Does anyone have any tips for laying engineered wood flooring single-handed? It's got some kind of a click system on it that's meant to make like easier but I'm putting it in a room that's roughly 4.5m x 4.5m and I'm finding that, ideally, I need freakishly long arms to "click" each new row in so that the other end of the row doesn't pop out. It's getting quite frustrating. Does anyone have any tips to get around this? Getting someone else in isn't feasible for a while unfortunately.
- Thread starter Minkeycat
- Start date
I may be misreading your description, but it sounds to me like you are trying to click an entire 4.5M row into place at once, is that correct?
I imagine different makes of floor have different systems, but the only ones I've used require each piece of floor to be clicked into place one at a time.
I imagine different makes of floor have different systems, but the only ones I've used require each piece of floor to be clicked into place one at a time.
88v8
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- Glorious Gloucs
Click system.
Modern, hmmph.
Enquire here
https://www.diynot.com/diy/forums/floors-stairs-lofts/
Ivor
Modern, hmmph.
Enquire here
https://www.diynot.com/diy/forums/floors-stairs-lofts/
Ivor
Hi
Yes, I'm having to add a whole row at a time. There are approximately 5 pieces per row and each piece has to fit into the neighbouring piece (a left to right tilt) and the row in front (front to back tilt). This means you have to build the whole row first then fit it into the one in front which is proving difficult.
I know it's a modern system. We looked at solid wood floors but need to minimise the head height loss that the alternative flooring would cause.
Also, I've asked innocent, well meaning questions and searched the DIYNOT forum for answers in the past and found it to be a generally horrible community with only a smattering of well-meaning, intelligent folk. As I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's put a more modern system into a period property, I thought I'd ask among more forgiving folk. If this request for a tip or two isn't welcome here, I apologise and I'll ask it elsewhere.
Yes, I'm having to add a whole row at a time. There are approximately 5 pieces per row and each piece has to fit into the neighbouring piece (a left to right tilt) and the row in front (front to back tilt). This means you have to build the whole row first then fit it into the one in front which is proving difficult.
I know it's a modern system. We looked at solid wood floors but need to minimise the head height loss that the alternative flooring would cause.
Also, I've asked innocent, well meaning questions and searched the DIYNOT forum for answers in the past and found it to be a generally horrible community with only a smattering of well-meaning, intelligent folk. As I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's put a more modern system into a period property, I thought I'd ask among more forgiving folk. If this request for a tip or two isn't welcome here, I apologise and I'll ask it elsewhere.
Pennyviz
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Hi
All enquiries welcome as far as I'm concerned, whether we can help ……
Can you just clarify a bit? What have you tried? Sounds frustrating. maybe a clamp at one end over the join?
Penny
All enquiries welcome as far as I'm concerned, whether we can help ……
Can you just clarify a bit? What have you tried? Sounds frustrating. maybe a clamp at one end over the join?
Penny
Feltwell
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- Shropshire, England
Any inquiry is welcome as far as I'm concerned, be it modern or otherwise. I helped someone out on here with an Excel spreadsheet a while ago (admittedly via PM). And Flyfisher has helped me with the black magic that powers my wifi, he convinced the goblins to talk on the same frequency or some such techno-wizardry :wink:
Have you got any flooring straps? A couple of these are invaluable to keep what you've already clicked in, clicked in - if I'm reading what you say correctly.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laminate...577035?hash=item5b47ad810b:g:8PIAAOSw-XBa-vMS
Or you can use them to put a little bit of tension towards each end, with your new run sticking up at a slight angle and not clicked in yet - then get a long bit of timber across the new run with you at the centre, and stand on that to press it all down and click it into place? Not sure if I'm envisaging correctly what your problem is but trust that makes sense! Might even need 4 straps for that to work. Having a helper would no doubt make it much easier.
Obviously means you need to keep the skirting off or not put any beading on until the whole floor is down. I presume this is a thin floating floor over a sub-floor, and not straight onto joists?
Have you got any flooring straps? A couple of these are invaluable to keep what you've already clicked in, clicked in - if I'm reading what you say correctly.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laminate...577035?hash=item5b47ad810b:g:8PIAAOSw-XBa-vMS
Or you can use them to put a little bit of tension towards each end, with your new run sticking up at a slight angle and not clicked in yet - then get a long bit of timber across the new run with you at the centre, and stand on that to press it all down and click it into place? Not sure if I'm envisaging correctly what your problem is but trust that makes sense! Might even need 4 straps for that to work. Having a helper would no doubt make it much easier.
Obviously means you need to keep the skirting off or not put any beading on until the whole floor is down. I presume this is a thin floating floor over a sub-floor, and not straight onto joists?
I've had some success with a makeshift tapping solution.
The problem is/was as follows;
The flooring comes in boxes of "planks" in a mix of of 120cm long and 60cm long (so you can stagger the ends). These planks have four sides of quite sophisticated by frail tongue and groove with lips so they can't be pulled apart and don't need gluing. To do a row in our room I have to click the ends of about 4 or 5 planks together "male to female" fashion and then click the whole row into the previously laid one. That's easy if you have about 1 x person per 2 meters of floor because you can keep the whole row together. I have just me trying to fit a 4.5m length of flooring that wobbles up and down until it's connected to the previous row so it was impossible to keep the row together while getting it into a position to click into place.
To solve the problem I found that you can nearly but not quite connect the planks to eachother and then need to tap them into place. Because the joints are so frail (planks, not mine...yet!),in order to prevent damage to the tongue and groove edge, I used a sacrificial piece of flooring, connected that to the as yet unused groove facing me and used a block and wooden mallet to tap the plank into place. This seems to work and I can now do a row in about 20 minutes as opposed to one an hour with lots of silent swearing.
Only about 22 rows to go now.
Thank you for all the suggestions. If I find any more ways of improving this as a one handed job, I'll be sure to post!
The problem is/was as follows;
The flooring comes in boxes of "planks" in a mix of of 120cm long and 60cm long (so you can stagger the ends). These planks have four sides of quite sophisticated by frail tongue and groove with lips so they can't be pulled apart and don't need gluing. To do a row in our room I have to click the ends of about 4 or 5 planks together "male to female" fashion and then click the whole row into the previously laid one. That's easy if you have about 1 x person per 2 meters of floor because you can keep the whole row together. I have just me trying to fit a 4.5m length of flooring that wobbles up and down until it's connected to the previous row so it was impossible to keep the row together while getting it into a position to click into place.
To solve the problem I found that you can nearly but not quite connect the planks to eachother and then need to tap them into place. Because the joints are so frail (planks, not mine...yet!),in order to prevent damage to the tongue and groove edge, I used a sacrificial piece of flooring, connected that to the as yet unused groove facing me and used a block and wooden mallet to tap the plank into place. This seems to work and I can now do a row in about 20 minutes as opposed to one an hour with lots of silent swearing.
Only about 22 rows to go now.
Thank you for all the suggestions. If I find any more ways of improving this as a one handed job, I'll be sure to post!
88v8
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- Glorious Gloucs
Minkeycat said:
Mmm, I don't use it a lot, but generally get what I need out of it.
I think on most forums there are relatively few people who really know what's what.
If one is on a forum regularly, one begins to know to whom one should hearken and who not, and what type of question is likely to be productive, but I agree it can be more difficult if one is hardly ever there.
Must confess to being grumpy about modern intrusions in period houses.
Ivor