Laminate flooring, will it fit?

[gib_goblin]

My brother-in-law has finished building his new conservatory and offered us some firewood.

I'll never turn down an offer of free wood but on delivery it turned out to be something unexpected: 3mm Oak veneer on laminate with pine backing T&G flooring, 14 boards about 850mm Lengths. We immediately thought it would make a lovely new floor for our hallway.

I have a few questions before getting started though...

- Most of the boards have off-cut ends so they do not have T&G, how easy is to route and biscuit the flooring to make new T&G? Or would it be ok to lay the boards widthways and just trim to fitt?

- In the picture we want the flooring to end level with the doorframe on the left where it will meet the carpet, what is the best way to terminate the flooring against carpet?




We really don't want to use beading if possible, the hallway is quite narrow with a lot of heavy foot traffic and a child buggy, the beading would get a beating.

- Any suggestions for getting the boards under the skirting, without removing it?

- What can I do at the front door where the boards meet a solid stone doorstep.



I've never done any kind of flooring and want to get the best results from this wood, so any ideas to avoid a rough finish would we great.

[Hoovie]

Hi Gib,

Personally, I would lay widthways in your situation and avoid trying to remake T&G profiles.

Given it is a very narrow width in terms of laying down a wooden floor, I wonder how important an expansion gap is?
They normally recommend 10-15mm, I think - but that would be over maybe a 15 foot length or more - your width is about 3' 6" I guess?
I would be inclined to cut the planks to the width between the skirting, plus a few mm, then sand down to the exact width minus a mil or so to get the best edge possible and then lay them down, using a flexible wood coloured filler to take up the slight gap between the plank and the skirting.

B&Q and many other places sell thresholds to transition from laminiate/hard flooring to carpet - they are about £10 for aluminium ones with a wood pattern on top to suit your finish.
You could probably use a similar threshold at the doorstep end as well?

Fit starting at the front door end and work into the house; measure up so you don't end up with a sliver of plank to finish with (if need be, trim the plank at either end of the run to make it look right)

All the above is the approach I would take, anyway

Nice looking firewood - should look smart when it is down

[Hitch]

Certainly got the best of that didnt you!!!

Still, asuming you have enough with the tongue and groove on the long sides, id be inclined to do it width ways. Just cut to fit. I would be tempted to leave a bit of a gap 5mm or so, or the slightest bit of expansion will give you a bit of spring.
It will make it easier to fit aswell.
A nice sealant job down the sides afterwards to hide the 2mm gap each side.

At the door step, just but an edge against it i guess, p[ossibly a bit of grip fill to stop it pushing back...

[big-all]

ok my thoughts here

you first of all need to check if you have enough to cover the area!!!

then if you have enough to cover the area going accross!!!!

then if you lay longways starting with a long offcut how far do you get before you run out off full boards keeping in mind a minimum of 300mm overlap!!!!!

i have re-glued a cut board or 2 with complete sucsess but not fitted in a high wear area you just use the boards either side as splints making shure its more than 300mm overlap

you just take the matching 2 halves cut back to a clean edge cut your lh bit to the lh of the blade and your rh bit to the rh side of the blade then if your blade is slightly out off square it wont matter

what thickness is the wood !!!!

[gib_goblin]

Thanks for all the pointers guys, very helpfull.

Big-all, the thickness is 14mm B&Q Flooring

I've check the amount, there are enough to lay widthways was about 2 boards spare...will have to check lengthways later.

If I go with matching and cutting back....any suggestions for the best blade to use in a Jigsaw & technique to avoid chipping the oak?

I've thought about what Hitch suggest for a sealer, but I would like to avoid any unfinished edges and even with a few mm expansion there's going to be a margin of somekind. So I'll try a 5mm beading from B&Q to give the smallest profile against the wall, painting it white too would help disguise it, that would give a 2mm expansion on both sides.

I think I'll need a plywood base to level the floor as the main floor is a suspended wooden affair. Any suggestions for the correct thickness of plywood?

[big-all]

you would need a chopsaw to get accurate cuts

if you want you can cut slots with a router/ buiscut joiner and use a continuous bit off 4mm ply just clamp 2 bits back to back in your workmate go up one side and down the other

but you need to be extremly carefull as holding a router at around 2ft iand cutting verticly is dangerous and not a natural angle

[gib_goblin]

I have a woodworking bench setup in the shed so routing the ends won't be too bad, and hire of a chopsaw for a half day should be plenty for the trimming.

Mrs Goblin wants the flooring lengthways and will live with the beading, it'll have a normal size expansion gap all the way round.



Would 5mm ply be enough for a level base on top of suspended floorboards?

[Hoovie]

Gib, looking at your hallway, it doesn't look like it would be too bad a job to pop off the left hand skirting (as we see it in the photos).
You could then use a tool like the PMF180E to trim the bottom of the right hand skirting, and start on that side of the hallway, sliding the first run underneath - that would also provide a nice solid holding; far more then some beading. ; Then when you are done, trim the left hand skirting to get to the right height and glue back in place.
Nice secure fittment and no beading needed

BTW, B&Q also sell some good 5 & 7mm underlay that is good at taking small bumps and absorbing them so youbave a nice flat surface to lay on.

[Tryanything]

Hi Gib

Would make a nice bonfire

But a better floor running lenghways, as this looks like engineered flooring expansion should be no problem just leave 2mm gap to the edges and fill with flooring mastic to colour match
For cutting the boards make yourself up a little jig, a baseboard with a fixed straight edge fixed to your work bench, butt the two edges you want to cut up to each other and against the the straight edge face down and cut with a jigsaw following the butt joint any breakout will be on the back side
Stagger all joints and glue the butt and tounge and grooves with PVA

If it don't work out looking nice yourv'e still got your firewood