Acclimatising laminate flooring

[TheRowans]

The classic mistake I gather is people being impatient and not letting the laminates acclimatise properly before being laid, and consequently the floor bulging.

Ours has been sat in the room they are to be laid in, for app 2 weeks. They were removed from the packaging last night and spread out. Do we still count 48 hrs before we lay even when the floor has been in the room in packages, or is it safe to start to lay after, say 24 hrs out of packaging?

On the laminate subject too, mentioned on another thread, is that if laying from living room out into hallway, to treat hallway as separate room. So is it better to finish living room and put a threshhold in between the two?

Thanks!

 

[WoodYouLike]

Depends on what you mean by laminate flooring?

Melamine Laminate doesn't have any real wood in it, so you can install that almost right away.
Real wood, like Wood-engineered, solids, parquet blocks etc normally need 3 - 4 days preferably in the room they are going to be installed in.
Removing the packaging a day before, or the day you start. No need to wait another 24 hours.

Yes, regard a hallway as separate and install threshold, much better bet to prevent problems going through one area to the other

 

[JohnD]

But surely if the acclimatising is for moisture, the wrapping will prevent it?

 

[WoodYouLike]

No, wrapping is more to protect the boards during transport. It's not 'vacuum-packed' and the wrapped boards are able to acclimatize inside the packaging

 

[TheRowans]

Thanks for advice. We'll get cracking with the floor today. We bought the B&Q Combilay underlay. I have a slight niggle in my mind that the green underlay boards would have been better for absorbing any loose bits from the concrete flooring. Any views on this? Of course the floor will be brushed and hoovered well beforehand, but still? And any unevenness, would that be better absorbed by green boards versus combilay?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Depends on the uneveness itself. Normally some minor dips are fine (hardly see any concrete floor without them), a 'hill' is something else, whatever underlay you use, that will cause some problems.
Comby (2 - 3mm) normally does the trick the 7mm green stuff is more for upstairs on floorboards for better sound-insulation.

Hope this helps and have fun

 

[TheRowans]

Thanks WoodYouLike! More reassured now about the difference between the underlays.

Whereabouts in Kent are you BTW? We're in Medway.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Lovely village of Charing