Laminate flooring question

[pw5599]

Great forum here! I was glad to find and join the discussions here.
I've got my plan worked out for my laminate installation with the exception of one thing I cant seem to find an answer for.

I am starting a laminate floor installation in my home which will be the hallway, dining room and 3 bedrooms. Approx 600 square feet of Hercules 7mm laminate will be laid. It's a 3 bedroom house, 1300 square feet or so. The hallway is 3 feet wide, 25 feet or so long and the bedrooms and dining room all have their entrances off the hallway and the width of each room is approx 12-15 feet from the hallway edge to the furthest wall from the hallway. The end bedroom is located straight through at the end of the hallway. The other 2 bedrooms have their entrances off the long sides of the hallway, as does the dining room.

My question is, the possibility exists where I can put this floor down without using spacers, T strips, transition strips, etc from room to room. Should laminate floor be installed in such a manner where it seamlessly goes from hallway into other rooms thus making the entire floor one interconnected piece. Obviously there will be the proper expansion joints at the walls in each room.

Thanks!

[pushkins]

Yes you most certainly can have the laminate running from room to hallway without transition strips.
The problem is going to be can be very difficult to work backwards with laminate, You should be laying it with the tongue being inserted into the plank already down.
If you have 1 room on one side of the hallway and all the other rooms are either level or on the other side of the hallway then you simply start in this room at it's furtherest wall (from the hallway) and work your way into the hallway, across the hallway and into the other rooms. The problem starts if that room at the end of the hallway is also partly on he same side of the hallway as the room you started in. If this is the case you then have to partly work backwards with the plank installation.
As long as you leave adequate expansion allowances on ALL walls and door frames/jams (if your undercutting the trim) you should be good to go.

[pw5599]

Thanks Pushkins.
I've attached a layout this time.
I'm doing laminate in the hall, dining room, and the 3 bedrooms.

Bedroom 2 at the end of the hallway would be part of the hall run at about 35 feet and with the bedroom that'd be another 8 feet or so. For that one I'm thinking to do an expansion joint at bedroom 2 since it's over the maximum 40 feet that Hercules Flooring recommends. On reading the instructions again, they state that 40 is the longest run without joints and they also recommend joints between rooms.

Bedroom 1 and 3 across from each other with the hall between them span about 30 feet wall to wall so I think that's safe enough but as you said, working backwards wouldnt be easy.

As per your suggestion, I could start at the bedroom 1 north wall working towards the hall but after 14 or so feet and getting to the hallway I'd suspect it may not be exactly square to that wall. Seems nothing in this house is square. If I can get past that, I can carry on across the hall and into bedroom 3. That way I'm working in the proper direction for tongue into groove installation.

The dining room would end up being groove into tongue but the Uniclic system does allow for either angled or the lay flat tap-into assembly. Or to get past that I could start in bedroom 3.

In the end I'd like the hall, dining room, and bedroom 1 & 3 to be connected with no joints. It's a large one piece section and the bedroom doors arent exactly opposite as you can see. They're offset from each other by about 3 feet. I'm concerned about the uneven expansion pressure in the hallway where the 3 rooms connect to different points of it. Or is that not a worry and I'm over thinking this? Or is this plan going to be more trouble than it's worth for a 1st timer?

[pushkins]

For a first time laminate flooring job, your taking on a tough one, it's very do-able you will just need to have patience.
If it were me I'd start in bedroom 3 on the south wall, that way you would only have 11' of backtracking in bedroom 2. The hallway, bedroom 1 and the dining rooms would simply flow from the hallway.
If you start like you suggested in bed 1 then the whole dining room would be back laid.
Almost no homes are perfectly square especially when you trying to tie in multiple rooms.
One thing to think about is the main eyesight area....the hallway, you will want before all else this area to look as straight as possible, because it's a long straight stretch, seldom covered with any furniture. set out some planks against one wall on the south bedroom 3 side of the hallway across the doorway and down the hall, measure from planks to the opposite wall and try to make it as even as you can. Once you have positioned the planks where you want them measure back into bedroom 3 to the south wall, this will give you a guide for how to start on this wall, if after you measure you find that the first piece would need to be 1", then move the planks in the hall to allow this first plank to be bigger or smaller (you'd cut 1" from the hallway plank) to make the first plank a full plank etc...
In your situation it's kind of difficult to fully explain, this is one of those cases where visual experience is worth 1000 and 1 words.

