Laminate flooring : Cutting

[Mike]

Laminate flooring : Cutting

I will be laying a laminate floor this weekend and I hoping to do it over the weekend. (About 30 m2)

I wondered what to get to cut them. As most of the time will be cutting the ends and length when I get to the side of the room I did not know whether to get a jigsaw or hire some form of bandsaw.

Any ideas…..

Thanks

Mike

[Paul]

Jigsaw or a good handsaw is more than enough to do the job. Make sure the saw blade is designed to do the job or you could chip out the laminate finish.

[Salu]

The narrower the teeth on the saw the finer the cut....

[gazzae]

When I laid my laminate floor a jigsaw did the job for me. Its also handy if you have a workbench to hold the board in place.

[Roy MM]

I just used jigsaw

[paulyoung666]

right that looks like the cutting sorted , whatever you do , DO NOT butt the ends of the board upto skirting boards and as best you can try and lay the boards in the main direction of travel of the room , i.e. if it is a hallway then lay them along the length of the hall not across the width

[bopdude]

I used a jig-saw as well, shouldn't really matter that much as all your cuts will be along the wall line ( or should be ) then the quadrant beading will hide the edges

[Jules]

And then come and do mine! I have had it stacked in my living room for a year now!

[punky]

Originally Posted by Mike

Laminate flooring : Cutting

I will be laying a laminate floor this weekend and I hoping to do it over the weekend. (About 30 m2)

I wondered what to get to cut them. As most of the time will be cutting the ends and length when I get to the side of the room I did not know whether to get a jigsaw or hire some form of bandsaw.

Any ideas…..

Thanks

Mike

Jigsaws are much cheaper. You can get a half decent one for like 15-20 quid in B&Q now. That'll be the cost of hiring a bandsaw, probably.

If you are cutting a lot of curves, especially if they aren't very regular, a jigsaw would be better as it is more controllable. It is smoother doing curves on a bandsaw rather than jigsaw, but it isn't really helpful for intricate cuts, especially if you have the long planks of wood laminate (the small squares wouldn't be so bad)

A jigsaw would probably do you. If think you'll need to cut lots of straight edges, then you may want to consider getting a circular saw. They are designed to go straight, and makes the job a bit easier. They are as cheap as the jigsaws now.

Another tip, make sure you use sealant, not caulk to bead all the joins (walls, basins, etc). caulk dries hard, so it will crack when things move. Sealant will remain flexible when dry so it shouldn't crack. Edit: Or like Bop says, use a bit of angle dowell (probably won't work for bathrooms though if you have tiles), and it will give you plenty of margin for error. If you are going to utilise that extra inch of room you may want to consider blocking the wood in place or tacking it under the dowell, otherwise it will slip and push the rest around.

You may also want to buy some decent wood files (round and square ones). You'll need to file down the wood for the intricate bits, and you'll struggle to do it with sandpaper or a powertool (even with the Black & Decker sander mouse)

HTH.

[zoombini]

For cuts that will be on show, it can also be a better joint if you run a stanley knife blade along the edge of where you are going to cut first.
Stops it fraying.

[SMHarman]

Jigsaw and HSS blade (the fine teeth are great).
For around door frames etc, a contour gauge (if thats what you call them) a thing with lots of metal pins that you push against a shape and it leaves it as an outline to drawer onto the flooring for a perfect outline to cut.

If you can get the baseboards off the wall and then lay and then replace the baseboards it looks much better.

If you have any cables etc you need to run under the floor - do it now or your sub-floor will forever be sealed away.

If you are putting this in a wet place make sure you use the foam not the board underlay as that will not expand and hold the damp if it gets wet.

Buy some Knee pads.

[Angua]

Whatever you do leave an expansion gap around the edges. The people we bought our house from didn't and now we have some springing and only taking the whole floor up and re-laying will solve the problem (worse still it doesn't seem to be the "clic" type).
Also Circular saws are definitely better for straight cuts.

use a jigsaw and get either a laminate floor or worksurface blade. They only cut on the downward stroke so make sure you have the good surface facing up when you make the cut.

It actually doesnt matter if you make a mess of the cuts as you will cover all of the cuts either with skirting boad or some beading

[Tuftus]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Jigsaw and HSS blade (the fine teeth are great).
For around door frames etc, a contour gauge (if thats what you call them) a thing with lots of metal pins that you push against a shape and it leaves it as an outline to drawer onto the flooring for a perfect outline to cut.

If you can get the baseboards off the wall and then lay and then replace the baseboards it looks much better.

If you have any cables etc you need to run under the floor - do it now or your sub-floor will forever be sealed away.

If you are putting this in a wet place make sure you use the foam not the board underlay as that will not expand and hold the damp if it gets wet.

Buy some Knee pads.

Good point!!!

Definately buy knee pads!!!!

I didn't and my knees ached for days!

[bdav]

I used a big hand saw and a mitre block thing. Gets much straighter cuts!