Advice needed on laying down IKEA laminate flooring...Pictures Included...

Hello Folks,

I'm looking for advice on fitting laminate flooring into a newly built apartment.


We're planning to rent a van and to go up to Belfast to get all basic furniture etc from IKEA, was hoping to have a go at putting down laminate flooring myself.


As you can see in the pictures the floors already have an underlay/padding down, it's about 1cm thick:



What I'm wondering is whether it's fine to just lay down this laminate flooring on top of it:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20070011

They say "When laying floors, always use NIVÅ floor lining, sold separately."

This basically seems to be similar to what's laid there already so I'm guessing there's no need?

They also say:

"When laying floors on concrete, complement with SPÄRRA plastic sheeting."

Now there are concrete floors underneath but the fact this is a 5th floor apartment means water is less likely to come though the concrete? Or do I still need it?



I've done a bit of reading on technique for putting the floor down and it seems fairly straightforward.

Just to check, I'm guesssing I'll need the flooring itself, a few of these kits:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/12622600

Will also need beading (assuming IKEA sell this though it is not on the website) as the skirting boards are already in place.

Is there anything else I need?




Another question I have is this. We are getting a friend to come and tile the kitchen, I'm just wondering how we create a divide between where the wooden floor ends and the tiles begin? I want to do this where the padding changes colour in the picture below:




I'm assuming you need some kind of rigid metal piece attached in place with the flooring flush to one side and the tiles the other. Again I see nothing on the website I assume IKEA would sell it though?



And one final thing, I'll be putting down the flooring throughout the living room, hall and bedrooms. When I come to the doorway separating the living room from the hallway is it best to stop there and separate the two rooms (again using some kind of divider) or should I run the flooring through all in one go:






Any advice you could give me would be much appreciated.


I haven't put down flooring before, as you can undoubtedly tell, but I'd like to give it a try and will have a much greater sense of satisfaction having done it myself.


Thanks in advance,
Robert

To be honest, if you don't know what you are doing you may be wasting your time and money. Your future satisfaction may turn into having to rip out your floors, buy new flooring and having to pay someone do do the job properly for you.



You still need to use underlay and since it is an apartment - soundproofing.

Any DIY store sells tile spacers (different sizes for floor and wall tiles).

'Z' bars are used for the connection between the laminate and tiles.

When we were replacing the carpets with wooden floors earlier this year, the store which sold us the flooring gave us new skirting boards as part of the parcel in order to avoid horrible beading.

The floor layer laid the floor in such way that it is continuous at the doors - excelent job!

I would echo Yachties post above, plus

- If you don't know what's on the concrete floor already, it will be impossible to tell from a picture
- When in doubt, follow the manufacturer's instructions rather than guessing
- You will need to borrow or hire a chop-saw / mitre-saw to cut boards to length. and to shape cut-outs around door-frames, etc. If you've never used one before, please don't start now
- As well as moisture and soundproofing, the products that are laid on concrete before installing a wooden or laminate floor prevent dust coming through and also stop chemical reactions between the concrete and the products laid on top.

I admire your enthusiasm, but worry about you ambition in tackling a major project like this as your first.

Thanks for the reply.

We are doing the decorating on a very tight budget, so this means replacing skirting boards etc. is not an option (will have to live with the beading). Similarly paying someone to put down the flooring when we can do it ourselves (most of the advice on the internet suggests it is easy to do, if a little time consuming) is something I'd avoid doing. We're going with a very cheap floor, so I don't think it makes sense to pay someone a lot more than the flooring materials cost themselves to fit it. If it were an expensive floor or solid wood I'd certainly pay a professional but not for cheap laminate.

So it seems like we will need to put down floor lining first, I'm guessing this will do the trick:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00018076

Is the plastic sheet unnessasary?

The tiling is being done by a professional (relative) so if we do the flooring first up to the Z bar will they then be able to go ahead with the tiles?

Thanks again for your advice

How much incidentally do you think it would cost to get someone to put down the flooring (roughly 70m2) if we had all the materials?

If necessary we could get help with the more difficult cuts from the chap doing the tiles (he has mitre saw) I just assumed that the majority of the work would be straightforward but just take a lot of time (hence hiring someone to do it would be prohibitively expensive)

Thanks

15 eur/m.
Hate laminate, kills the blade on a chopsaw.
You'll need a jigsaw, when laying threw doorway.