[0:00] In this video, I'm going to show you how
[0:01] to install laminate flooring step by
[0:03] step for beginners throughout a whole
[0:05] house. And if you're new to this
[0:06] channel, my name's Josh's all about DIY
[0:09] to save a ton of money. So, be sure to
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[0:15] me. It's all I ask return for making
[0:16] this video. So, we got a lot to go over
[0:18] today. So, let's get started. Here's the
[0:20] laminate flooring that we'll be
[0:21] installing in this video. The great
[0:23] thing about this laminate flooring is it
[0:26] comes with the padding attached to the
[0:27] bottom. So you don't have to worry about
[0:29] placing it on the floor first. And this
[0:31] is by Stain Master. This can be found at
[0:34] Lowe's and I'll put a link to it in the
[0:35] description below if you want to check
[0:36] it out for yourself. And this stuff is a
[0:39] 12 mm thickness and it's also considered
[0:43] waterproof according to the packaging
[0:45] here. And it contains
[0:48] 23.69 square ft per package. So you can
[0:52] calculate your room's material by doing
[0:55] the length times width. add 10% and then
[0:58] that's going to give you how much square
[0:59] feet you need and then you can buy
[1:01] however many boxes it takes to get that
[1:03] square footage. So you already
[1:05] calculated your floor you're getting it
[1:07] delivered. Now what's the next step? The
[1:09] next step is going to be lay your
[1:11] flooring into the rooms that they're
[1:13] going to be installed and let them sit
[1:15] there for at least 48 hours. It allows
[1:18] the flooring to acclimate to the room's
[1:20] temperature and moisture content. So
[1:23] that way when you install it, it's not
[1:25] going to move as much. Let's say it came
[1:26] from a 50°ree truck and then it gets
[1:29] installed immediately. Well, it's going
[1:31] to expand once it starts warming up. So
[1:33] always let your flooring acclimate.
[1:35] Second thing, make sure you prep your
[1:37] floor. Clean it really well. Fill in any
[1:40] depressions in the floor with leveling
[1:42] compound or sand off any humps or bumps
[1:45] that's on the floor. You're going to be
[1:47] thankful later down the road for that.
[1:49] Then the next thing we need to do is
[1:51] pull from multiple packs of flooring as
[1:54] we install it. That way it blends the
[1:56] shades from different colors along with
[1:59] your basic carpentry tools. You're also
[2:01] going to need a tapping block, a pull
[2:04] bar, and spacers. And this came as a
[2:07] kit, and I'll put a link to it in
[2:08] description below. But this is
[2:10] everything you'll need to install
[2:12] laminate flooring as far as any
[2:14] specialized tools. And another thing
[2:16] you're going to want to purchase is a
[2:18] rubber mallet. This is going to be
[2:20] helpful whenever you're placing your
[2:22] laminate flooring together. So, you
[2:24] definitely need to purchase these things
[2:26] before installing your laminate
[2:27] flooring. I'm out here in the garage. I
[2:29] have my miter saw set up to do the cross
[2:32] cutting and I also have my circular saw
[2:34] to do the ripping and my oscillating
[2:37] tools here as well. So, that way I can
[2:39] cut out for floor vents and whatnot.
[2:42] This is where I like to do most of my
[2:44] cutting when I'm installing floor. That
[2:46] way, most of the dust is out here in the
[2:47] atmosphere instead of where I'm working,
[2:49] and it keeps the work environment
[2:51] cleaner. I first have to prepare the
[2:54] first piece of flooring by removing
[2:56] these sections that are on the back of
[2:59] the flooring where the padding is not
[3:01] exposed. This area is also not
[3:04] supported. So, we must remove this first
[3:06] before installing it for our first row
[3:09] only. So, I'm going to use the miter saw
[3:12] to cut this off and then use a circular
[3:14] saw to cut this lip off. The overhang on
[3:17] the short side on the first piece of
[3:19] flooring is the only piece that needs
[3:21] the short side removed. Using a circular
[3:23] saw, I'm going to use it to rip this
[3:25] edge off of the
[3:29] flooring. If you have the ability to get
[3:31] your hands on a table saw in order to
[3:33] rip down the pieces of flooring for your
[3:35] starters, you definitely should. It's
[3:38] really going to save a lot of time and
[3:39] it's also going to be helpful for the
[3:41] finishing up process too later on this
[3:43] video. So, this will definitely speed
[3:45] things up, but the circular saw is fine,
[3:47] but this is definitely what I prefer. I
[3:50] am outside making this cut, but it is
[3:52] recommended that you wear a dust mask
[3:54] when cutting the laminate flooring.
[3:56] Yeah, that's much quicker. You can see
[3:57] that the first piece is now square on
[4:00] the edge that's going to butt against
[4:02] the wall. And that's what we need to do
[4:04] to begin the flooring. Our first piece
[4:06] is to start at the left side of the room
[4:08] and work towards the right. And this is
[4:11] going to be something much easier to do
[4:13] if you have knee pads on. So, I highly
[4:15] recommend purchasing a set of knee pads.
