Today, laminate flooring is one of the most popular floor coverings among consumers. It is warm, beautiful, economical, easy to style.
Laminate flooring can be installed on almost any base: concrete slab, plank or parquet floor, linoleum and even on a pile floor (but the length of the pile should not exceed 5 mm). You can lay the laminate along the walls or at an angle to them.
It is used in rooms with both normal and high humidity up to 90%. With the latter, a moisture-resistant laminate and adhesive bonding are used. When installing laminate over an existing wood or parquet floor, it is best to lay the laminate board perpendicular to the floor boards.
Before the installation of laminate flooring, it is necessary to keep it in the room where the laying will take place, in the package for at least 2 days.
Installation of laminate flooring begins with a survey of the base, the unevenness of which should not exceed 4 mm per 2 m of length and which must be horizontal. In case of larger deviations or non-horizontal, the base should be prepared. Concrete - pour self-levellingsolution. Wooden - sand and replace sagging boards.
You can also lay laminate on mineral substrates, but such a device requires careful vapor barrier with polyethylene film, the panels of which are overlapped (up to 20 cm).
Noise insulation or a substrate made of cork eco-friendly fabric or foamed polyethylene is laid on any base. The underlay and laminate are laid perpendicular to each other.
Laminate installation is usually carried out from the left corner of the room from the window (joint seams are less visible) along a long wall. Almost all laminate flooring has locking connections (collapsible or latches), which makes it very easy to install. The next board is brought to the already mounted one, its spike is inserted into the groove of the lying one and the board is lowered. There is a click - everything is ready. A thermal gap of 10-12 mm must be left between the extreme boards of the laminate and the wall, so that the coating does not swell during further operation.
From the end side at an angle of about 30 degrees, insert the next panel into the groove and snap it into place, pressing it to the floor.
End seams in adjacent rows should be shifted by 30-40 cm, i.e. arrange in a checkerboard pattern. This will evenly distribute the pressure on the panels. The installation of the laminate is carried out in a "floating" way - the panels are attached to each other, but not attached to the base.
Quite often there is a need to put such a coating directly on the parquet. Is it possible? Laying laminate on parquetpossible and quite common. And in this case, it all starts with the preparation of the foundation. Not very big defects of the existing parquet are eliminated by a grinding machine. Loose planks are glued or nailed, cracks, cracks are puttied. If the deviations are significant, and it is not possible to dismantle the parquet, sheets of plywood are laid on top (according to the level) and fixed with self-tapping screws or nails. Then the substrate is spread, the laminate is laid and fixed with a plinth.
