Laminate flooring - longest continuous length?

[owentaylor]

Evening all, this is my first post so please go easy on me!

My house is a typical victorian terraced. On the ground floor there are two reception rooms (approx 4m x 4m) with a kitchen extension to the rear (2.5m x 4m). The kitchen and middle rooms are concrete and the front room is boarded. The floors are level throughout. I have drawn a quick plan to illustrate the room layout.

My initial plan is to lay the flooring continuously through all 3 rooms. I wont be fitting any doors and want the floor to flow through the three rooms to give a consistent feel. My initial question is:

Which way should I lay the flooring?

My first thought was to lay the floor lengthways through the house (considering the light sources etc) but as the two doorways are directly opposite each other, this will mean a continuous run of 12m of flooring. Will this cause any problems? Am I causing any other issues by laying the flooring in this direction?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks, Owen

 

[crazydaze]

That's a long run. It would definately look best run through the house rather than accross.

You will find that the premium brands such as Pergo will be able to cope with bigger areas like this with more success than cheap, less well engineered laminate, but you MUST check with the retailer/supplier or manufacturer before committing to an all in one installation.

Worse case scenario would be to fit door profiles in those doorways IF you experience expansion issues.

The doorways will be the pinch points, if you can get plenty of expansion space under the door frames when you cut them out then it will help alot with the floor. Also definately use a good quality underlay system, don't just use the flimsy foam, this will help with stability of temperature between the cold concrete subfloor and warmer wood areas.

 

[big-all]

i pretty much concur with crazydaze

rule off thumb is 4mm per metres expansion so thats 24mm at each end lol

i would say go for the full length as crazy says and be prepaored to cut 25mm out at a doorway to give each half its full expansion gap

make shure you have full expansion room around doorways and even the stairs and central heating pipes to give your long run a fighting chance

 

[WoodYouLike]

rule off thumb is 4mm per metres expansion so thats 24mm at each end lol

For Solid Oak flooring yes, for laminated (melamine plastic stuff) 10mm all around.

 

[owentaylor]

Brilliant, thanks for the very informative replies.

Only one of the two doorways has a casing (between the font and middle rooms) so I could fit a profile there if I have any problems. I should be ok to leave at least a 10mm exp. gap as the skirts will be fitted afterwards and are thick (1"). Rad pipes run down the walls and go above the skirts so that should help.

The house is located in a valley and we don't get all that much sun up north so hopefully the temperature will stay within a reasonable range. I hadn't really considered how much the underlay would affect the temperature of the floor but I'll be sure to invest in something quality.

What sort of underlay should I be looking at? You say to avoid the flimsy foam stuff. What about 6mm fibreboards? I have a large sheet of dpm for the two concrete rooms.

Thanks in advance, Owen

 

[WoodYouLike]

6mm fibreboard could make your floor bouncy, especially when the underfloor is not truly level.
You could use combi-underlayment (3mm) which contains both DPM and sound-insulation

 

[crazydaze]

3-4mm fibreboard or combi product should be ok, most quality laminates will offer a selection of underlay product options that they recommend for the installation of their product, you will often find that if they offer a long warranty on their product, it will stipulate that you need to use the same companies underlays for the company to honour said warranty.