[4:17] You will be thankful in the long run.
[4:19] And also, we have a few shims here to
[4:22] start out with. And I'm going to show
[4:23] you how to set this first one into place
[4:25] and how to mark out for this vent
[4:27] because we need a cutout for that as we
[4:29] go as well. When starting your first
[4:32] row, your drywall is either going to be
[4:33] up high enough to where the flooring can
[4:35] slide up under it, or it's going to be
[4:38] down low enough to where you can butt up
[4:39] against it. It's actually easier to
[4:42] start off of if the floor is able to
[4:44] butt up against the drywall because we
[4:47] can shim our 3/8 right off the drywall
[4:49] that way. But in this case, as you can
[4:52] see, because our floor is going to slide
[4:55] under it, which will give you a better
[4:58] finish lookwise, but it's going to be
[5:00] harder to space off of because our shims
[5:02] won't fit in there, right? So, what I
[5:04] found best to do here is just place our
[5:07] shim like so, and then just put it on an
[5:11] angle and butt up to it like that.
[5:14] That's going to give us our 3/8 inch
[5:16] gap. So, I'm going to do that at both
[5:18] sides here.
[5:20] I'm then going to take one and place
[5:22] that at the very end. Here we can shim
[5:25] off the drywall because our drywall is
[5:28] cleared down to the subfloor. To mark
[5:30] this floor vent that needs cut out, I
[5:32] need to mark the edges. I'm going to
[5:34] begin by marking this very edge here.
[5:38] And I know this is a 10x4 vent. I'm
[5:41] going to come over 10 in just to make
[5:44] sure we are cutting it at the right
[5:46] width.
[5:48] And take note that sometimes this duck
[5:50] work is not perfectly square or the
[5:52] perfect size. So always double check the
[5:55] actual measurement that you need here.
[5:58] And I know that this duct is for a 4x10
[6:01] vent. So because of that, I know I need
[6:04] to allow this much here whenever we cut
[6:07] this out is another 5/8. So whenever we
[6:11] mark our distance back here, we need to
[6:14] remember that 5/8 is still coming up out
[6:17] of here. I'm now going to take this out
[6:19] to the garage to cut it. This is one
[6:21] edge of the vent. Here is the other. I'm
[6:23] going to use a speed square and just
[6:25] make a square mark off that mark that we
[6:29] made while it was on the floor at both
[6:33] areas. I'm now going to allow the 5/8
[6:36] that we measured that's going to be left
[6:39] onto this side to be cut out. I'm going
[6:42] to mark right at 4
[6:44] in. Do the same over here.
[6:47] I'm going to use that to scribe a line.
[6:51] I'm now going to cut that out for the
[6:53] floor vent. I'm just going to use the
[6:55] circular saw to cut down each line and
[6:58] then oscillating tool to finish out the
[7:03] corners. To cut this out, a plunge cut.
[7:06] Or you could run your oscillating tool
[7:08] down the whole line, but it's going to
[7:10] be quicker to plunge cut.
[7:15] To finish out these corners, I'm just
[7:17] going to use the oscillating
[7:22] tool. And that's all there is to cutting
[7:25] out for the vent. I'm going to place
[7:26] this back where it was sitting. And
[7:28] again, we want 3/8 off the wall around
[7:31] all edges of the
[7:34] flooring. As you can see, the floor vent
[7:37] is cut out really nice. We're now going
[7:39] to continue running to the right side of
[7:42] the room. Notice the seam where the two
[7:44] subfloor rows come together. I can use
[7:47] that as a reference from this wall to
[7:50] make sure we are running square with the
[7:51] wall as we run our rows. I got 36 1/2 in
[7:55] off the tongue. And I checked this
[7:58] before we started. If I didn't have this
[8:00] seam to go off of, I could also just
[8:03] measure up 4 foot off each side of the
[8:05] room and chalk a line on the floor and
[8:07] use that as a reference line to go off
[8:10] of. So, as we're running our rows, we
[8:13] can make sure that they're running
[8:14] square with the wall. It's a good little
[8:17] tip. While pulling from a few open
[8:19] boxes, I'm going to take pieces and butt
[8:22] them tight to each other to get our
[8:24] total length. So, we can actually precut
[8:27] all of our starters. And that includes
[8:29] ripping off this back section. So, that
[8:32] way we don't have to run back and forth
[8:34] so many times. So, I'm just going to
[8:36] take this and butt it tight to this one.
[8:39] and then continue the run until we get
[8:42] to the wall so we can cut it. You could
[8:44] also take a measurement of the rest of
[8:46] the length of the row that you need.
[8:48] Then divide it by the length of the
[8:50] laminate flooring, which is a little
[8:52] over 50 in, to let you know how many
[8:54] full pieces you need to rip down to
[8:56] start your first row. Just so I'm very
[8:58] clear here, you only rip the long side
[9:01] off, not the short side for all the rest
[9:04] of them for your first row. The very
[9:07] first one, we had to rip this off as
[9:08] well because it was up against the wall.
