Can You Nail Laminate Flooring Down

Can i nail down laminate floor ends.

Can you nail laminate flooring down. Laminate floors aren t attached to the subfloor but subfloor preparation is as critical as it is when installing a nail or glue down floor. How to float laminate flooring. The proper way to install laminate flooring is to use the tongue and groove locking system to click planks together creating a smooth and seamless floating surface. Installing laminate flooring can be easy if you have the resources to learn from.

This could be dangerous really. The process involves nailing the flooring directly to a wood subfloor. Nailing screwing or gluing it down will also void the warranty of the product. I can t imagine being able to blind nail 45 degrees into the groove on a laminate.

The nails are likely to loosen and protrude if they are nailed on top as i m sure they used finish nails. Typically the flooring is blind nailed through the tongue a portion of the wood plank that protrudes from the board and fits into the groove of the adjacent board. Seperating i just installed new 12 3mm laminate flooring planks they look great but while i was installing them and tapping them in i noticed that the planks i did 3 rows over started to seperate where the ends join to each other not the sides. Is there anything else we should do.

We are now in the process of using a punch to punch down the nails and an oscillating saw to cut the edges for a little breathing room. Nailing laminate planks down will cause damage that will not only make the floor useless but also void your warranty. It still can be difficult it really depends on how the layout of the room is. The main reason you don t want to nail down screw or even glue down your laminate flooring is because it s expanding.

The floor will expand more or less depending on the area that you live in depending on the humidity on your house etc that is why we leave that space of 3 8 inch between the wall and the boards for expansion. Any kind of flexing with an uneven subfloor will cause this. Fixing it to the sub floor will eventually lead it to accumulate damages and it will not last as long as it should be.