How to nail
Laminate Flooring
Installing Laminate Flooring For The First Time // Home Renovation
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what's going on everybody I'm Johnny
Brook welcome back to another crafter
workshop video today I've got kind of
the first home renovation project on
this channel I'm replacing all of the
carpet in this room with this really
nice laminate flooring and this is
basically gonna become my final photo
wall where I get all those thumbnails
from my projects all those final shots
and I am super excited to have a room
dedicated to this so hopefully you guys
enjoy this one let's go ahead and get
started with the bill the first step was
any flooring installation project is
going to be cleaning out the room and
this particular room had accumulated a
good bit of stuff over the last couple
years we've lived in this house
luckily my buddy Alex came over to help
out with this step and it went pretty
quickly once the room was empty we could
get to ripping up the carpet and there
were two different types of carpet going
from the main room to this bedroom so I
first needed to cut the seam between
those two pieces so I didn't tear up the
carpet that we were keeping in the main
room after cutting the seam I could just
pull back on the carpet and start
ripping it up this carpet was attached
with tack strips around the perimeter of
the room so it required some force to
pull up but eventually it started coming
up once I got a section going I cut it
into a strip to make it more manageable
and carpet is extremely heavier really a
lot heavier than you expect so it makes
it a lot easier to move out of the room
if it's in smaller chunks like this I've
rolled up each strip as I cut them and
took it outside as we went and we just
kept repeating this process with the
carpet and the pad underneath until the
room was completely empty and then I
could move on to removing the tack
strips and these things are kind of a
pain in the butt but there's a method to
removing them that makes things a lot
easier I actually picked up this method
from my buddy Bob over it I like to make
stuff he has some really great flooring
installation videos on other types of
flooring you should definitely go check
those out but anyway that trick was
removing tack strips efficiently is to
hit your pry bar underneath each of the
nails that's holding down the tack strip
but only just enough to loosen it if you
actually pry up on the strip it has a
tendency to splinter into a bunch of
pieces which makes cleanup a lot more
challenging and it's not always going to
come off perfectly depending on how the
nails respond but you can definitely
move a lot faster if you avoid prying
and focus on just popping the nails out
you can see here how quickly it goes and
how easy it is to clean up when the
strip comes off in one piece
once all the tack strips were up I could
then vacuum the entire room making sure
all of the little nail
it held down the tax strips were gone if
any of these little things end up
underneath the flooring it will be
really obvious after installation so be
really careful and thorough here next I
could start adding the underlayment and
since I'm using pergo flooring I went
with pergo underlayment as well and it
was really easy to work with when
installing laminate on top of a concrete
slab your underlayment needs to have
some kind of vapor barrier which this
one does to lay the underlayment I just
added a strip cut it to length tucked it
under the baseboard and then moved on to
the next row and luckily this stuff was
the perfect length to cover two rows per
pack of underlayment so this made things
really easy this stuff also already had
an adhesive strip attached so I could
just attach the strip's to each other
without the need for any underlayment
tape and the main area of the room was
really easy but things got a little bit
more tricky when I got to the closet but
I just took my time did a bunch of test
fitting and eventually got it pretty
much perfect once all the underlayment
was installed I could move on to
actually adding the flooring alright so
now that the room is all cleaned up and
we've got all this underlayment down we
can get to finally actually putting in
this flooring it it should go pretty
quickly these first couple rows I think
are gonna be a little bit more tricky
just because they're not gonna be
weighted down and attached to a lot of
other things so they're gonna have a
tendency to slide around and that kind
of thing I bought this kind of kit it
had some spacers it had some tapping
blocks and it had a pull bar three
things that you're definitely gonna need
to probably good to go ahead and get a
kit like that all the link in the video
description below so what I'm gonna do
here is go ahead and cut off this end
over at the Microsoft and then I'm also
going to rip off the tongue on these
inside edges here on this first row at
the table saw and then the final thing
we're gonna want to do before we move
over to the shop is measure the length
of the last board in this row so that
way I can go ahead and cut that to
length before ripping the tongue off of
it so that I can then use that cut off
in my next row to get that nice
staggered joint so let's go ahead and
lay these out and then we can get that
measurement and then we can move into
the shop so for the first row I needed
to cut off the tongue on the short edge
of the first board as well as rip off
the tongue on all the boards on the
first row now before doing that I marked
a line on the last board in the first
I used my miter saw to cut all the
boards to linked on this project but a
circular saw and speed square would also
work just fine realistically these cuts
don't need to be perfect since they're
gonna be covered up by quarter round
trim anyway after cutting the short
tongue off the first board and cutting
the last board to lengthen the miter saw
I ripped the tongue off of all three of
the boards from the first row at the
bandsaw and as you might notice I
actually got this backwards ripping off
the groove instead of the tongue and
this caused a ton of frustration when
trying to install those first few rows
but once I figured out my error I
started over with fresh boards and this
made my life a whole lot easier with my
corrected boards I could get to
assembling the first few rows and to
attach the board's I first lifted the
board with the tongue facing the groove
and pushed it in until it was fully
seated and then I could push down on the
board to lock the board's in place next
I added the next board again seating
that long edge first and then tapping
the board into place to seat the short
edge and with a few boards added I could
add a box of flooring on top to help
keep the board's in place while tapping
and I just kept repeating this process
for the first two rows and I found it a
lot easier to put these together by
staggering the board's rather than
trying to do one complete row at a time
at least for this first pair of rows
once I got to the last board in the
first row I needed to use a pull bar to
pull the board into place since a
tapping block wouldn't fit I could then
mark the last board on the second row to
length and this is really easy to do if
