Laminate flooring and doorways

[sjtaylor_199]

I want to lay a laminate floor in the downstairs rooms of a house, kitchen and lounge. Both rooms will have the same flooring and have an exit door to the outside and one inter connecting door. My first question is do i treat both rooms separate or do i let the floor flow from one room to another. Also i understand about leaving a gap and covering this with some beading around the edges but what exactly goes on in the door way between the two rooms i take it you have to leave a gap but how would you cover this as beading would prevent the door from opening.


Thank you.

 

[masona]

All room has a different temperature, humidity level and the laminated flooring will expand in different ways. You can buy a thin threshold for this purpose. I must admit I didn't bother and took a gamble, if there was a problem I would've cut out a gap in the door way afterward !

 

[swelec]

http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/accessory_detail.cfm?productID=54&type=&cat=

you can get similar connecting strips from all diy stores

sorry BAS

I used one recently to join a normal laminate floor to a bathroom laminate floor

 

[sjtaylor_199]

ok thanks i understnad about keeping the rooms separate and using the joining strip but what about the gap in the door way. do you not leave one or how do you cover it. I dont mean the one running across the door way as this the strip will cover but the one running the width of the door frame between the rooms about about 20 cm.

 

[masona]

Do you mean under the door frame ?

 

[semorgan]

Hi sjtaylor_199, ref above PIC, I'm doing the same upstairs next week

I am going to seperate each room with a FLOORMASTER (B&Q 8 quid) threshold strip. These strips can be used to meet laminate to laminate and laminate to Carpet. The advantage is that you will continue an expansion gap AROUND the room and equally important, will isolate a problem to each room and allow for future relaying

I also have the issue (marked out on pic) where I need to either 'butt' up to the door stay, or decide to 'cut-in'

The floor that you can see in the bathroom (engineered Real-Wood) was laid last week and I am using the SAME Laminate throughout the upstairs to include all bedrooms

As the skirting boards are OLD and I don’t want to remove, I am hiring a 'DOOR CUTTER' (a tool designed to cut doors without removing) from the local hire shop at £25/day to cut into the boards and the ‘door stays’ (ringed), this will eliminate the need for 'tacky' wood quadrants (simply cut and slide laminate into the cut groove)

The ‘door stays’ that you are referring to (ringed), I have yet to decide my course of action. If I 'butt' up to the ‘door stay’ with the laminate I would need to leave a 10 mm expansion gap, so how to fill/hide/cover ?

One guy down the local suggested ..

Cut into the 'door stay' with a horizontal line of very small drill holes and use a chisel and hammer to cut out and slide laminate into this

Another suggestion was to 'butt' up to the 'door stay' and fill with a special FLEXIBLE CO LOURED laminate wood filler (again sold in B&Q)

I would also be very interested in anyone’s opinion on these options

Ps, I’m sure there’s another term for ‘door stay’ but I think you know what I mean, ie the vertical DOOR FRAME

regards

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hi

For those 'door stays' and terrible typical English architraves we use a Feinmaster to cut out the bottom part of door stay etc. This way we can keep our expansion gap all around.
A Feinmaster comes originally from the medical world (bone surgeons) and are available at any good (DIY) tool shop.

 

[semorgan]

Thanks WoodYouLike, I also found this ..

Cut through architraves with an undercut saw using an off-cut board as a guide to rest the saw onto. The floor can then be slid under the architrave and still be able to expand

 

[turbine]

Semorgan, why are you laying Engineered which is at the end of the day is a laminated in a Bathroom, at the max you have only four mil?.

 

[semorgan]

I used 14mm Wesco paramount (eng real-wood)

although this is not recommended for Bathroom/Kitchen by WESCO

I used a polyx hard wax to protect from moisture and spills