Laminate Flooring - to line up or not

[billm]

Hi, I've laid quite a few laminate floors in my houses over the years and been happy with the end result. I've always lined up the ends of the boards on every other row. It does cause a bit of waste but that is how I thought it should be done.

However I was just chatting to a mate of mine and he reckons his professional flooring mate doesn't line up board end joints every other row. When he cuts a board to length at the end of a run he uses the off cut as the start board of the next row. So in effect the boards are laid random.

I'm thinking of buying this B&Q laminate floor for my kitchen / diner and wondering which is the best way to lay them.

http://www.diy.com/departments/guar...t-laminate-flooring-164-m-pack/1334063_BQ.prd

I guess it depends on the effect you are trying to achieve. If it was a natural wooden floor that you're trying to emulate I'm not sure the planks would be lined up every other row just as long as they ended on a joist. But there again they wouldn't have been laying 1.2m planks.

Any thoughts

 

[vinn]

I would never attempt to lay wood flooring as shown in the B&Q photo.
Laminate, in particular, is laid random with a min. of 150mm between adjacent joins.
Your mate's friend seems to have the right idea.

 

[chappers]

generally I would agree, but I laid a bamboo floor with a slight bevelled edge at home, with the boards aligned as it looked much better that way. Probably due to the uniformity of the grain.

 

[crazydaze]

Laying laminate or Engineered brick pattern in my opion looks awful, for tile style products it's fine, but for a wood effect, I would always lay with what effectively is a three row stagger as suggested by the 'friend'. If one of my fitters laid a laminate brick work, I'd expect a signed note from the customer confirming they requested it fitted this way.

 

[billm]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll lay it random as suggested.

I've just been reading about QuickStep Hydrokit. It looks to be a clear silicone sealant that they use to seal around the edges of the room, skirting boards etc

https://www.wood2u.co.uk/quick-step-hydrokit-water-resistant-transparent-310ml.html

I've never put any sealant between the skirting board and a floating floor or round doors, radiator pipes etc or on any cut edges.

Is this standard practice nowadays in a kitchen / diner installation where it may get splashed ?

 

[crazydaze]

Thats a preference, we don't seal.

 

[dazlight]

It's more for the vinyl click floors as on some you can leave a small expansion