Home generalLay the click laminate yourself - in 7 steps

Lay the click laminate yourself - in 7 steps

  • Buying advice - Buying guide
    • Buy footfall sound insulation
    • Laminate for living spaces
    • Private or commercial use
  • Lay the self-adhesive laminate in 7 steps
    • 1. Cut doors and door frames to length
    • 2. Lay out vapor barrier / impact sound
    • 3. Lay laminate - 1st row
    • 4. Lay laminate more rows
    • 5. Insert last row
    • 6. Remove wedges
    • 7. Attach baseboards

One of the most successful things you can do as a home improvement is laying click laminate. Depending on the size of the room and the type of laminate, you can lay a completely new floor in one day. It does not require much tools or great prior knowledge. We will show you how to lay laminate yourself.

Click laminate offers a number of advantages over many other floors. Especially the easy laying makes the laminate so popular with the click. Without any prior knowledge or expensive special tools, you can conjure a properly professionally laid floor in the rooms. The rapid progress of the laying work also contributes to the fun of the work. In addition to detailed instructions, we will show you all the tips and tricks that will make your floor even more durable and beautiful. In the purchase advice you will find the right laminate for every room.

You need this:

  • jigsaw
  • table saw
  • Japanese saw
  • crowbar
  • bat
  • wedges
  • rubber hammer
  • ruler
  • pencil
  • laminate
  • sound insulation
  • vapor barrier
  • duct tape
  • skirting
  • screw

Buying advice - Buying guide

Already at the purchase begins with the right choice of materials and tools a great deal easier. This starts with the locking wedges that you need for the click laminate. Priced wedges made of wood or MDF are not significantly cheaper than plastic wedges. But the wooden or MDF wedges break easily and annoying at work so that the fun is left behind. It is similar with the bat and the pull bar. It is not about the price, but primarily about a robust processing.

Buy footfall sound insulation

Thin footfall sound insulation made of styrofoam is already available on inexpensive big rolls. The rolls are also sufficient for the ground floor as a footfall sound when the floor is well insulated. However, this sound insulation is very annoying for beginners as it slips easily, no matter how nicely you've secured the insulation with tape. The adhesive tape does not adhere well to this light impact sound insulation.

Simple impact sound insulation

Easier to use are the mostly green folded panels of the impact sound insulation. These do not slip so easily and are even more effective in the insulation due to the slightly more compacted material. Especially on the first floor or when other tenants live below you, this material is to be preferred.

occurs records

But the simplest version for the beginner is laminate, which is directly glued to a footfall sound insulation. However, this laminate is often a bit more expensive and the impact sound insulation is not as effective as an extra laid insulation. The biggest problem arises at the seams of the laminate. Normally, no insulation is glued on here, so the panel can be pressed in at the seam if the load is greater. Especially if accidentally heavy furniture is parked with one foot on one of these seams, damage quickly becomes apparent.

Laminate for living spaces

With the laminate it depends primarily on the abrasion class or the stress class. Only in the second step is a distinction made between a decorative laminate and a laminate floor with real wood veneer. Solid wood is not used in the laminate, with the result that the individual panels are always built in layers and it comes in the stress on the topmost layer.

laminate layers

That's why you should use laminate for wet rooms only if it is specially designed for this purpose and has no top layer of real wood. Although many types of laminate are sold for installation in a damp room, the instructions do tell you that you need to glue the laminate in a damp room. Often you can not find these notes until you open the package. Therefore, ask the seller for the laminate for a wet room exactly. In case of doubt, have him open the package and present the instructions.

Private or commercial use

The stress classes for laminate are specified in EN 685. The first digit of the class indicates whether it is laminate for home or business use.

  • 21 Living - areas with little or temporary use
  • 22 Living - areas with medium use
  • 23 Living - areas with intensive use
  • 31 Commercial areas with low or temporary use
  • 32 commercial areas with medium use
  • 33 commercial areas with intensive use

Laminate with abrasion grade 21 or 22 should only be used in children's bedrooms or bedrooms. If this click laminate is used in a living room, after a short time, there will be traces of running in the places that are used a lot. Abrasion class 23 is the right solution in walk-through rooms, living rooms and hallways.

Slight damage can be removed

Although Classes 31 to 33 are offered for commercial use, you should still be able to access them if the price is acceptable. The bottom holds out a lot more and does not easily resent high-heeled shoes. Especially on the ground floor, where you often enter the laminate floor with street shoes, it is important to use a high level of abrasion. Thus, no visible damage has arisen when a pebble hangs in the sole.

Lay the self-adhesive laminate in 7 steps

1. Cut doors and door frames to length

First, check whether the doors or the door frame must be shortened. This is easier before laying the laminate. A wooden doorframe is quite easy to cut with the Japanese saw. You should guide the door leaf together with a helper over the table saw to get a particularly straight cut. If the door frame and door are made of metal, however, you must work with the cut-off grinder or the Flex.

If necessary, shorten the doors

Tip: Place a piece of the new laminate together with the impact sound on the door frame to determine the correct height for cutting to length. In addition, you should cut off about half an inch more, so that the laminate does not rub later on the frame and thus squeaks.