[9:11] Just want to make sure that was very
[9:12] clear. In order to connect these
[9:14] together, it's very simple. I'm going to
[9:16] lift up the side that needs clipped into
[9:18] the one that's already existing on the
[9:20] floor. And then we're going to place
[9:22] pressure towards the one that's already
[9:25] on the floor. Then we're just going to
[9:27] lay it down. And it's going to hook
[9:29] together like so. And you can see here
[9:32] that it is not lined up together, which
[9:35] we want to make sure they are. We're
[9:37] going to use the tapping tool. And then
[9:39] we're going to lay it right against this
[9:40] edge. And then we're just going to tap
[9:43] it until it's
[9:47] flush. Okay. And that feels really good.
[9:50] And now again, if this seems like it's
[9:52] separated a little bit, we can take our
[9:53] tapping tool from the other side of the
[9:55] flooring to tap that a little tighter.
[9:57] If you do have to make the joint a
[9:58] little tighter, you could come from this
[10:00] end, tap it a couple times, and that'll
[10:03] tighten that joint right up. That looks
[10:05] really good there for our joint. Using
[10:07] more spacers, we're going to make sure
[10:09] that we are spaced appropriately from
[10:12] the
[10:14] wall. And it doesn't hurt to check with
[10:17] your tape measure to make sure you're
[10:19] running about the same off the wall if
[10:21] your wall is straight.
[10:24] I then rinsed and repeat that process
[10:26] until I get to the next one that needs
[10:28] cut. Something I like to do is put
[10:30] spacers close to the butt joint. That
[10:32] way, it helps keep that butt joint flush
[10:34] with each other at the front. So,
[10:36] whenever you do your next row, you're
[10:38] going to have less issues that way. With
[10:40] the first few pieces down, I'm going to
[10:42] double check to make sure I'm running
[10:44] parallel with the wall. Going to take a
[10:46] measurement here. And I got 36 1/2 in
[10:50] just like my starter. So, I know I'm
[10:52] running parallel, which is very
[10:53] important. And then our distance off the
[10:56] wall is still about 7 in. So, that's
[10:58] looking really good. And if you're
[11:00] wondering about how much coverage we get
[11:02] with each plank, each plank has a length
[11:05] of 50 and 5/8 inch. And the width is 7
[11:09] and 1/2. So, the exposure of 7 and 1/2
[11:12] will give you a lot of coverage per run.
[11:15] That's something I really like about
[11:16] this stain master flooring. This next
[11:19] piece has a vent in it. We need to cut
[11:21] that out. I'm just going to butt this
[11:22] right up to this piece. And now we have
[11:26] a place to go right off of to mark for
[11:28] our vent. Again, I'm going to mark right
[11:30] on the edge and then measure off 10 in
[11:34] to make sure we are going to be placed
[11:36] correctly. And that looks good. And now
[11:40] we can use our same measurement that we
[11:42] used on our first one because this wall
[11:45] has the same measurements for the vent
[11:47] like the first vent. So, that's going to
[11:49] be helpful. I can use my speed square
[11:52] and mark that exactly what the last one
[11:55] was with the distance off and then make
[11:57] a square line. Then do it here as well.
[12:01] I can then just scrub my
[12:06] line. And we also have this door jam we
[12:09] need to cut around. I'm going to measure
[12:12] off the pre-existing piece on the floor
[12:16] and then take off 3/8. That puts me at
[12:20] 38 and
[12:23] a4er. We're going to place that mark on
[12:26] the
[12:28] board. I'm going to measure the
[12:30] thickness here. And that's what we're
[12:32] going to have to take off so that we
[12:34] don't have this part hitting the door.
[12:38] That's 6 and
[12:40] 5/8. I'm now going to scribe that
[12:45] line. This needs cut out. And this needs
[12:48] cut
[12:51] out. All right, we're going to snap this
[12:54] into place and see what we
[12:56] got. So far, it's looking good. Now, I'm
[12:59] going to tap it
[13:01] back. And something you're going to
[13:03] notice, it's going to be a fight to keep
[13:04] this where it needs to be as you're
[13:06] tapping it. You just got to readjust the
[13:08] road that's already there. Just the
[13:10] nature of the
[13:12] beast. Everything looks good here. Here
[13:14] we got to place our spacers and continue
[13:16] the
[13:18] run. For the last piece of the run, I
[13:21] just got to get a total length and
[13:23] subtract 38 of an inch. And then we just
[13:25] got to cut it. Then cut around this
[13:27] door. And it's as simple as
[13:31] that. And this is the final piece in
[13:34] this row.
