The Floor Beneath You

3 Tips for Installing a Laminate Hardwood Floor

Are you planning to take on the installation of laminate hardwood flooring by yourself? Then you'll definitely want to know the following tools that will make the job easier. 

Get The Right Tools

Everything starts with getting the right tools for the job. An oscillating saw will help when you need to cut out the bottom of moldings around a door frame so that the hardwood flooring can slide underneath it. You'll also want to have knee pads since you'll be spending a lot of time on your knees when performing the installation. You'll also want to have a rubber mallet and a tapping block, which helps you put pressure on the laminate floor to get it into place without damaging the flooring material. 

Acclimate The Flooring Material

Wood can change shape based on the humidity in a space. High humidity can cause wood to expand, while low humidity can cause wood to shrink. Chances are that the humidity in your home is different from the place where the flooring material has been stored. That's why you want to let the wood acclimate to your home by placing it in the room where it will be installed for a couple of days, so it can absorb that moisture.

The benefit of doing this is that the floor is going to look nicer after the installation. If your home has high humidity, the flooring can expand and cause the floorboards to buckle upward. If your home has low humidity, the hardwood flooring material can shrink and cause gaps to form between the boards. 

Check If Your Subfloor Is Level

Don't make the mistake of assuming that your subfloor is completely level before installing laminate flooring. It will help to take a long level and place it over the floor in various places to identify places that are high or low. You'll need to make adjustments to the floor to get rid of these places where the floor is not level.

If you're working with an OBS subfloor that has parts that are high, you can use a belt sander to smooth down those high parts. This is often a problem near doors leading to the outside, where moisture can get into the subfloor and cause the wood to expand. If you have a low spot, you can use self-leveling concrete to bring up the low spot so that your flooring has a completely flat surface. 

Reach out to a hardwood floor installation service to learn more.