Choosing that perfect floor either for your living room or kitchen ultimately means that someone has to lay the pieces down. The task may seem simple at first, but making even a small mistake could be very costly, resulting in a faulty floor installation. A tiny gap between panels, uneven flooring, wrong joining, incorrectly trimmed panels, badly applied underfloor heating system – these are all factors that could contribute to an eventual, potentially costly failure. 
After all, once you install everything, use the materials, labour hours, repairing everything a week, month or a year after the fitting probably won’t be on your mind. That’s why it’s best to do it once but properly.
Fitting a laminate floor – why it’s not worth doing it yourself:
First of all, when you get professionals, with special certificates carrying out the job, you know for a fact that you have a guarantee should anything go wrong. If anything shifts, moves or becomes uneven, chances are that the fitters could be recalled to your place and as part of the service programme, fix the issues.
Not only that, ensuring that a professional fits the laminate flooring eliminates the risk of something going wrong on the day. Just imagine: you purchase expensive oak laminate flooring, you start cutting everything, place it all and then a week later it all separates like fragile puzzle.
It’s not something out the realm of possibility. After all, professional fitters know what materials to apply underneath the floor panels. They understand the levelling, the friction, the insulation. Not to mention they know how to cut and how to fit to make this an efficient, quick job.
Yes, you might pay a labourer a little more, but you save yourself hours in turn attempting to do a job that seems easy on paper, but eventually becomes very difficult. With a high risk of defects.
In such situation, your mental health being, lack of stress and potential extra costs and expenditures could be spared if you hand the job over to experts.
Considering the floor prior to laying down wooden floor panels
If we are not experienced in laying laminate flooring, it’ll be the floor itself that will play a trick on us. It’s not always the panels or the fitter’s work. Without the competence to correctly assess whether the floor meets the requirements for laying the panels, there is a risk that they will quickly deteriorate after installation.
They may crack, diverge from their spots, shift, break apart or even damage the underfloor heating. The floor must therefore be even, and whether it’s suitable for laying down the panels should only be a professional’s call.
Therefore, it is worth outsourcing this type of work to a professional team, which will not only verify whether the floor is suitable for laying the panels, but also, if necessary, suggest solutions or carry out the job themselves. A reliable installer is key for such a job – you could at least hire them temporarily to assess the state and condition of the floor before any work is undertaken.
Different panel mounting systems – what are the choices?
If you do plan to carry out the job yourself, be mindful that there are various way to complete the job. We highly recommend that you do some research beforehand. Below we provide most common techniques of fitting laminate flooring.
There are three main types of joining floor panels.
The first is a ‘tongue and groove’ joint that requires the use of glue. It is a rare joining method that has been successfully replaced by panels that do not require the use of glue. However, a lot of professionals still like to apply this technique – it ensures integrity, solidity and reliability for years.
The ‘snap-on’ floor panels have special edges that can be joined without glue, such as ‘EasyConnect’ or ‘Uniclick’ systems.
Laminate floor panels may also be joined with rubber gaskets. They have edges that are specially profiled. Within the gutter-shaped profiles there are expansion joints and sealing joints.
By far the most common types of wood floor panels are the ones installed without the use of glue. It is a fast, safe and very reliable method.
What do we recommend?
Each fitter has their own method of laminate floor fitting. Whatever the technique is, it’s always best to research on Google local specialists, requesting a quote and making having them to come down and give us some advice. You don’t necessarily need to hire them for the job – consultation is enough.
All you need to know is that you are carrying out the job in a correct manner. That you haven’t forgotten about any step or you’re aware of potential mistakes that could cost you a lot of money in future. This assurance is worth all the money. Once again, it isn’t paramount that you do the physical job yourself, but it is paramount to consult a professional beforehand.