[13:39] Now that we are finished the first row,
[13:41] this is a scrap that was cut off in
[13:44] order to finish up this row. And this is
[13:46] going to be our starter for the second
[13:49] row. And a very important note here, if
[13:52] this scrap is shorter than 12 in, it
[13:55] cannot be used. It has to be at least 12
[13:58] in. If I take a measurement, we got 12
[14:02] and 3/4 in. So, this is perfect for a
[14:04] starter. And we want to make sure that
[14:06] it isn't too long to where we are within
[14:09] 12 inches from the joint. So let's say
[14:12] this piece was 45 inches. We'd only be
[14:15] about five inches away from the joint.
[14:17] That's too close. We'd have to cut it
[14:19] down. So that' be shorter. So we are
[14:21] going to use this as our starter for the
[14:23] second row. To install the first piece
[14:25] of the second row, it's just like we did
[14:27] with the first piece of the first row.
[14:29] We just got to space 38 inch off the
[14:32] wall using a spacer. and then just click
[14:35] it right into place. After snapping the
[14:37] second row into the first row, I take
[14:39] the tapping block and rubber mallet and
[14:42] tap it into the first row to seal up the
[14:44] joint. And we definitely have to cut
[14:46] around our vents to finish up this edge.
[14:49] To mark for the rest of this vent, I'm
[14:50] just going to lightly lay it into place
[14:53] and not click it down all the way. And
[14:55] then I'm going to mark the vents
[14:59] edge. And then we're going to pull that
[15:01] right back up. And I'm just going to get
[15:04] my total distance here. If we measure, I
[15:07] got about three and a half. So, we need
[15:10] to just take a half inch out of this in
[15:12] order to complete for our cut. And most
[15:16] floor vents, you can get away with a
[15:18] little bit bigger. Let's say 4 and 1
[15:19] eigh by 10 and 1 eigh because there's a
[15:22] flange that goes around the vent cover.
[15:24] And I'll show you that here in a
[15:26] minute. I'm going to cut this out. We
[15:29] now have the tongue here and the tongue
[15:31] here. we got to clip into. I find it
[15:34] best to clip it into the long side
[15:37] first. So, we're just going to place
[15:39] this together like we typically
[15:42] would. I'm going to tap in towards the
[15:46] first
[15:49] row. Now that we're snapped into this
[15:52] row, we need to tap it into this piece.
[15:56] So, we're going to go to this very end
[15:58] here. Going to take my tapping tool,
[16:00] place it right against this, and drive
[16:02] it towards that
[16:06] joint. And it has closed this joint up
[16:08] all the way. That's how you install the
[16:10] rest of the pieces in this row. So, you
[16:13] can see what the floor vent's going to
[16:15] look like when it's finished. If you set
[16:17] that into place, that gives us a nice
[16:19] finished look. And now we can control
[16:22] the airflow up out of the vent. to
[16:24] finish the rest of the second row and
[16:26] the remaining of the rows in this room.
[16:28] We literally rinse and repeat those same
[16:31] principles until we get up to the area
[16:33] where we intersect another room. And I'm
[16:35] going to show you what to do once we get
[16:37] to that point. Because I installed this
[16:39] over a subfloor that is dry, I did not
[16:41] need a vapor barrier. Now, if I was
[16:43] installing this over concrete, I would
[16:45] install a six mill vapor barrier first
[16:47] before installing this flooring. For
[16:49] this last piece, we'll have to use the
[16:50] pull bar to close up this joint. So, I'm
[16:52] going to show you how to do that. So,
[16:54] we're going to go ahead and snap it into
[16:57] place here. And now, we're going to use
[16:59] the pull bar. And this is going to lace
[17:01] back into this gap. We're going to take
[17:04] our regular hammer cuz it will tap
[17:07] better with a regular hammer versus the
[17:09] rubber mallet. I'm going to hold this
[17:11] end down. We're going to tap it to close
[17:13] up that
[17:15] gap. And you can see that closed up the
[17:17] gap really nice. And that last piece
[17:19] looks good. We need to make sure we put
[17:22] our spacers in here. If you have ever
[17:25] installed tile or hardwood floor, you
[17:27] will be amazed on how much quicker
[17:29] laminate flooring is compared to those
[17:31] products. Here's a word of advice.
