Lamenate floor laying problems

alright all,
just purchased some lamenet flooring and had a go at laying it myself as told it was easy. Spent all day sat and thought it was going well untill i start walking upon it and numerous boards start poping up and coming away from each other. I noticed that the majority where not cliped in properly. It is the 'tonge and groove' kind that clips in horizonatally and then also to the aligning piece to its left as you are laying it from left to right. Is there a 'knack' to doing this as i have had to start again and want to get a 'heads-up' before going back to it... any advice would be great
thanks

Re: lamenet floor laying problems

I've layed Quickstep Uniclick several times and have found that they really need to be hammered home to connect them properly. Just use an off cut, click that on to the board that needs to be hammered home and hit the offcut with a hammer. Do this a few places along the lenght of the board. You'll use up a number of off cuts this way as they eventually disintegrate, but I've not had any problems with the floors I've put down.

Re: lamenet floor laying problems

I'd absolutely reccomend it. I have it running from my front hall, through the living room through to the dining room. Beautiful finish and very hard wearing - ideal for high traffic areas. Have a look at http://www.quick-step.com

have a look at this as well [broken link removed] I have put this down a few times and you would hardly even need to use a hammer, just finished my upstairs and it went down no bother.

Besides using off cuts to hammer them home you can just use a straight edge from a lenght of timber 2X1 or whatever, something small.

Some people recommend leaving the odd expansion gap even between the boards (essential to leave gaps at the sides, take off the skirting is best, or otherwise use that quadrant strips of timber you can buy to cover off the gap between the end of the board & the skirting.

Essential that the floor is fully dry before any type of timber goes down. I presume you and usuing polythene and/or foam underlay with it.

Tip, dont keep starting from the same side of the room, come to an edge and start going the other way from that edge. Size up any obstacles (door frames etc) and decide which side to start from, easier to cut a few bits off a full board to angle around a corner etc than to try to finish off with that tricky bit.

& obviously (but I've done it!) never cut off both the tongue & the groove from both ends of a "plank" as its then useless !!!!!