey]

You sound like you are well clued-up !

I did my first laminate floor 3 years ago. I chose the smallest bedroom in the house with a fairly uncomplicated doorway. I have done 4 more since - a very large conservatory, 2 large bedrooms, and the hall. I have to say I never want to do another ! The hall was a complete nightmare. I could not cut away the archetraves because of wiring that was effectively unmoveable (I'm not very DIYy). Cutting boards to fit curves and corners can take ages. By the way, you do not say if you have a power saw ? If you are doing a large area a power saw is a must, they are very cheap in B&Q, almost disposable. Sawing the boards will generate a lot of dust, do it outside if possible.

The most persistent and infuriating problem I ran into was boards that were ever so slightly bowed, so that when you got a perfect fit at one end, the other slipped out. To minimise this, store the boards in the room you are going to laminate for a few days, and keep turning the packs over each day.

The beading around the edge I found to be at best a compromise, I found it difficult to achieve consistently high quality dovetails at the corners, but even so, the end result is so much better than carpet !

I laid one bedroom parallel to the window, another at right-angles. Both look perfectly good.

Good luck anyway ! I would have started on a smaller room.

Take your time over it. When you get used to it, floors can be laid very quickly and it is gratifying when it goes right. Have a radio or a talking book to hand. Take the first few planks gently to get the knack of fitting them together.

[countrykid]

Very many thanks to you all for some sound advice. I didn't fancy taking off the skirting board and disturbing the plaster, though I can see this would give a neater appearance in the long run. I have bought lengths of Scotia moulding in the same finish as the laminate. A compromise I know. I would have liked to have started with a smaller less important room, but for now this is the only one in need of doing.

I'll let you know how it goes if I survive the weekend!! Thanks again.

[countrykid]

Hi All
Just to let you know how things went with my first Laminate floor laying. Didn't get job finished!! The floor in question was for my girlfriend, who lives some distance away. Took me awhile to get started, mainly due to trying to plan the floor layout so as not to end with a tiny strip at one side etc. Hit a few snags, damaged planks.... Only had time to complete half the job, and going back to finish it this weekend. I am a little unclear about best way to deal with change of floor material where laminate meets another room. I purchased a Quick-Step door ramp, but from looking at it, it doesn't seem appropriate. I will be joining up to a carpet in one room, and a Flotex (no pile) carpet surface in the Kitchen. Any tips of what I need? I had thought of continuing the laminate straight through into the Kitchen area, though may still be best to put a door strip in place, but am told laminate is not good for Kitchens in case of leaks. Ant thoughts on this?

Asalways, all help appreciated

[tezestwing]

Hi countrykid see here for laminate to carpet and other profile types http://www.screwfix.com/cats/101883/Flooring/F looring-Accessories;jsessionid=VCHBN31W0RZGCCS THZOCFEY
you could screw or no nail a plain strip down angled to suit weighted over night
As to the kitchen if you venture that far you will need to use a waterporoof type of laminate and to avoid one thin cut to finish get the calculator out and divide total measure by width of laminate cover in mm this gives you amount of boards +. The+ bit is shared between 1st board cut to reduced and last board cut to even up accordingly HTH Tez