Home Depot Laminate Floor Installation Instructions

Use a hammer and pry bar to remove the cove, or base shoe around your walls at the bottom of the baseboard. Pull the nails through the back of the molding with a pair of locking pliers to preserve the face of the molding. Set the cove aside for reinstallation. Sweep and mop to remove dust and debris from the installation area.

Roll out rows of foam underlay to cover the entire installation area, perpendicular to the longest wall. Cut these pieces to fit at the walls using a utility knife. Butt the long edges up to each other. Remove the backer if your underlay has an adhesive strip along its edge and overlap the adhesive edge, pressing it firmly down.

Lay your first plank starting in the corner of the longest wall. Position the plank with the grooved edge toward the wall, spaced 1/4 inch out from it. Space the end 1/4 inch from the perpendicular adjoining corner wall. Fit pieces in this first row, end to end. Tilt the piece to fit the locking edges together and press down firmly to interlock them. Add full planks as far as possible.

Measure and cut a piece to fit from the last full plank to the wall, using a miter saw. Start the next row with the offcut piece from the end of the first row to stagger the end joints of the planks between rows. Align the grooved edge along the long edge of this plank with the tongue edge of the first row and slide it into place, pressing it down to interlock them. Continue adding pieces in the same way.

Add as many full width rows as you can across the floor, cutting pieces to fit at the end of each row. Measure and cut pieces to fit around obstructions with a jigsaw. Measure from the last full row to the far wall and cut enough planks to fill this last row, leaving a 1/4-inch expansion gap at the wall. Install them in the same way.

Realign the molding at the bottom of your baseboard that you removed in Step 1. Nail this molding in place with one pin nail every 8 inches. Fill the nail holes with colored filler putty to match the molding.