Before we install the kitchen, we have to put the floating floor down. I want the flooring to go under the cabinets for several reasons:
- In case we ever remove the cabinets I want a complete floor covering.
- The cabinets will help hold the floor in place.
- Its much easier to lay a floor wall to wall than it is to cut around cabinets.
When I laid the sub floor I made sure it was level and flat, so I know I have a good surface to lay the floating floor on.
First we put down a foam matting which cushions the flooring. The matting also serves as a moisture barrier, but thats not relevant here because I put down a plastic barrier under the sub floor.
I stapled down the foam barrier so it didn’t move around and to help eliminate wrinkles. The foam has a plastic membrane on one side, which acts as the moisture barrier. Normally this is laid plastic side down. We were told by the flooring supplier that if you lay the underlay plastic side up its easier to slide the flooring around if you get it out of alignment. As it turns out we didn’t need to move the flooring, so it didn’t really matter.
There is a little bit of a knack to clicking the flooring together. Our floor uses the unilin click system. I found that the way to do it was to leave the row you are working on slightly tilted up as you tap and click each piece of the row in place until the row is complete, then push the whole row down flat, gently tapping the edge in with a wood block and small hammer where necessary to click it in place.
We placed 10mm spacers around the walls so the flooring has room to expand. End boards were cut on a drop saw. Once you master the clicking mechanism, laying is quite straight forward. You just have to take care to ensure each board is fully seated both on its edge and ends.
