Fitting Laminate Flooring
Floating by design, the 8 to 12 mm edge gap, an underlay of at least 14 dB, 75 % RH on a screed, 48 hours in the room, and the order of the job.
Laminate is the floor most often fitted by the person who bought it, and the one where the instructions are most often skipped, because a click joint makes the laying look like the whole job. It is not. The floor is decided before the first board goes down: by the subfloor's flatness and dryness, by the days the boxes spend in the room, by the underlay, and by the gap left at the walls. This guide sets out what the producers' association and UK practice ask for at each step, and what the 5 blocks in the range are.
On this page
Floating, by design
The European producers of laminate flooring, the EPLF, state in their installation bulletin that laminate floor coverings are by conception intended for floating installation; a full-surface adhesive bond is an exception for special circumstances, for example at a client's specific request, and before bonding a laminate over its full surface the installer is urged to check with the manufacturer whether the product is suitable or approved for it. A floating floor is not fixed to the subfloor at all: the boards lock to each other and the whole surface sits on the underlay as one sheet, free to expand and contract as a sheet. Everything else in this guide follows from that.
The boards in the range
The 5 laminate blocks share one specification: an HDF core, 12 mm thick, 100 mm wide and 600 mm long, a click joint, abrasion class AC4, 32 blocks to a box covering 1.92 m², listed as compatible with underfloor heating and carrying a 15-year manufacturer's warranty. Four have a 4V edge and Canterbury a micro-bevelled one, and all five are laid as herringbone. The choice between them is the design. For fitting they are one product, and the instructions in the box are the specification the fitter works to; what follows is the trade guidance that sits behind those instructions.
The subfloor: flat, dry, and next to the ground or not
The boxes in the room
The MMFA, the association for multilayer modular floor coverings, requires the flooring to acclimatise for at least 48 hours in the same conditions as the installation area, stored flat and cross-stacked in unopened boxes at roughly 15 to 25 °C and 35 to 65 per cent relative humidity. An HDF core takes on and gives up moisture with the air around it, and a board that arrives from a cold van and is laid the same afternoon will move after it is down rather than before. The room's heating should be running as it will be in use.
The underlay
The MMFA groups what an underlay does under three headings: levelling small unevenness so that the joints sit right, protecting the board from wear beneath and from residual building moisture, and improving impact sound, walking noise, heat insulation and comfort. For underlays under laminate, EN 16354 sets the test methods, and the EPLF's bulletin says the underlay's impact sound value, ISLam, should be at least 14 dB, tested with the reference floor covering described in the standard. A higher figure on a datasheet is that manufacturer's own declaration. Over underfloor heating the underlay's thermal resistance is the figure to check, and the underlay guide and the underfloor heating guide take that further. The laminate listings in the range name no underlay as included, so it is a separate line on the order.
The gap at the walls
The EPLF recommends an edge gap of 8 mm to 12 mm on all sides of a floating floor, so that the covering can expand and contract without lifting. All sides means every wall, every doorway, every pipe and every fixed kitchen unit, and the gap is kept open by spacers while the floor is laid and covered afterwards by skirting or beading that is fixed to the wall, not to the floor. A gap that is filled, or a skirting nailed down through the boards, turns a floating floor into a fixed one at that point, and the movement it was designed to make has to go somewhere else.
The order of the job
What the fitting cannot fix
EN 13329, the laminate product standard, does not cover areas subject to frequent wetting, and names bathrooms, laundry rooms and saunas. No underlay, gap or joint changes that. For those rooms the range's answer is rigid vinyl listed as waterproof or porcelain, and the LVT against laminate guide draws the line.
Common questions
Can laminate be glued down?
The EPLF describes laminate as intended by conception for floating installation and treats a full-surface bond as an exception for special circumstances, to be checked with the manufacturer first. The boards in the range are click boards for floating installation.
How big should the expansion gap be?
The EPLF recommends 8 mm to 12 mm on all sides, kept open by spacers during laying and covered afterwards by skirting or beading fixed to the wall rather than to the floor.
How long do the boxes need in the room?
The MMFA requires at least 48 hours in the same conditions as the installation area, boxes unopened, flat and cross-stacked, at roughly 15 to 25 °C and 35 to 65 per cent relative humidity.
How dry does a screed need to be?
UK practice following BS 8203 treats readings not exceeding 75 per cent relative humidity as dry enough for resilient coverings, measured with a hygrometer sealed to the surface and left to reach equilibrium. A new screed needs about a day per millimetre for its first 50 mm to get there.
Does the underlay come with the boards?
Not on the laminate listings in the range: the underlay is a separate line on the order, and the choice depends on the subfloor, the room and whether there is underfloor heating.
Whether the ground floor is a screed or suspended timber, and whether it has a membrane, depends on when the house was built. Browse by town and region.
What the published standards say
Who publishes this guide
- Samples £1.99 each
- UK-wide delivery
- Advice before you order