The owners, planning to update the interior of the apartment, often decide to resort to laminate flooring. This material has proven itself and is widely used for organizing flooring both in private houses and in administrative buildings, but not many people know how to lay a laminate on a concrete floor. When planning laying a laminate in a room, it should be remembered that the main condition for the long service life of such a coating is an even foundation, and therefore, the preparation of a concrete screed should be treated with special attention.
Concrete has the necessary strength and resistance to changes in humidity and temperature, but often such a base requires additional repair and leveling.
The allowable surface distortion over an area of one or two square meters is considered to be differences within 2 mm in height.
Such an error during the installation of the laminate is successfully leveled by the substrate and waterproofing, laid in layers, but with deviations above the norm, additional measures will have to be taken to prepare the base.
There are several options for leveling the floor:
- With small differences in height, within 5-20 mmIt’s most reasonable to use a self-leveling mixture that removes any bumps. Mixing dry ingredients with water is carried out according to the instructions, after which the liquid solution begins to be poured in separate portions, moving from the window to the opposite wall and leaving the room into the corridor. During the pouring process, it is necessary to accurately and evenly distribute the mixture over the entire area, using a rule or a wide spatula. If everything was done according to the instructions, the poured solution will be independently distributed and will become at the level, forming an even and smooth coating, ready for further work.
- With differences of more than 20 mm, it is necessary to concrete the base with cement-sand mortar along the lighthouses, after setting the guides to the required level. This method will allow you to get a reliable, monolithic, even base under the laminate, but the final set of strength of such a screed occurs within 28 days. Only after this period can finishing work be carried out.
- How to lay a laminate on a concrete floor having significant differences without a long wait? In this case, you can use dry and semi-dry screeds, which are also stacked along the guide beacons, but it is not necessary to withstand some time after laying the screed to perform subsequent work.
- Another way to prepare the foundation on the concrete floor under the laminate is to arrange plywood flooring. Logs are set to the required height in level, plywood sheets of size are attached to them. It is important to ensure that the heads of the self-tapping screws are threaded into the plywood with fasteners, so that after completion of work it is possible to mask these pits with wood putty.
Whatever method is chosen, before starting work, it is necessary to inspect the concrete base and identify any defects. If possible, the discovered cracks should be expanded, primed and sealed with cement-sand mortar. A fully prepared concrete base is impregnated with a deep penetration primer, it is recommended to carry out this procedure twice.
Before installing the laminate, it is imperative that the base is waterproofed with a reinforced polyethylene film. The edges of the film lead to the wall, at the estimated height of the floor level. The canvas overlap, overlapping 100-150 mm of the lower canvas. The joints are glued with tape.
A phased plan for the preparation of each type of foundation can be disassembled by studying the photos and videos in this article, presented below.
Necessary tools and materials
To perform the installation of slats, the following tools will be required:
- roulette;
- square;
- jigsaw or hacksaw for metal;
- tamping bar with a section of 40 mm and a length of up to 400 mm;
- pencil;
- hammer;
- linings 10 mm thick;
- construction knife;
- S-shaped metal stop for fixing lamellas in a limited space;
- drill with crowns 20-30 mm;
- screwdriver;
- hammer drill.
Materials necessary for the performance of work:
- substrate;
- laminate board;
- polyethylene film for waterproofing the base;
- dowel-nails for mounting baseboard holders and connecting strips;
- connecting strips (sills);
- baseboard;
- corner connectors for skirting.
Calculation of material consumption
The technology of laying the laminate on a concrete floor provides several options for placing lamellas in relation to the walls in the room. The method of calculating the amount of material also depends on the type of placement, but the area of the room divided by the area of one laminate board is always taken as the basis.
- If the panels are laid along a long wall, with direct flooring, a margin of 10% must be added to the calculated figure.
- If it is decided to lay the laminate across the room, the safety margin will be 15%.
- When installing boards diagonally, it is necessary to take into account a 20% safety margin.
- Installing a laminate in the form of a complex pattern will require a margin of about 30% of the total area of the room.
The result in pieces should be divided by the number of panels in one pack and rounded up to an integer number of packages.
