I am going to start laying a glue-less laminate floating floor today after work and had a couple of questions. I am doing a Living room and hallway that are attached, and 2 bedrooms off the hallway. Its about 525 sq ft total.
1) I have a table saw with an 84 tpi blade designed for cutting laminate, can I use the table saw to cut the corners for around a door jamb. I plan on starting the saw, making the cross cut 2" or so into the piece, then stopping the saw and backing the piece out. Then rotating the piece and making the rip cut to remove the corner of the laminate.
Anyone do this before? or should I go buy a jigsaw to use along with the table saw?
2) How to go around heating registers?
I have forced air heating. The vents are in the floor, but right along the wall, so I am using baseboard air diffusers These: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=64487-33599-ABBBWH18&lpage=none
I can put the flooring under the left and right sides, but the long edge of the diffuser is very thin, and I'm not sure how close the flooring can be to the hot air coming up.
Any problems with furnace air causing excessive expansion/contraction of laminate flooring? I guess I would leave the flooring on the outside of the vent, and use a flexible white or clear caulk to cover the expansion gap. I would rather have all of the expansion gaps hidden.
3) Minimum strip width.
The hallway is 35" from wall to wall. Taking into account the 3/8" expansion gap on both sides, and the 7 1/2" width of the flooring, I am going to end up with a piece 2.125" on both sides of the hall. The manufacture says the minimum strip width is 2.5". Think I'm close enough to go with a skinny strip?
If I try and make it so one wall of the hall has a full piece, and the other side of the hall gets a piece thats 4.25" then I end up trying to fit a 1.5" piece into a doorway which I think would be worse than a skinny strip down the side of a hall where no one will actually step on it.
4) Mixing different batches.
I sorted my boxes of flooring last night and I have 3 different lots.
10 boxes (~250 sq ft) were made sometime in June, 10 boxes were made sometime in July, and the last 3 were made back March.
250 sq ft would cover the living room, but not the hallway attached to it.
Should I a)do the living room with 1 lot, and do the hall way and 1st bedroom with the second lot
or b) just mix up all the different lots and hope there isn't a noticeable color variation between the different lots.
1) I have a table saw with an 84 tpi blade designed for cutting laminate, can I use the table saw to cut the corners for around a door jamb. I plan on starting the saw, making the cross cut 2" or so into the piece, then stopping the saw and backing the piece out. Then rotating the piece and making the rip cut to remove the corner of the laminate.
Anyone do this before? or should I go buy a jigsaw to use along with the table saw?
2) How to go around heating registers?
I have forced air heating. The vents are in the floor, but right along the wall, so I am using baseboard air diffusers These: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=64487-33599-ABBBWH18&lpage=none
I can put the flooring under the left and right sides, but the long edge of the diffuser is very thin, and I'm not sure how close the flooring can be to the hot air coming up.
Any problems with furnace air causing excessive expansion/contraction of laminate flooring? I guess I would leave the flooring on the outside of the vent, and use a flexible white or clear caulk to cover the expansion gap. I would rather have all of the expansion gaps hidden.
3) Minimum strip width.
The hallway is 35" from wall to wall. Taking into account the 3/8" expansion gap on both sides, and the 7 1/2" width of the flooring, I am going to end up with a piece 2.125" on both sides of the hall. The manufacture says the minimum strip width is 2.5". Think I'm close enough to go with a skinny strip?
If I try and make it so one wall of the hall has a full piece, and the other side of the hall gets a piece thats 4.25" then I end up trying to fit a 1.5" piece into a doorway which I think would be worse than a skinny strip down the side of a hall where no one will actually step on it.
4) Mixing different batches.
I sorted my boxes of flooring last night and I have 3 different lots.
10 boxes (~250 sq ft) were made sometime in June, 10 boxes were made sometime in July, and the last 3 were made back March.
250 sq ft would cover the living room, but not the hallway attached to it.
Should I a)do the living room with 1 lot, and do the hall way and 1st bedroom with the second lot
or b) just mix up all the different lots and hope there isn't a noticeable color variation between the different lots.