Laminate flooring DIY - Advice needed

Hi All,

I am going to be laying down laminate flooring in my main bedroom and WIR in the upcoming weeks.

I have a few questions which I was hoping you guys could assist me with.

1: What would be the best direction and starting place to lay down the flooring? See attached floor plan
2: What tools are needed when starting a job like this?
3: Is it better to remove the skirting before putting down the laminate flooring?

With regards to question 3, I have old ugly, brown skirting (see attached), which I?m looking at sanding down and painting. Considering the effort involved in sanding the old skirting, would it make sense to just replace it with new skirting? There is only about 20 meters of skirting needed.

Thanking you in advance!

Cheers,
Robbie
 

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1. direction in your situation is personal preference, with the wir where it is if you run them along the long side you will make the wir look wider, but if you go the other way you could make it look longer!

2. Circular saw, hammer and block of timber are the main things.

3. In this case it would be best to rip them up, it will looks heaps better than putting some quad against the skirts. Plus save on sanding etc. Rip it up!
 
Bob's pretty right.

Really easy to lay but, same as tiles, start in the corner where your eye would normally fall first.

Remove the skirting boards - a definite do!

Need drop saw preferably for cutting shorter lengths (or circular) - jig saw (electric or hand) for any un-straight-line fiddly bits - hand saw for those more delicate straight cuts - a hammer - and most certainly buy the specialised block for tapping the boards together, and the hook for tapping in the very end board.

Make sure you put the underlay down ... helps if you have an "assistant" to make the cuts, do the fetching and hand you the boards so that you can just get down on your knees and lay them.
 
Leave them in the room your going to lay in them in 24 hrs before you lay them, also don't forget to leave a gap at the walls for expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations
 
Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated!

Regarding the skirting.. the guy at the flooring shop suggested that I leave the skirting on and rather using beading to cover the expansion gap because the walls might get damaged when removing the skirting.

I guess as long as I?m careful when removing the skirting there shouldn?t be any issues.
 
Just make sure you remove the skirts carefully - always put a wood block behind you hammer or J-bar as you prise them off
 
Another two questions I have..

4: Do you undercut cavity sliding door frames the same as you would normal door frames? The reason I ask is because the cavity sliding door jambs seem to be attached to a metal casing. All of the DIY YouTube videos show the undercutting as a few simple cuts and the undercut pieces just popping out easily, so was wondering if it was the sames for all types of frames?

5: What sort of gap should I leave at the room transition, between the slate tiles in the hallway and the new laminate floor in the main room? I?m guessing the height of the existing slate is about the same as the new laminate flooring.
 

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