[17:33] Whenever you get your first three rows
[17:35] done, check your reference line and make
[17:39] sure that you're running the same and
[17:41] that you're still parallel with your
[17:42] wall. And readjust your shims if you
[17:45] have to to make sure you're running
[17:47] correctly. because these first three
[17:50] rows move a lot while you're installing
[17:52] the flooring. And also, we're going to
[17:55] keep running this room. And if you have
[17:57] a helper, it's really good to have him
[17:59] hand you the pieces and cut them as you
[18:01] install them or vice versa. Two men will
[18:04] make this job go three times faster or
[18:06] two women. Just a good little tip. If
[18:08] you are enjoying this type of content,
[18:10] you may enjoy my free PDF. I'll put a
[18:12] link to it in description below. A quick
[18:14] way to mark the end to cut. Flip the
[18:16] tongue around to where tongue is facing
[18:18] the tongue of the previous row. Then
[18:20] mark for your 3/8 spacing and that's
[18:22] going to be where we cut
[18:23] [Music]
[18:32] it. We're up as far as we can go before
[18:35] we have to start this room. In order to
[18:37] start this room to line up with this
[18:39] room really well, it's a very simple
[18:42] process. I'm just going to take a full
[18:44] piece and I'm going to clip it in. And
[18:47] I'm not going to keep this as a final
[18:49] install, but we're just going to tap
[18:51] this into place for now and then do one
[18:53] at the other end of the
[18:55] run. I'm here at the very end of the
[18:58] run. We're just going to snap this
[19:00] in. I'm then going to mark the very edge
[19:03] here and then pull that back up. And
[19:07] this stuff unsnaps really easy if you
[19:09] have to, by the way. And then I'm going
[19:11] to take a nail and nail it right onto
[19:13] that mark. I'm now going to use my chalk
[19:16] line, hook to that nail, and I'm going
[19:19] to run it by that first piece that we
[19:21] installed at the other end of the run
[19:22] and continue it into the following room.
[19:25] I'm going to continue running the chalk
[19:27] line into this room. And we need to make
[19:30] sure that we go right by the tongue of
[19:33] the first piece we put
[19:36] down. And we're going to strike our
[19:39] line.
[19:40] As you can see, that gives us a great
[19:42] reference line to go off of to start our
[19:44] first row. I can now take up the first
[19:47] piece we put down. I now need to
[19:49] calculate how far to measure off this
[19:52] red line to start our first row. If we
[19:54] count the number of rows here, we got 1
[19:57] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. So, if we have
[20:02] 12 rows, we need to measure back 12
[20:06] times the exposure. So, it would be 7.5
[20:09] * 12, which gives us 90 off this red
[20:12] line to our first row. Here is the red
[20:15] line coming into the room. I'm going to
[20:17] hold on that red line and measure back
[20:19] 90 in. I'm going to make a mark right at
[20:21] 90 in on the floor. Okay, we do the same
[20:24] on this side of the room. Mark
[20:26] 90. I now need a chalk line from mark to
[20:29] mark. And that's going to be the chalk
[20:31] line we go off of to start our first
[20:33] row.
[20:38] Here is the chalk line to start with.
[20:40] What I recommend you do is measure off
[20:42] the wall here and we got about 7 in. And
[20:46] then we need to measure off down here as
[20:48] well. Just make sure we're still running
[20:50] fairly square with this room. And we
[20:52] are. So that's going to be great. You
[20:54] can manipulate this some if it's way off
[20:57] for your starter row. I'm now going to
[21:00] start this room just like I did the
[21:01] first room, except I'm going to line up
[21:05] the tongue against that red line so that
[21:08] we know we're going to run true to the
[21:11] other room so we can intersect
[21:14] [Music]
[21:26] properly. I'm now at the point where I
[21:28] need to transition from this room into
[21:30] this room with one seamless row joining
[21:32] the two. Make sure the piece that you
[21:35] start off of on this row that joins
[21:37] these two rooms together that the brakes
[21:40] do not break to where you're too close
[21:42] to a joint out here. So, if you're
[21:44] running this room to where the joint
[21:45] looks good, you may jump over into this
[21:47] room and realize, oops, I'm too close to
[21:50] the joint once I enter into this room
[21:52] because these do not come in various
[21:54] sizes. They're all 50 and 5/8 inch long
[21:57] roughly. So, because of that, you
[21:59] definitely need to make sure when you
[22:00] start out at the back here. It's a
[22:02] measurement that works for this room and
[22:04] this room to make sure this all comes
[22:06] out right. I got a full piece here that
[22:09] I'm going to just touch right where it's
[22:11] going to be installed. And I know this
[22:14] piece I cut down 23 in. And reason why
[22:16] that is once it is installed into place,
[22:20] it's going to break out evenly for the
[22:22] next row. So, that's an important
[22:23] concept to note whenever you're
[22:25] transitioning from room to room. So, I'm
[22:27] going to install these couple pieces,
[22:29] then bring this row with
[22:35] it. Something I've learned from
[22:36] experience, you don't want this too big
[22:39] around this corner, just because your
[22:41] door trim will not cover this up if it's
[22:44] too big. Just keep note of that. Yes,
[22:47] it's a little bit tight right here, but
[22:49] to me, I have to do that. If not, after
[22:52] the doors installed, you're going to see
[22:53] a gap here. Just so you know, that's
[22:55] what I've learned through experience
[22:57] after I go to hanging doors. You can see
[22:59] we transition from that room to this
[23:01] room seamlessly. Looks really good. Now,
[23:03] we're going to continue running the rest
[23:04] of this room we started in. Using the
[23:06] chalk line method, we tied in the
[23:08] bedroom that's after the first bedroom
[23:10] we just installed in. And I also tied in
[23:13] the master bedroom behind the camera as
[23:16] well. So, everything is coming together
[23:18] really nice. I now need to show you a
[23:20] transition from this laminate flooring
[23:23] to a different type of flooring. So that
[23:25] way you know how to use a transition
[23:27] strip and when to use it. I'm here in
[23:29] the master bathroom and I need to
[23:31] transition from the master bedroom to
[23:33] the master bathroom from the laminate
[23:35] flooring to the luxury vinyl cuz the
[23:37] luxury vinyl flooring is going to be
[23:39] more appropriate for a wet area like a
[23:41] bathroom because it's not near as
[23:44] susceptible to water damage like
[23:46] laminate flooring is. Even though this
[23:48] is ready to be waterproof, I'm going to
[23:50] feel better about having some type of
[23:52] vinyl in this bathroom. I now need to
[23:55] stop this flooring somewhere in an area
[23:58] to where the transition strip will be
[24:01] underneath of the door slab. So, this is
[24:04] going to be a end swing door here. The
[24:06] slab is going to be right in this area.