If you want to lay the flooring like you suggested (1,3,hallway and dining with a transition in 2) then what about laying bedroom 2 or bed 3 for that matter, perpendicular to the hallway planks, this then looks very deliberate and like you designed it that way.

[gsmurray24]

I like Pushkins plan for starting in Bedroom 2 and working North towards Bedroom 1. The key to the whole thing, agreed, is the visual of the hallway. Forget about looking at the whole layout, you can't see it all (unless you have x-ray vision). The critical part is the run from the hallway into Bedroom 2, which you'll see when that bedroom door is open.

Patience is the key to this job. The laminate flooring is easy stuff, and you have complicated it by cutting into the various rooms.

Perhaps, as suggested, you do run the hallway, bedroom 2, and kitchen all in one run, and quarter-turn bedroom 3 and bedroom 1 to differentiate them. It certainly would stand out, maybe not completely, but a threshold moulding in the door would accentuate it.

Take your time, and remember, they can always be un-clicked!

[pw5599]

I'm not sure what to do so far. All manufacturers recommend and some state that you must use a transition strip with a proper expansion joint between rooms. I'm gathering that laminate flooring does contract and expand enough to warrant these instructions. If I directly connect 3, maybe 4 rooms that each has 4 times the amount of planks than the 3 foot hallway width I may be asking for trouble if the planks expand. I'd have the areas in the hall where the rooms are connected with different pressure being put on those points. I can see why the manufacturers recommend or insist upon a transition strip between every room.

If I follow the window light source positioning idea (parallel to light source) then bedroom 1 and 2 will be aligning the same as the hall. Bedroom 3 will be the other direction. The dining room can go either way, it has a light source on both sides. I will need a transition strip in room 2 since the run is too long and room 3 because of the plank orientation. Since I live in a place where the climate varies from -40 in the winter to +40 (Celcius) in the summer and humidity levels are very dry in winter, high in summer, I'm starting to think I should play it safe and do the recommended transitions between rooms.

[pushkins]

Then you just answered your own question !

[pw5599]

I have been talking to some people locally who have installed laminate floors. Most of these are knowledgeable people and the majority of these told me to go ahead without the transitions/gaps between rooms. Most stated their floor size has not changed since putting it down. Some have done their floors without gaps between rooms, some have not.

So I thought I had now decided to go with the no transition between rooms. I made the plan, and would start this weekend. Now a little glitch has appeared. I received a reply to an email I sent to Unilin, the company that has such lines as Hercules and Quickstep. This is the reply I received:

"I'm sorry, this is not possible for us to warranty the
installation if you chose to install without transitions. However you may
do it if you are will to do the repairs if needed at your expense."
Unilin Installation Technical Manager

I replied to him saying that the only reference to transitions between rooms on the instructions is that they "recommend" using them. I cannot find it written anywhere that not using them voids the warranty.

The price on the T strip is $23, the track it fits in is $8. These are 8 foot lengths. I'd need 3 of those making for an additional cost of $93. I'm wondering if that's why they recommend them....

[pw5599]

I've had a clarification from Unilin. The rep passed it on to another rep who deals with the Hercules line since he doesnt handle Hercules. The other rep stated that it wont void the warranty and should be fine as long as proper gaps along walls, etc. are made.

I'm going ahead with the floor as planned, with no doorway gaps and moldings.
Thanks for the feeback :beer:

[pw5599]

Spent alot of hours on the floor this past weekend. We finished the hallway and are partially into 2 bedrooms with no seams. It's looking good so far but I do have a tip that I wished I had read somewhere before starting.

I slightly damaged about 3 boards on the edge using the recommended tapping into place method. I was surprised to find out you have to whack the tapping block quite hard to get the planks into place. At least I was able to use those planks elsewhere. As for the tip...

I saved my scraps and from those I picked 2 pieces, 1 with a good tongue edge and 1 with a good groove edge. These pieces are 2-4" long and the same width or slightly smaller than a regular plank. Size dont really matter in this case. I click the piece onto the plank I will be tapping on and using a tapping block of any type, put the block against the scrap attached to the good plank and tap it into place with no fear of damage. Remove the scrap piece carefully and move on.