Hello World! Welcome Friends! You probably already have all the information you need to lay your engineered floor, especially if you ordered it from Doorstore.co.uk, but there’s nothing wrong with having a crib sheet handy as well, so here you are.
Preparation is key
A really good idea is to acclimatize your flooring before you lay it. Not everyone knows this, but there’s probably a big difference between the temperature and humidity of your home to the warehouse and your flooring boards need to adjust before they go down. Simply leave the boards in their packaging for two days in the room they’re destined for.
Then, clean the subfloor – vacuum, wash and leave it to dry thoroughly.
Safety first
You’ll be spending a weekend kneeling, basically, so wear knee pads or use a kneeling pad. You should also wear safety goggles and even ear defenders if you’ll be drilling.
Laying the underlay
To lay underlay, just roll it out from one end of the room to the other and cut it at the other end. Make sure the edges meet as you cover the floor, but don’t overlap them as this will make an uneven surface. If you’re using a damp membrane this can overlap, and ideally it should slope slightly up the wall to keep the edges of the boards dry.
The fitting
Ideally your boards should be wider than 60mm, so if your final board is going to be narrower, cut the first board slightly narrower, as long as both the first and last will be wider than 60mm.
Start in a corner and work left to right. The grooved end faces the wall and you should use expansion spacers along walls to maintain a 10mm expansion gap. Long-term expansion and contraction will, if in a confined space, cause damage.
Lay the next board, lifting the previous one up to 30 degrees from the floor and locking them together as you lower them. Rinse and repeat. Have a coffee…
Nearly done
If the final board of a row is too long, then you’ll need to cut it. Turn the board 180 degrees and lay it next to the previous one, then draw a line across the new board where it meets the end of the previous one. Cut it, turn it back by 180 degrees then lay it. Have another coffee and a biscuit…
If the off-cut from a previous row is longer than 30cm, use it to start the next row, with the newly-cut side facing the wall. If it’s less than 30cm, just use a new board, but cut it in half – you should aim to keep board ends at least 30cm apart.
Laying boards around pipes
If you need to work around pipes, then you should pencil the position of the pipe on the board, then drill a hole of around 16mm larger (diameter) than the pipe, then cut into the board with a saw from the edge to the sides of the hole. This should create a wedge. Fit the board around the pipe and glue the wedge into place behind it. Have yet another coffee, another biscuit and tell yourself it’s nearly over…
Comfort tips
Make sure you have a ready supply of drinks, snacks and your favorite music. If you can draft in friends to help, do it, but remember to reward them well afterwards!
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Toodles,
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