[24:09] So, after we install the rail for our
[24:11] transition strip, we need the
[24:13] appropriate expansion gap here. So, I'm
[24:15] going to show you where to calculate
[24:17] that. In this door opening, the door
[24:20] slab comes flush with this drywall on
[24:22] the bathroom side since it's in swing
[24:25] and it's an inch and a/4 thick.
[24:27] Technically, the slab's going to be
[24:29] right here, but we don't want our
[24:31] transition strip to go past this
[24:33] drywall. So, we want to stop our
[24:37] flooring just enough to be halfway the
[24:40] thickness of the rail for the transition
[24:42] strip. And then we need an expansion gap
[24:45] here, 38, just like we've been doing. So
[24:48] if we stop our floor roughly right in
[24:50] the middle here, the opening that's
[24:52] going to give us the appropriate
[24:54] distance. And when we cut our luxury
[24:56] vinyl, we're going to come in about this
[25:00] far once it's to be installed. So we
[25:02] need to stop this flooring right here.
[25:05] Measuring off the exposed side of the
[25:07] last row, I'm going to measure up to
[25:09] that mark. That gives me just about five
[25:12] inches, four and seven8s. And I'm going
[25:15] to take the piece that I cut down to go
[25:18] around the opening and place that mark
[25:22] on here coming off the finish
[25:26] side. I'm now going to rip this off to
[25:29] make the piece to go under the door.
[25:32] Some installers would simply install the
[25:34] transition strip right in the middle of
[25:35] the door opening for simplicity sake.
[25:38] Just so you know, we can now install the
[25:40] luxury vinyl in the bathroom. Even
[25:42] though I'm installing luxury vinyl here,
[25:44] I wanted to show you how I cut around
[25:45] this toilet flange because you can use
[25:47] the same method with laminate flooring
[25:48] as well. I first found the center and
[25:50] marked it onto the luxury vinyl. I then
[25:53] tacked a nail on that section of the
[25:55] flooring. I then measured the diameter
[25:57] of the toilet flange and then add 3/8 to
[26:00] 1/2 of the measurement and then marked
[26:03] that on the flooring. Use my chalk line
[26:06] to hold on that mark. and then went in a
[26:08] circle around that nail and that's what
[26:11] marked it onto the flooring. I then
[26:13] scrubbed around with my utility knife
[26:14] because this is luxury vinyl with
[26:15] laminate I would not have to do that. I
[26:17] took a coping saw to cut around and
[26:19] snapped it out and you can see it gave
[26:21] me a nice finished cut around the toilet
[26:23] flange. I made a detailed video
[26:25] installing luxury vinyl. If you'd like
[26:27] to check that out, I'll put a link to it
[26:28] in description below. The transition
[26:30] between the laminate flooring to the
[26:32] luxury vinyl is just about a/4 in.
[26:35] Here's the thickness of the luxury
[26:37] vinyl. And here is the laminate. And if
[26:40] we take a look, it's about a/4 in
[26:42] difference. This is an eighth. This is
[26:43] 3/8. And here's our door here. It's a
[26:46] split jam door. So, it pulls apart. So,
[26:49] what we need to do is notch just about
[26:51] a/4 in off this side of the door so that
[26:55] it steps down onto this luxury vinyl.
[26:57] And what you could do here is is put a
[27:00] quarter inch plywood underneath of this
[27:02] luxury vinyl and it could have been
[27:04] flush that way. But this homeowner did
[27:07] not want that. So, we're just going to
[27:09] step it down. So, I'm just going to
[27:10] notch that out of the door before
[27:12] installing it. This was a very simple
[27:13] process. We first took the split jam
[27:15] door apart and then placed it in the
[27:17] opening. And I marked where the laminate
[27:18] flooring met the jam. And I did that on
[27:21] each side of the door because we're
[27:23] going to have to notch around that to
[27:24] settle down on top of the luxury vinyl.
