How do I lay laminate or click flooring?

Acclimatising the boards, leaving the expansion gap, and staggering the joints — the three things that decide whether it lasts.

Difficulty: intermediate
Time: 8 hr
Read: 3 min

Short answer

Let the boards acclimatise in the room for 48 hours, leave a 10mm expansion gap all around the edges, and stagger the end joints by at least 300mm. Floors that buckle almost always had no expansion gap.

Click flooring is a floating floor: it is not fixed down and it expands and contracts with humidity. Every rule follows from that. The gap around the edge is not optional trim detail — it is what stops the floor buckling.

What you'll need

Flooring
Underlay
Spacers
Saw
Tapping block and pull bar (optional)
Knee pads (optional)

Step by step

Let the boards acclimatise in the room for at least 48 hours.Flat, in the packs, in the room where they will be laid. Boards laid straight from a cold van expand afterwards and buckle.
Check the subfloor is level and dry.Deviations over about 3mm across a metre need levelling. A concrete floor needs a damp-proof membrane under the underlay.
Lay the underlay across the whole floor.Butted, not overlapped, and taped at the joins. It evens out small imperfections and reduces noise substantially.
Plan the direction and the first row.Boards usually look best running along the longest wall or towards the main light source. Measure so the final row is not a narrow sliver.
Leave a 10mm expansion gap all round.Use spacers against every wall, including around pipes and doorframes. This is the single most important rule and the most commonly ignored.
Stagger the end joints by at least 300mm.Start alternate rows with a cut board. Joints lining up looks wrong and creates a weak line across the floor.
Undercut door frames rather than cutting the boards around them.Lay a board upside down as a guide and saw the frame at that height, then slide the flooring underneath. It looks far better.
Fit beading or skirting to cover the gap, fixed to the wall not the floor.The floor must be able to move underneath. Pinning the beading to the floor defeats the whole expansion arrangement.

Tips

Buy 10% more than the room area to allow for cuts and mistakes, and keep a few spare boards for future repairs.
Mix boards from different packs as you lay them. Colour and pattern vary between packs and mixing avoids visible blocks.
Work out the final row width before starting. Adjusting the first row width avoids ending with an awkward narrow strip.

Common mistakes

Not leaving an expansion gap — The floor expands with humidity, has nowhere to go, and buckles upwards. It is the most common cause of failure and it cannot be fixed without lifting the floor.
Laying boards straight from a cold van or garage — They acclimatise after laying and either buckle or leave gaps. Forty-eight hours in the room prevents it.
Pinning the beading through the floor — It stops the floating floor moving and causes buckling elsewhere. Beading fixes to the skirting or wall only.

Questions people ask

Why has my laminate floor lifted or buckled?

Almost always no expansion gap, or the beading was pinned through the floor. The floor expands with humidity and needs somewhere to go.

How big should the expansion gap be for laminate?

Usually around 10mm all round, though check the manufacturer's instructions. It must be maintained at every edge including around pipes and door frames.