you just flip the board around so the
grooves are facing each other and this
will ensure you have a board at the
perfect length with no measuring and you
know forgetting your numbers when you're
headed out to the miter saw after
cutting the piece to lengthen the miter
saw I can install it again using the
pull bar to fully seated and with those
first two rows done things got a whole
lot easier since the boards had less of
a tendency to slide around I added a
third row and then slid all three rows
into their final place with the spacer
blocks on all three sides of the board's
and from there it was just more of the
same adding more boards cutting them to
length and making sure to stagger those
joints so that I didn't have any joints
that were closer than 12 inches from
each other and I just kept repeating
this until I got to my first obstacle
doorway and I needed to notch out the
board to fit underneath the trim making
sure that the edges of the flooring were
completely concealed by this trim since
I wouldn't be adding cord around to this
area before notching out the board I
the final length and then made a few
marks on the board where I needed to cut
it and to cut out the notch I used a jig
saw which made really easy work of this
process once I cut out the notch I could
test fit the board and realized I had
once again mixed things up work Irie got
a new board off camera and then needed
to undercut the trim before installing
the board and to do this I used an off
cut of the flooring to hold up my flush
trim saw and cut away the trim and this
results in a perfect fit with almost no
gap between the flooring and trim next I
could tap the board into place and
you'll notice I ended up using an off
cut of the flooring on rather than the
tapping block in most of these scenarios
these tongues are pretty fragile and
it's really easy to damage them with a
regular tapping block from there I could
just continue installing more flooring
repeating the steps you've already seen
and while I'm installing let's talk
about the sponsor of this week's video
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and more and I used the arrow PT 18 G
brad nailer and arrow Brad nails to
install all of the quarter round trim on
this build which you'll see later and I
have a ton of projects featuring arrow
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I just kept installing flooring until I
got to my next obstacle transition
alright now I've gotten flooring
installed up to the first doorway that
I'm gonna need to add one of these
transition pieces and I know I've
already worked on another doorway but
that one already has a transition that's
going from here in an air-conditioned
space out into my garage so it's got
more of a kind of weatherproof and
insulated strip there so we're going to
use this kind of transition over there
but here we're transitioning from this
laminate flooring to carpet and then
here behind me going into the bathroom
I'm really transitioning from the
laminate to tile so I've got these
matching transition strip so go ahead
and cut it to length just did that with
the miter saw and then the other piece
that comes with the kit is this metal
strip and this is what actually connects
to the subfloor and then the bottom of
the transition has a little piece that
fits right into this strip once I have
that in place then I can go ahead and
install the rest of my flooring and add
the transition piece well once I'm done
with the flooring so let's go ahead and
get do it I attach the aluminum train
tract and then to continue installing
the flooring I needed to install this
track so I could know what length boards
needed to be in this area so that I
could leave the correct expansion gap
and the last little bit of flooring to
install is always the most tricky you
usually have a bunch of stuff to work
around in this case I needed to rip the
board's width
allowing for the correct gap between the
tile and the flooring for the transition
as well as notching the boards to fit
around all this trim once again I just
took my time taking a bunch of
measurements and eventually got a really
nice fit and on this very last board you
can see I actually needed to notch out
the long edge so that I could fit my
pull bar in to seat that board and this
actually ended up working out really
well with that area of the flooring
complete I could go ahead and add the
transitions which just snap into place
right into those tracks next I could
work on the closet which I was honestly
dreading for some reason but ended up
going really quickly it was just more
the same and I finished by ripping the
last boards to width to fit the space
and with that the flooring was done so
all that was left with this install was
to add the quarter round trim over that
expansion gap around the entire
perimeter of the room and since my
quarter round came in eight foot lengths
and my room is 12 foot wide I needed to
join the pieces in the middle of the
room to do this I cut a 45 degree miter
on each end of the piece one to go into
the corner of the room and one for where
the two pieces of trim will meet in the
center of the room one thing to keep in
mind when cutting and installing quarter
round is that there's one wider face on
the piece and this face needs to be face
down on both the miter saw when making
the cuts and when being installed in the
room after cutting the pieces of linked
I installed it with inch and a half long
Brad nails making sure to nail into the
baseboard and knot in the flooring the
whole point of this gap is to allow for
expansion and contraction and if you
nail directly into the flooring it won't
be able to do that once all the trim was
installed this install was done all
right hopefully you guys enjoyed this
one I'm really happy with the way this
room came together I think the flooring
looks great the gray color on this wall
I think is just perfect for what I need
it to be and I am just so happy to
finally have a space dedicated to this
so previously you might have noticed I
kind of took all of my final glamour
shots and thumbnails outside and it's
really hard to control for light and
weather when shooting that outside
natural light is obviously really nice
but to be able to completely control the
lighting in this room is going to be
super super nice and
I'm just really excited so I'm
definitely gonna have some more home
renovation projects coming up later this
fall I'm actually gonna be completely
finishing my attic space turning that
into a home office for me so stay tuned
for that hopefully you guys will enjoy
that one if it's your first time the
channel go ahead and get subscribed I
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miss any of my future videos or live
streams also all the lists of all the
tools and materials I used in the video
description below including the exact
type of flooring I used in case you guys
want to kind of replicate this look and
last I have added that YouTube sponsored
feature into the channel so if you guys
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get exclusive live streams and exclusive
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perks so thanks again for watching
everybody and until next time happy
buildings