[27:27] We then placed the door on saw horses. I
[27:30] placed a quarter inch mark in order to
[27:32] go down below the laminate floor, then
[27:34] notch it out with my oscillating tool. I
[27:35] could have used a circular saw as well.
[27:38] I then placed the door into the opening
[27:40] and installed it. You can see it looks
[27:42] really nice where we have it installed.
[27:44] I then removed the panel off the door
[27:46] jam so that way it wasn't in the way as
[27:48] we installed the transition strip. And
[27:50] you can see after notching it, it
[27:51] settled down where we needed it. To
[27:53] transition from the laminate flooring to
[27:55] the luxury vinyl, we're going to have to
[27:58] install this transition strip. This is a
[28:00] 4 in one. So, it comes with the T- mold.
[28:02] It comes with the hard surface reducer.
[28:05] It also comes with the transition down
[28:07] to carpet. So, all that is all in this
[28:10] kit. So, whatever transition you have is
[28:13] going to be in here. And this came from
[28:15] Lowe's, and I'll put a link to it in the
[28:16] description below as well if you'd like
[28:18] to pick it up. Here is the metal piece
[28:20] that's going to be screwed down to the
[28:22] floor. And this also came with the
[28:24] screws. And it also came with anchors
[28:26] for concrete. So, we're only going to
[28:28] need these screws for our install. This
[28:31] is the T- mold. This is the hard surface
[28:33] reducer. And this is the transition to
[28:36] like a carpet. And we are going to be
[28:38] using this in conjunction with the T-
[28:41] mold. Now, if we were only going to
[28:43] install the T- mold, if it was a level
[28:45] surface, it would snap right in the
[28:48] center here for it to secure properly.
[28:51] But because we are going to be
[28:53] installing it with this strip, we're
[28:56] going to actually install it here like
[28:58] so. And then this will install on the
[29:01] other side. So, it' be something like
[29:05] this. That would be the transition we
[29:08] would be going with for this install.
[29:10] We're going to install the metal piece
[29:12] first. I'm first going to get the length
[29:14] in which I need to cut the metal strip
[29:16] to be installed. We have
[29:19] 23 and 1/2 in. I'm just going to mark
[29:23] that and then cut it using my tin snips.
[29:29] I'm going to place this strip down here
[29:32] just to make this flush after it's
[29:34] installed with this strip because it's
[29:38] going to be flat with this floor once
[29:40] it's clipped in. So, I do have to space
[29:43] this. You may or may not have to put the
[29:45] spacer to match the floor like I am
[29:47] here. I'm going to make sure I have my
[29:49] 3/8 gap for my laminate flooring. And
[29:52] this is going to be gap for this luxury
[29:55] vinyl appropriately as well. So, we're
[29:57] going to place a screw right
[29:59] here. I'm going to pre-drill through
[30:01] that spacer that I put down because it
[30:03] does want to split it. Just to be clear,
[30:05] the spacer is just a strip of luxury
[30:07] vinyl to space it evenly with the luxury
[30:12] vinyl. You want to get the measurement
[30:14] between the jam here. And this is going
[30:17] to be 24 and 1/4 in. That's going to be
[30:22] for the hard surface reducer. First, I'm
[30:24] going to lay this in here like so. And
[30:27] I'm just going to mark here to where it
[30:30] has to go right around this section of
[30:32] the
[30:34] door because that's going to snap in in
[30:37] this area. Because of that, we need to
[30:40] take out this
[30:43] notch. Just go around this part of the
[30:46] jam. Okay. And I just notched that with
[30:48] the oscillating tool. This is laminate,
[30:50] so it cuts pretty easy. We're going to
[30:52] snap that down on this side first. So
[30:55] now we are flush with the laminate
[30:58] flooring. We're going to cut the T- mold
[31:00] to cut right around this part of the
[31:03] door. And it's going to snap into that
[31:05] part of the track to finish the
[31:07] transition. Okay, this is cut to length
[31:09] to fit in between just like we did here.
[31:11] But we got to place it where it's going
[31:13] to be installed to mark where to notch
[31:16] around. This really needs a little notch
[31:19] right here around that. And over here,
[31:23] same idea. Just little notch
[31:30] here. Before applying silicone, I'm
[31:33] going to dry fit this into place to make
[31:34] sure it's going to
[31:37] fit. And before I snap that in, it feels
[31:39] like it's going to go fine. So, we're
[31:41] going to place silicone in here to hold
[31:44] everything into place.
[31:48] I'm now going to place a bead here to
[31:51] secure the T- mold to the strip. We're
[31:55] going to snap this into
[31:56] place. All right, I'm going to take the
[31:58] rubber mallet just to tap it down all
[32:00] the
[32:01] way. All right, the transition is
[32:03] complete. And that looks really good.
[32:05] After installing the transition strip,
[32:07] we could continue installing the rest of
[32:09] the flooring. We're now entering into
[32:11] the kitchen and we have pipes to cut
[32:12] around. Whenever we got up to these
[32:14] pipes, we simply just measured back how
[32:17] far we got to drill the hole for them.
