My First Laminate Floor Installation!

Although I have had laminate floors in my rentals before, today was the first time that I have ever installed one myself. I always enjoy trying something new and therefore I went into town on a Sunday afternoon to install the laminate floor in the kitchen of one of my two bedroom houses. I spent every bit of 4 hours working on the floor. As with a lot of things, it didn't go as smoothly as it looked in the instructions. For one thing, this was an old house and there isn't one straight wall in the entire kitchen. The floor is also not level, although that doesn't seem to be a major problem.The next issue was that the tongues are more fragile than I ever imagined and are easily damaged. These laminate floors are "floating', meaning that they aren't attached anywhere. I found that the entire floor would move while working on it and it required a lot of care not to have it floating all over the place.

I finished the main part of the floor and am only marginally satisfied (I'm kinda reminded of my first attempt at laying carpet). The gaps between some of the planks are wider than I would have liked and I chipped the laminate surface in a couple of spots. Tomorrow, I still need to cover the basement door, which is flush with the floor. I also need to install the "quarter round" around the perimeter of the floor. I bought enough laminate to do at least 3 rooms and I'm hoping the next one will go better.