2. Lay out vapor barrier / impact sound

The vapor barrier should be designed smooth and wrinkle-free. At the edge it is important that the vapor barrier is pulled up a little bit. Here, the edge of the film is glued to the wall with aluminum adhesive tape, so that the moisture can not rise. This glued edge disappears later behind the baseboards. All seams of the vapor barrier should also be glued tight.

You do not have to apply vapor barrier everywhere. But if you want to lay laminate on a screed floor on the ground floor, a vapor barrier should be placed. On the upper floor, the vapor barrier is not necessary on all surfaces. If the click laminate is laid on an old carpet, for example, neither a vapor barrier nor a footfall sound insulation is necessary. For this, the carpet must be absolutely clean and must not wrinkle. Ideal are carpets that are not too soft.

Apply impact sound with adhesive tape

The impact sound insulation does not necessarily have to be glued. But if you protect the impact sound with some adhesive tape, you will have less work because it will not slip when processing the click laminate.

Tip: Place the laminate packages in the unopened condition in the room for about 24 hours to allow the panels to adjust to the temperature. The panels should not be taken out of the package, as they can easily deform and bend as a result of the temperature change. You can also return closed packages that you have left over to most retailers.

Laminate laminate - store in the same room for 24 hours

3. Lay laminate - 1st row

Not every wall is absolutely straight, so the first row has to be adapted to the unevenness of the wall. So you should click together the first row of the click laminate and leave on the two outer sides each about one centimeter for the joint. Lay these assembled panels on the wall and use a spacer to mark the waves that need to be cut out. Some walls have only a slight curve, other walls a real wave pattern.

First row with wedges

You can easily make a spacer yourself from sturdy cardboard to mark the irregularities. Always calculate the distance to the wall that the click laminate needs to have later. Depending on the quality, there are different specifications in the instructions of the manufacturer. Usually the necessary distance is between one and two centimeters.

4. Lay laminate more rows

In the other rows can be used in each case the sawed end piece of the previous row, at least if it is sufficiently long. You should not use panels at the beginning or end that are shorter than about 20 centimeters . For most laminate floors, first insert the long side of the panel into the previous row and then the side panels. The panels are first fully hammered until it clicks when the next panel is added laterally. Pull the last piece on the right side with the pull bar until it clicks. For very hard laminate, you can also use the rubber mallet to create the click.

More rows can be laid quickly

Tip: Always use a clean piece of wood in which the groove of the panel fits perfectly. In many cases you have to use different exactly matched batons for different types of laminate. If the wrong piece of wood is used, ruin the tongue and groove of the click laminate. The laminate can then not fit together clean. In addition, moisture can penetrate later into these damaged areas, causing the click laminate to swell.

5. Insert last row

In the last row you often have the problem that the wall that follows is not quite flat. In addition, usually no complete panel fits in the gap. Therefore you need a spacer again, which calculates the distance between the laminate and the wall and also compensates for any bumps that might still be present on the wall. Like the last piece on the sides, the last row is also clicked on with the pull bar.

Tip: If the last row is very narrow and fiddly, it may be easier to join the last two rows into one and then click them together. For a laminate floor that is easy to click out, you should glue this double row with a little laminate glue. Always put very little glue in the tongue and groove joint. However, if something sticks out when you click it together, it must be wiped off immediately with a soft cloth.

6. Remove wedges

Carefully pull out the wedges so you do not lift the laminate surface and unhook it somewhere. If you have at least partially bonded the laminate with glue, you should wait a day before pulling out the wedges. If you use plastic wedges, you can use them several times later to lay laminate.

Tip: If transition bars are needed on the doors or on a passageway, you should insert them now. Most strips have a bracket that can be pushed about two inches under the laminate. Then the sight rail is clicked on this bracket. These strips are available in numerous matching wood colors. However, if there are no matching ledges for your laminate, use aluminum or gold trim depending on your interior design style. There are also matching rubber lips that do not look very attractive in the living room.

7. Attach baseboards

To attach the baseboards, you should place a leftover piece of laminate under the baseboard. This will ensure that the laminate floor is at the right distance, able to work, and does not scrape and squeak with every change in temperature or step on the baseboards.

Tip: Buy the widest variety of baseboards when installing the first click laminate. So you can compensate for small irregularities at the edges. Even if you saw off a panel a little bit crooked or frayed, you will not notice it with a wide skirting board.

Also, as a beginner, you should use a skirting board system that has both outside and inside corners so you do not have to make so many miter cuts. In most cases, these systems also have cover rings for heating pipes and small strips that are used on the door frame. If you like it very simple, you can even priming and painting planks yourself as baseboards. Of course, it should be board boards that have no tongue and groove connection.

Tips for quick readers

  • Measure space
  • Select impact sound and laminate
  • Determine the laying direction of the laminate
  • Cut door and door frame to length
  • Lay out the vapor barrier and glue it together
  • Lay out the impact sound
  • Laminate first row to adapt to wall
  • If possible, use the blend for the next row
  • Use wedges for floating installation
  • Lay additional rows of laminate
  • customize last row and paste
  • Remove locking wedges around the floor
  • Install skirting board - keep distance to the laminate floor
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