Selection and laying of the substrate
To ensure free running of the laminate with changes in the humidity regime in the house, it is strictly forbidden to fix it to the base. The main rule in this case is to lay the laminate with the substrate without fixing.
The substrate performs the following tasks:
- further aligns the base;
- serves as a heat and sound insulating material, in some cases as a waterproofing;
- serves as a shock absorber, softening the external impact on the laminate.
When choosing a substrate, one should proceed from the operating conditions of the premises and the financial capabilities of the customer.
The most affordable option is a foam backing. This material is produced in rolls with a length of up to 20 m, a width of 2 m and a thickness of 2 to 7 mm, while in addition to the task of eliminating uneven places in the base, it serves as a waterproofing, which makes it possible to save on a plastic film.
Polystyrene boards are another inexpensive material.. They are produced with a thickness of 2 to 5 mm and a sheet size of 1000 × 500 mm. Laying sheet products is easier than working with rolled material, but foamed polyethylene and polystyrene foam have one significant drawback: over time, these materials sag in places of active use, which leads to a change in the uniform surface level of the laminate and fracture of individual elements.
The most expensive option for preparing the base for the laminate is a cork backing. It can be produced both in the form of separate sheets, and in rolls. The thickness of such a product does not exceed 5 mm.
Unlike the types of substrate considered, the cork base remains unchanged for many years, therefore it is advisable to use it when installing expensive types of coatings that are designed for 20-30 years of operation. Using a cork backing for a cheap type of laminate, which will have to be replaced in a few years, is not advisable from an economic point of view.
Before laying the laminate on the concrete floor, lay the substrate. Roll materials are rolled along the length of the room and cut to size.The joints of the strips are recommended to fasten with tape. Sheet products are laid end-to-end and also fastened together with adhesive tape.
The flooring of the substrate is recommended to be performed simultaneously with the installation of the laminate. This method of step-by-step advancement allows avoiding knocking down of the lining webs during installation and premature wear of rather delicate material.
Laminate Laying Instructions
Before laying the laminate on a concrete floor on a prepared base with a substrate, it is necessary to withstand the packaging with lamellas at room temperature for at least two days. This time is necessary to adapt the material to humidity and temperature conditions. It is especially important to let the packaging stand in the winter, when the laminate moves from cold stores.
If you choose the material yourself, you should pay attention to the batch series. It is desirable that all packs be released at the same time, then tonal differences can be avoided. To do the laminate flooring with your own hands, it is recommended to adhere to the following step-by-step algorithm of actions:
- Before laying the first row, it is necessary to install gaskets that provide a gap between the wall and the coating. One gasket is placed at the ends of the row and two along the length of each lamella.
- They begin laying the first row from the window from the whole board, they join the next one at the end and so reach the opposite wall. To fit the last lamella, it must be cut to size. The connection of individual lamellas in the castle should be done according to the instructions developed for a particular type of laminate.
- The second row begins with a lamella cut in half to avoid overlapping joints in adjacent rows, then a whole board is installed and the row is caught up to the wall, again cutting the outermost panel in size.
- The third row starts again with a whole panel, just as subsequently each row alternates with a whole panel and a half. At the ends of each row, gaskets are installed.
- When installing the last row, you will need to fit the slats in width, for which you will have to cut them along. When measuring the width, it is necessary to remember the technological clearance, and also install gaskets along the length of the wall and at the ends of the row.
- With a complex configuration of the room, it will be necessary to fit individual panels, if it is not possible to make a lock connection, it is recommended to cut the spike on the board and fix the connection to glue.
- When you need to bypass the pipes of the risers, you need to cut the panel along the length, taking into account the gap from the wall, mark the centers of the pipes on it, carefully measure the distances and drill holes with a crown on the tree. After that, the panel is cut in width in the center of the holes. First, a part of the board is laid, continuing the row, and then part of the board from the wall, the joint is glued. To mask the holes, special pads are used, which are also put on glue.
- The joints of the laminate flooring in neighboring rooms are closed with special decorative strips.
- After installing the laminate, the gaskets are removed and the skirting board is installed.