Installing Laminate Flooring
How to measure

A laminate floor is not attached to the substrate. Rather, it floats upon a sheet of foam underlayment. Planks should be at least 2 inches wide, a narrrower piece is more likely to buckle.

Begin by measuring the width of the room at several places, taking into account the 1/4 inch expansion gap you must leave between flooring and the wall, then make some careful calculations. Divide the width of the room by the width of your planks. If the remainder is less than 2 inches, you will need to rip-cut the first piece.

For example, if the room is 120 inches wide and the planks are 7 inc wide, the room will hold 17 pieces, with 1 inch left over (17x7=119). In that case, plan on using only 16 full width pieces, which will leave you with 8 in of leftover space (16x7=112). Rip cut both the first and last pieces at 4 inches.

Install the first board at a long, highly visible wall. At each end of the wall, measure out from the wall the width of the first plank plus 1/4 inch, and make a mark. Ask someone to hlep you snap a chalk line between the 2 marks. Measure to see that the line is a fairly consistent distance from the wall at all points. Make sure the first board will be close enough to the wall for the base molding to cover the gap.

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