Choosing a laminate as a floor covering, home craftsmen most often carry out work on laying it on their own. But an unprofessional approach is not able to take into account the individuality of a particular room and many other nuances.
What styling method to choose
If you read the instructions on the packaging, you can understand how to lay the material using the simplest method. It provides for parallel placement of products relative to the walls. This method is preferable if the floor has a strictly geometric shape (deviations of several degrees should not be taken into account).
If the trimmed space has semicircular sides or is the result of an incorrect layout, a more successful way to install the laminate is to lay it diagonally. In this case, the inclination with respect to the wall can be from 30 to 45 °. Compliance with an inclination of 45 ° is considered optimal, but adjacent walls rarely turn out to be strictly perpendicular, so the angle in one room can vary.
The main advantages of diagonal styling
The main advantage of laying the laminate diagonally is that this technology allows you to hide the design flaws and smooth out the irregularities of the walls. If you want to increase the space of a dark and narrow room, then diagonal cutting of the flooring will be a great option.
Should I choose diagonal styling
This technique is justified if the room is not cluttered with furniture. Created lines will stretch the floor, and the room will seem more free on the surface. Another argument in favor of this method is that the diagonal pattern looks more interesting than the one that is formed by parallel mounting. It opens the field for creativity and allows you to change the space, making it brighter and highlighting functional areas.
The main disadvantages of installing a laminate diagonally
Having familiarized yourself with the pros and cons of laying a laminate diagonally, you can determine for yourself which technology to give preference to. Among the shortcomings of the described approach when installing flooring, it should be noted that after the work a lot of waste remains. Therefore, repairs are more expensive than with the traditional arrangement of slats.
Due to the angle of inclination, the laying of the coating is not only uneconomical, but also quite laborious. Before starting work, you need to calculate everything to the smallest detail in order to acquire the right amount of material. Another drawback is that, due to the lack of experience with the master, the result does not always live up to expectations, and the material is spent earlier than the finished area is filled. It is not always possible to find boards from the same batch in the store, in this case there is a risk that the floor covering in different parts of the room will have different shades.
Tool preparation
If the disadvantages of laying the laminate diagonally did not scare you, you can start work. First you need to take care of the availability of all tools and materials. Among them are the following:
- The substrate.
- Electric jigsaw.
- The mallet.
- Knife.
- Joiner's square.
- Scotch.
- Roulette.
- Pencil.
The substrate may be roll or sheet. Its area should completely cover the premises. When choosing an electric jigsaw, you should focus on the main working part, which should have frequent small teeth. A circular saw or hacksaw is suitable for solving the issue.
You should take care of the presence of a mallet with a rubber tip, which is sometimes replaced with a hammer. Joiner square must have a clear line. If a good knife is not at hand, you can do clerical.
Surface preparation
Laying the laminate diagonally begins with cleaning the base of debris, dirt and dust. Then you can start laying the substrate. If it is represented by separate canvases, then the seams should not coincide between adjacent rows. Joints are well glued using adhesive tape.
If you purchased a roll backing, its stripes roll around the room. The material should reach the wall. If there are communication pipes on its way, it is necessary to trim.
Concrete and wood floor preparation
If you started laying the laminate diagonally with your own hands, it is very important to prepare the floor. When the base is concrete, the base is leveled with a leveling mass, which is also called a self-leveling screed. It allows you to make the surface perfectly smooth, and the master will not need special skills.
One of the basic requirements that apply to a rough coating before laying a laminate is the evenness of the base. Lumps and pits can cause uneven lock loads. As a result, they break, and cracks appear on the surface. The instruction for laying the laminate on the diagonal provides for compliance with the rules for the preparation of wooden flooring. Screed in this case is not used.
Irregularities can be eliminated using sheet material such as OSB or plywood. The canvases are laid on the surface and screwed on, which makes it possible to smooth out irregularities. To achieve a better result, the material can be laid in 2 layers. In this case, the upper sheets should overlap the joints between the sheets in the lower row.
Before you lay the laminate diagonally, a photo of such coatings is recommended to be considered. They will allow you to understand what texture and color of the coating to give preference. However, the choice of material is not the only factor that affects a successful outcome. It is important to prepare the rough coating correctly.
Laminate does not like dust and small debris, such as pebbles, underneath. The floor will respond to them with a creak or a slight crackle. Before laminate flooring, it is necessary to perform high-quality cleaning. It is better to use an industrial vacuum cleaner for this.
Recommendations for laying flooring
Laying the laminate diagonally starts from one of the corners of the room. Close to the walls of the lamella should not be placed. To create a temperature gap, special wedges must be used. Their role can be performed by trimming laminated boards. Their thickness will allow you to get the desired clearance.
Laying the laminate diagonally begins with the board, which will be in the form of a trapezoid. She will make the first row. To prepare this part, you can make a template or use a square, as well as a tape measure. To saw off the excess, you need to use a hacksaw or jigsaw.
When in a row there will be not one board, but several, from the leftmost one it is necessary to cut off excess pieces. All boards of the row are connected and attached to the previous row. To achieve high density at this stage is not worth it. For the final adhesion of the elements to each other, you should use a mallet, which products tap on the ends.
When laying the laminate diagonally, it is necessary to gradually approach the corner of the room. It should change direction. An extra piece is cut from the board. Next, you must act according to the scheme.
How to avoid mistakes
After acquiring a laminate, do not immediately begin laying it. It is necessary to allow the material to lie at room temperature, acclimatize. Lamels do not need rigid fixation. It is not worth screwing or gluing them, otherwise, cracks may appear on the surface over time, and the coating will deform. The width of the indent from the wall should be approximately 15 mm, since wood can expand or dry out when exposed to moisture and temperature changes.
After completion of work, the indents from the walls are covered with skirting boards. They are attached only to the wall. If you fix to the floor, this will exclude the ability of the laminate to expand, which will also cause deformation.
When laying the laminate diagonally with your own hands, step-by-step instructions for the beginning must be studied. From it you can find out that direct blows to the dice with a hammer are prohibited. To connect the elements, it is necessary to apply a wooden block to the end. Otherwise, the locks may be damaged.
Material trimming should be performed with high quality, which is especially true for hard-to-reach spots. This will ensure even product placement. Do not neglect the step of mounting the substrate, otherwise the coating will bend under stress, making sounds. This will certainly cause rapid wear of the lamellas.
After completion of work, it is better to leave the coating for a day, without exposing it to stress. Then you can start screwing the baseboard and installing furniture. If the room has high humidity, then you can not use the old wooden floor as a rough coating. Over time, it will collapse, which will cause deformation of the material.
Finally
Laminate flooring is a modern flooring that can resemble solid wood. Inexperienced craftsmen usually trust specialists to lay it. If you are not one of them, you should remember that at the recommended tilt angle of 45 °, cropping will be standard. There will be less waste. If you make a deviation more, the floors will look ugly. The connection of the individual dies is carried out at an angle of 45 °. The lamellas then lower and snap into place.
The described technology takes more time and energy than traditional styling. If you are not confident in your abilities, then it is better to entrust the matter to specialists. But if everything is done correctly, the room will have a more spacious look, which is important for cramped rooms. After laying the cover diagonally, the space will look lighter and freer, which is especially true for those rooms where the window is not in the center.