The floor from the laminate in the apartment looks beautiful and expensive. Its installation is quite simple, and the result is very unpretentious and durable. The abundance of color solutions allows you to choose the option that is ideally suited to the overall interior. And the various strength classes of the flooring make it possible to use it in rooms with different floor loads.
Laying a laminate - the process is quite simple, but it also requires compliance with certain conditions and requirements. If this matter is not taken seriously, the result may not meet expectations, and even a high-quality laminate flooring can not be saved in this case.
Surface preparation
Before you start installing flooring, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work. First, you need to level the floor. If it is wooden, then it must be processed with a grinder to hide all irregularities and transitions. If the floor is concrete, then it should be leveled in any suitable way, for example, using bulk floors.
The next stage of preparatory work is the installation of the substrate. In the building materials market, there is a huge selection of such products. It can be:
- special substrates from the manufacturer;
- cork substrates ;
- polyethylene foam of various types of foaming;
- substrates based on composite materials;
- extruded polystyrene foam.
Those. the choice of materials is huge and you should be guided by your preferences in this matter. The only thing that needs to be done is to glue the joints and leave a small gap of 10-15 mm along the walls. Very often, old linoleum is used as a substrate. All! The preparatory work is over and you can start laying the floor from the laminate. If at the preparatory stage all the work is done efficiently, then the floor covering will last for many years.
We lay the floor of the laminate
If the base is prepared for laying, then you can start the most pleasant process in this work - giving the floor a finished look. This stage begins with determining the location of the installation. The choice of starting point is arbitrary. Where they decided - there they started. But there is one small trick - the laminate should be laid perpendicular to the window, then the joints between the panels will be invisible.
The first strip of laminate is laid along the wall. A small distance, approximately 1 cm, must be retreated from the wall, pipes and other fixed objects, since the laminate is exposed to seasonal humidity. The fastening of laminate boards is carried out with end locks. For a more snug fit of the panels to each other, they can be knocked out with a hammer through a wooden trim. Only in this case, a piece of wood for fitting should be applied to the end side in places without a crest.
Next, the next strip of flooring is laid. So, strip by strip, a laminate floor is created. When laying each strip, the resulting flooring should be monitored for gaps. If there are gaps, then the boards are also adjusted with a hammer and a piece of wood. All. The floors are ready, the laminate can be wiped off from dust and enjoy the repair.