Justwondering if ic ant some quick tips on laminate flooring

Just wondering if I could get a couple of quick tips? The laminate I’m fitting is drop and lock. I’ll be getting a jigsaw and decent blades and possibly one of those laminate tool starter kits with the spacers and tapper and stuff. I was just wondering from the picture where in the room would be the best place to start.

I was going to run them straight down from the door and not across as I reckon it would be a nightmare to do it across. I was going to start at the front door and run down. If anyone has any recommendations would be glad to hear them. Are there any other tools which might prove useful?

Also when fitting them against door trims at the bottom do I run it straight up to the trim or leave the gap around the entire room? Just a lot of videos online show people cutting into the trim and sliding them under. I can’t do that as my place is rented and if I cock it up ill have to pay to fix it.

My other concerns are your supposed to lay them as such the groove facing into when you’re laying and the tongue side facing the wall. However if I was to start at the right of the front door when I get to the left of it at the wall do I adhere to the rule and lay the groove side facing the wall or do I have to break that rule and flip the board round and have the groove facing the wall.

After posting those pictures I actually worked out it would most likely be best to start at the top left of the door and finish in the bottom right corner. Still any recommendation I f im wrong.

I also see another problem is when I get the bottom part of the hallway with the board that comes from the right of the front door. Do I have to flip the side around as the tongue side wouldn't connect to the right section of the hallway?

Would appreciate any tips actually though I only needed to ask a couple of things but apparently that’s not the case.

Also when getting up to a door separator say laminate to vinyl do i leave a gap between bot materials or go right up to the material in the other room?




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I am not a pro but have done a few, The proper way is to undercut the architraves but as said you cannot do that in rented however you are lucky in having "square section architraves so should be able to fit trim. around them.
The door trims are easy remove the existing carpet trim and replace with carpet to laminate ones.
I would run as you say along the length of the hall less waste and looks nicer.


On a small bit like a hall just lay out the planks to see how much to trim off the first edge lay that with a row of complete planks against it and work to the other side.

Leave a gap under the door bars.

If the recommended expansion gap is 1.5cm is this from the edge of the door bar or the material in the other room?

The gap is from whatever it will butt against if it expands so the floor covering in the other room or any kind of shoulder or fixing channel that the door bar has.

Fact is you really do not need the massive 15mm gap on the hallway that is only a metre wide.

If you think about it they give the same spacing for a room that might be 4 or 5 meters wide if that is enough for a whole room your hall will not expand that much, I think the requirement is something like 1.6mm per metre so if you allow even as little as 5mm each side you should be fine with some to spare! Then leave a bigger expansion on the long measurement of course, fact is if you are using the trim 15mm is often too wide to cover., so if you find you need to reduce to 10 or 12 don't worry.