Floating Floor Fitting Instructions

Preparation

Remove all floor trim from the room. You will be re-using it, so do it carefully, using a flatbar to gently pry from behind the nails so the trim comes out in whole pieces. If there's carpet on the floor, rip it out and take up all the carpet strips. Go over the whole floor and make sure there are no nail heads sticking up. If it's a old wood floor and there are rotting areas, cut out the rotted parts with a jigsaw and patch it with plywood, making sure it's properly supported by joists.

Floating floors sit on a layer of stiff foam padding that comes in rolls. Roll it out along one wall, leaving about 1/4 inch of space between the edge of the padding and the wall, and 1/4 inch from the end. Cut the padding at the opposite end by laying a straight-edge across it and running a razor knife over it, cutting it so it will lay 1/4 inch from the wall. Lay the next row of padding in the same manner. Butt the sides of the two rows together and connect them with plastic tape provided in your kit. Continue across the room, until you have a solid layer of padding across the whole floor, with 1/4 inch of space at the walls all around.

Lay your first piece of planking along one wall. Snap the next piece onto the end of it (they'll fit together with a self-locking, tongue-and-groove system). Continue until you have a full row against the one wall. Cut the last piece to size with your miter saw. The row should be sitting loose on the padding, with 1/4 inch of space to the walls all around. Lay the next course by snapping the sides of the boards together. The boards come in different lengths, so you can stagger them and make sure the ends don't line up.

Continue across the room, snapping the boards together and cutting the end pieces as necessary, keeping 1/4 inch at the walls. Use a table saw to rip the length of the last piece, if necessary. When the whole floor is in, re-install your trim to cover the gaps at the edges. Don't nail through the floor when you nail in the trim.