Flooring
Laminate Guide And Installation
Advertise Your Home Design And Lifestyle Business FrizeMedia
Flooring: Want a beautifully finished floor without the costly price tag? With Its quickly growing quality and a shrinking expense, Laminate flooring is a great alternative to other expensive materials. Laminate flooring actually uses computer technology which creates life-like designs modeled after natural materials. It is installed by using a system containing interlocking grooves which fit together to create a seamless look identical to finishes such as hardwood, tile, and even stone and marble.
Laminate does not actually attach to the floor beneath it. Only the joints or grooves are attached by glue, leaving the floor underneath untouched. Laminate flooring is a great idea when you have expensive but damaged or unfinished floor and you would rather have a quick and inexpensive cover up. One of the wonders of Laminate flooring is that it is so easy to install, it can even be turned into a "do-it- yourself" project.
This will bring the cost down considerably and also leave room for your own customization. Laminate flooring is only recently growing in popularity among Americans, but has held strong among Europeans for well over two decades. Another advantage to laminate flooring is it's durability. Because of its dense fiber wood core and a sealed plastic-like coating, It is invincible to most stains, spills and burns, and is also very resistant to scratches. This is a great choice for families with pets or small children.
Laminate Flooring Installation Best Practices Assuming you are laying laminate wood flooring that is pre glued. Whether they have a real wood veneer or everything about them is fabricated, you should allow the boards to sit inside your home for at least two days to fully acclimate to your home's conditions before installation. Failure to do this can cause rippling or gaps between the boards that can be impossible to fix without tearing the planks out and starting from the beginning. If there is some type of existing floor it needs to be completely removed before laying the first piece of your new laminate.
If you are replacing an old floor, cut it into manageable pieces and pry them up with a long handled scraper for best results. Make sure every piece is up and then vacuum. Make the floor as even as you can without sanding. The most important thing to check for and fix are low spots, if you let them go you will have a squeaky floor.
After that you put down the underlay. Start from the walls and work out from there, use a utility knife to cut the underlayment to fit the room. It's not a bad idea to mark up the underlayment to use as a guide when laying your laminate boards.
Use a wood spacer to leave an expansion gap between your laminate and the wall, then work your way out from there. You should have to only moisten the glue on the edge of each board for it to activate. Then slide the next board into place and press it firmly against the previous for a good, snug fit. You want to use a pry bar to protect your wall once you start laying the last of the boards. Simply ease the end boards into place and you're done.
Tips In Choosing The Perfect Home Office Furniture
Browse All Our Informative Topics
InternetBusinessIdeas-Viralmarketing Home Page
Tweet
Follow @Charlesfrize
New! Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Leave a comment in the box below.