[32:20] And then we marked the flooring to where
[32:22] the pipes are going to hit. And then we
[32:24] used a speed square to mark that onto
[32:27] the laminate floor. And that's going to
[32:29] give us our exact position to drill the
[32:32] hole out. We took a paddle bit and made
[32:34] sure we have at least a/4 to 38 inch
[32:37] around the pipe. And you can see the
[32:39] holes are cut out really nice. We then
[32:41] placed the flooring right over the pipe.
[32:44] After we placed flooring over the pipe,
[32:45] we installed it. And you can see that
[32:47] gives us a nice cut around for the
[32:49] pipes. I'm now at the point to where I
[32:51] got to finish up along the wall where
[32:53] the flooring is ending. And this is
[32:55] where we're going to have to use the
[32:56] pull bar to finish up. And we need to
[32:59] get a measurement in order to rip down
[33:01] the last row that goes up along the
[33:03] wall. To rip down this last row, I'm
[33:05] going to get my measurement from off the
[33:07] drywall right up to the previous row,
[33:11] which is right at 6 in. And then we need
[33:14] to subtract the 3/8 off of that. So that
[33:17] would put us at five and 5/8 we need to
[33:20] rip this down to. The reason why we
[33:22] don't want to tuck this under the
[33:24] drywall is we need to have enough room
[33:26] to get our pull bar behind it to seal up
[33:29] against the previous row so we close the
[33:31] gap. And that is something we're want to
[33:34] do using the pull
[33:40] bar. We'll begin installing this just
[33:42] like we would any other piece in a
[33:46] row. We're now going to snap it
[33:49] in. We're then going to use the pull bar
[33:52] and then we're going to drive it into
[33:55] the previous row. We want to place a
[33:58] spacer here just to make sure we are
[34:01] spaced correctly. And then we're going
[34:03] to drive this
[34:08] tight. All right. And that's really the
[34:10] key is just make sure you use the pull
[34:12] bar on this last row to get it to seal.
[34:15] Then to finish up this last row, just
[34:17] continue that process until we get to
[34:19] the end of the wall. That was the last
[34:21] row of the floor install in this house.
[34:23] Now that all the flooring's installed,
[34:25] we need to address the perimeter of the
[34:27] flooring using what's called backer rod.
[34:31] We're going to take the backer rod and
[34:32] tuck it in around the edge of the floor.
[34:35] So that way it keeps the flooring
[34:37] contained and it gives us a place for
[34:39] expansion and contraction. And after we
[34:42] tuck this in the corner, we're just
[34:44] going to use a 100% silicone. Just place
[34:46] a light bead over this so that way we
[34:48] have a waterproof floor install. That's
[34:51] really important, especially in a
[34:52] bathroom and kitchen. So, I'm going to
[34:54] show you how to address this area around
[34:57] the perimeter. I'm going to begin by
[34:59] taking a shim to help me tuck the backer
[35:01] rod in behind the flooring and up
[35:04] against the wall. There are different
[35:06] widths of backer rod you can get. This
[35:08] is 3/8 backer rod. After the backer rod
[35:11] is tucked in, we're going to take 100%
[35:13] silicone and just caulk right over that.
[35:20] Then make sure you smooth out that
[35:24] silicone. And that's really the best way
[35:26] to have a waterproof seal yet allow for
[35:28] expansion and contraction around the
[35:30] perimeter. This is why it's essential to
[35:32] order 10% extra. I made a mistake
[35:34] cutting this floor vin out. Now, this
[35:36] piece is scrap, but that's okay. You're
[35:38] going to make mistakes, especially if
[35:40] this is your first time doing flooring.
[35:42] So, it's okay. It's part of the process.
[35:44] Just keep moving forward and you'll get
[35:46] the floor done. Okay. Couple things I
[35:48] wanted to mention. This flooring is
[35:50] considered a floating floor, meaning
[35:52] there's no fasteners holding it into
[35:54] place. So, you must allow for the
[35:56] expansion contraction around the edges.
[35:58] And if you're wondering how this is
[36:00] going to look once the base is on, you
[36:02] can see that's going to cover that up
[36:04] and give you a nice finish. But
[36:06] something else I wanted to mention, if
[36:08] you're doing a remodel or something of
[36:09] that nature where the base is already
[36:11] installed on the wall after you remove
[36:13] carpet or something, when you install
[36:15] your flooring, you would do essentially
[36:17] the same thing, just gap it
[36:18] appropriately. And you can keep the base
[36:21] on and not remove it. And then you would
[36:23] install what's called quarter round to
[36:24] cover up that gap. And that's going to
[36:27] give you a nice finished look. So if
[36:28] you're curious about that, that's how
[36:30] you would address that. If you'd like to
[36:32] see a detailed video on how to install
[36:34] luxury vinyl, check out this video.
[36:36] It'll help you out.