In order for the laminate flooring to serve faithfully for many years, it is necessary to choose the right material. First of all, it is necessary to pay special attention to the degree of wear resistance of the laminate.
For a house or apartment, it is optimal to choose a laminate with a marking of 32 or 33 classes. This material has an average life of about 15 years.
In addition, there are a number of features and subtleties that you should also pay attention to when choosing and installing a laminate.
Castle system
The simplicity and quality of flooring installation directly depends on the quality of the lock. If the locks “walk” a little on the laminate, this indicates that they are poorly executed. So, the flooring will also be installed "so-so."
Therefore, it is best to invest a little more, but buy a good laminate with quality locks. Checking quality is simple - one panel should enter the other without any effort.
If the lock is of poor quality, then the laminate will come to knock out a hammer. However, such a connection will not last long and may eventually “creep at the seams”.
Flat base
For high-quality installation of laminate flooring, the floor surface in the room should be perfectly flat. Deviations from the level in a two meter stretch should not exceed 2 mm.
If you do not comply with this requirement (that is, lay the laminate on an uneven base), then when walking it will bend. In addition to the fact that this can lead to deformation of individual panels, so also the locks can open. The flatness of the floor in the room is checked using a long rule.
Substrate Selection
It is also necessary to choose the right substrate for laying the laminate. You need to know that the substrates for the laminate differ in thickness. Usually use a material with a thickness of 2-3 mm. But there is also a thicker substrate - 5 mm thick.
Also, the substrate is sheet and roll. As practice shows, for the installation of a laminate in a house it is more convenient to use a roll type substrate. Moreover, it is desirable to choose a substrate that has waterproofing properties.
Clearance
In order to prevent swelling of the laminate, it is necessary to observe the technological gap around the entire perimeter of the room in which the flooring is laid.
The gap must be at least 10 mm thick. This is quite enough for the laminate to expand where there are sharp fluctuations in humidity in the room. The gap itself will not be visible, since the baseboard will close it.
Attention to the picture
Some laminate panels may match patterns. Therefore, if you lay the laminate flooring thoughtlessly, it may turn out that panels with the same texture will be in proximity. It will be very striking.
To avoid this, before laying the laminate, it is necessary to sort the panels according to the drawing - so you can lay the laminate in the order that you need. Or you can just buy a quality laminate with a minimal amount of repeating texture.
Details of the errors that are made when choosing and installing a laminate can be found in the video on the site.
