Advice needed on kitchen laminate floor

[leeky]

Hi,

I'm after some help laying a new laminate floor in my kitchen. I've done another room already but the situation in the kitchen is a bit different...

Basically, there is currently laminate down but it is old and damaged. When it was originally laid, there were no skirting boards so when they went on they neatly covered the expansion gap. I've purchased new laminate and underlay tiles making sure that the thickness is the same as what was already there. The laminate only goes under skirting on 2 sides - the other 2 go under kick-boards, hopefully making my job nice and easy . So far so good.

Question 1 - What's the best way to maintain my expansion gap on the walls with skirting given that if I make / use 10mm spacers I won't be able to remove them as they'll be under the skirting...? Taking the skirting off isn't an option...

Question 2 - given that on the 2 sides that will go under the kick-board there is a pretty much unlimited expansion gap should I be worrying about getting the expansion on the other 2 sides absolutely perfect?

Question 3 - I realise that cork isn't usually the best idea for expansion gaps but given the first 2 questions, would a good compromise be to use 10mm of cork along the problem wall?

A bit of possibly useful info I've just thought about is that the run across the room from the starting / problem wall is quite narrow at about 2 metres so I'm thinking a narrower run = less scope for expansion.

Any help appreciated

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Laminate flooring is largely an inappropriate choice for a kitchen.

 

[leeky]

Laminate flooring is largely an inappropriate choice for a kitchen.

OK thanks... but I didn't really ask that. And laminate it is.. albeit supposedly kitchen/bathroom suitable rather than something from the local DIY store...

Any advice on my questions about laying it?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yep, don't do it.

 

[leeky]

Yep, don't do it.

Really helpful...

 

[ree]

OP, dont be too particular, run the boards to suit yourselves, in a small room like the kitchen there wont be much expansion.

If we are talking about a large kitchen/diner then come back here.

Just estimate the gap when going under the skirting (dont use cork or anything else), and go say one board under the plinth/kickboard. Check that the base unit feet are set back from the plinth.

 

[leeky]

OP, dont be too particular, run the boards to suit yourselves, in a small room like the kitchen there wont be much expansion.

If we are talking about a large kitchen/diner then come back here.

Just estimate the gap when going under the skirting (dont use cork or anything else), and go say one board under the plinth/kickboard. Check that the base unit feet are set back from the plinth.

Cheers Ree - I'm looking at about 16m2 but the room is long and narrow (almost galley style) so not too big. I'll stay away from cork and just estimate.

Now that I think about it, there's probably a fair bit more than 10mm of room under the skirting on the starting wall as we made some decorative cladding panels and put those on the wall after the floor was laid with the skirting on top of the decorative panels. I'll know for definite when I tear the (15 year) old laminate floor up but I'm thinking there is probably more like 20mm which would give me a nice big margin for error.

Unfortunately, the wall runs off a lot... (what wall doesn't in an old house). I'm now thinking I will correct this as much as possible on the starting wall as the first joint will look better running off when it's most of the width of a plank away from the wall than potentially smack bang right next to the kick-board. The flooring I'm working with is narrow(ish) at 95mm - I'll measure up later and get a rough idea of where my joints will fall just to be sure.

I hadn't thought to check the base unit feet , thanks for mentioning it - I've just pulled a kick-board off and they're set back about 10mm .