Three Key Facts About Laminate You Should Know

Laminate flooring has seen a huge surge in popularity over the past decade and is easily the most commonly sold flooring today. With its design versatility and ability to emulate a variety of natural woods and finishes while remaining cost-effective, it’s easy to see why it has become so popular. Installing a laminate floor appears to be a fairly straightforward task, and many DIY home renovators are up to tackling the job themselves. However, if you’re going to install your own laminate flooring, Wood Country Building Services recommends you know the following three things before getting started.

#1: Laminate Flooring Does Not Mix Well With Moisture

Laminate flooring is made out of particleboard and a glue-composite board with a laminate image (most often wood grain) glued atop. Because of its composition, it can be prone to bubbling, peeling and buckling when it absorbs excess water.

This is important to keep in mind when deciding if laminate is an appropriate flooring choice for the room you’re renovating. Areas like bathrooms, mudrooms and kitchens may require flooring better suited to high moisture and water content.

However, new laminate flooring products are available on the market that claim to be more water-resistant and could offer a solution for high-moisture areas. You also have the option of sealing your laminate flooring with a wood sealant, gluing between the joints with watertight glue, or using silicone caulking on each seam. However, this will add extra work and cost to your installation and still isn’t guaranteed to keep your laminate floor free from moisture.

If you are installing your laminate flooring anywhere that might have moisture coming from underneath, you need to install a moisture barrier beneath your flooring. A good example is over concrete basement floors that are prone to condensation.

#2: Laminate Flooring Needs a Level Base

Laminate flooring is a rather thin product; it does not have its own structural strength and relies on the underflooring for its foundation. If you don’t install your laminate over a level floor, you’re going to end up with soft spots that dip and sink when they are stepped on. Soft spots will lead to unnecessary wear and tear around the edges of your boards, and boards popping out of place and even cracking.

Depending on where you are laying your laminate, you can level the subfloor with self-levelling concrete by grinding, sanding or any combination thereof. No matter how you do it, you should have a maximum variance of 1/8" in your floor to ensure a sound installation. Installing underlayment will help your laminate cope with small variances in the subfloor.

#3: Laminate Flooring is Going to Expand

Your laminate flooring is going to expand and contract with weather changes and other conditions. When your flooring expands, it needs room to grow; otherwise, the boards will buckle and pop up, leaving you with a worn, uneven floor. A gap of 3/8" should be left between your laminate and the baseboards when installing.

This expansion is also why you cannot nail your quarter round into your laminate or nail any parts of your laminate into the subfloor. Laminate flooring is designed to interlock and float, so the boards will move together. If one piece can't expand, it will cause the surrounding boards to buckle. If you are laying flooring over a large area, such as an entire floor of a house, you need to provide expansion joints or transitions that will allow for expansion. This is true anywhere your installation will run longer than 36 feet or 24 feet wide.

Additionally, you should let your boards acclimate to the room where they will be installed for two to three days. This allows the laminate to expand or contract with the room’s temperature and humidity.

Updating your home with laminate flooring can give you a lot of bang for your buck, but the savings won’t last long if your floor is not properly installed. Poorly installed laminate is susceptible to all kinds of additional wear and tear and will certainly not last as long as it should.

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