Order of work
- Safety first. Before you pull up old sheet vinyl or tile in a house built before the 1980s, have it tested for asbestos; don’t sand, scrape or break it up until you know. Wear safety glasses and hearing protection when cutting, and a dust mask when sawing laminate. A floating floor rarely needs a permit, but check if you’re in a condo or co-op.
- Acclimate and check the subfloor. Leave the boxes in the room as long as the instructions say (often 48 hours for laminate). Remove the old carpet or vinyl, set protruding nails and screws, and check the floor is flat to your plank’s tolerance, commonly 3/16 in over 10 ft. Grind high spots and fill low ones.
- Prepare the edges. Pull off the shoe molding (or the baseboards, if they’re coming off), and undercut the door jambs and casing with a jamb saw so a plank slides underneath.
- Lay the vapor barrier and underlayment. On concrete, roll out the 6-mil poly with seams lapped 8 in and taped, unless your underlayment has a built-in film. Butt the underlayment strips together without overlapping and tape the seams.
- Lay the first row along the starting wall with spacers holding the gap, ripped to the width shown above if the plan says so. Snap a chalk line to keep it straight if the wall isn’t.
- Work across the room, staggering end joints at least 6 in from the row before and keeping every end piece at least 8 in long. Start each row with the offcut from the last one where it fits.
- Rip the last row to width, fit it with the pull bar, then pull the spacers. Fit the transition strips at the doorways and nail the quarter-round or baseboard to the wall, never into the floor.
Tools you’ll need
- Tape measure, speed square, pencil and chalk line
- Miter saw or laminate cutter for crosscuts; table saw or circular saw for ripping rows (a utility knife scores and snaps vinyl plank)
- Undercut jamb saw and a jigsaw for notches around vents and door casing
- Rubber mallet, tapping block and pull bar (in the kit on the list)
- Brad nailer or hammer and nail set for the trim
- Knee pads, safety glasses, hearing protection and a dust mask
About this planner
A floating floor of laminate or luxury vinyl plank (LVP) is one of the most popular weekend projects, and the flooring itself is the easy part to buy. The trip to the store also needs underlayment (unless the planks have a pad attached), a vapor barrier on concrete, quarter-round or new baseboard to hide the gap at the walls, a transition strip at each doorway, seam tape, nails and a kit of spacers, a tapping block and a pull bar.
This planner works all of that out from the size of your room and the planks you’ve picked, prices it with your local numbers, and lays the rows out to scale. That shows the number most people only discover halfway through the room: how wide the last row will be. If it comes out thinner than half a plank, you rip the first row too, so both edges end up the same width.
How to use it
- Measure the room’s length and width, including closets you’ll floor. For an L-shaped room, plan each rectangle separately.
- Pick the direction the planks will run and enter the plank width and length and the coverage per box from the product label.
- Choose the subfloor, whether you need separate underlayment, how you’ll cover the gap at the walls, and the number of doorways.
- Open Your local prices, enter what your store charges, and print the project sheet to shop from.
How the quantities are worked out
Floor area = length × width
Boxes = area × (1 + extra%) ÷ coverage per box, rounded up
Underlayment = area × 1.05 ÷ 100 sq ft per roll, rounded up
6-mil poly = area × 1.1 ÷ 250 sq ft per roll (10 × 25 ft)
Trim = 2 × (length + width) − doorways × doorway width, + 10%
Rows = (room width − 2 × gap) ÷ plank width
If the last row < ½ plank: first row = last row = (plank width + leftover) ÷ 2
The row rule follows the North American Laminate Flooring Association’s guidance that the last row should be close to half a plank wide and never under 2 in, and the planner checks it for the direction you choose. The underlayment gets 5% extra for the strips trimmed at the walls; the poly gets 10% for 8 in seam overlaps and the turn-up at the walls. Quarter-round is counted in 8 ft pieces and baseboard in 16 ft pieces, each with 10% for cuts, and one 6 ft transition strip covers a standard doorway.
Worked example
These are the planner’s starting values and the results they produce:
| Room length | 14 ft |
|---|---|
| Room width | 12 ft |
| Planks run | Along the room length |
| Plank width (visible face) | 7.5 in |
| Plank length | 48 in |
| Coverage per box | 20 sq ft |
| Extra for cuts and waste | 10 % |
| Expansion gap at the walls | 0.25 in |
| Doorways | 1 |
| Doorway width | 3 ft |
| Subfloor | Plywood or OSB |
| Underlayment | Separate foam underlayment |
| Covering the gap | Keep the baseboards, add quarter-round |
| Flooring, per sq ft | $3.00 |
| Foam underlayment, 100 sq ft roll | $30.00 |
| Underlayment with vapor barrier, 100 sq ft roll | $40.00 |
| 6-mil poly sheet, 10 × 25 ft roll | $20.00 |
| Seam tape, roll | $8.00 |
| Quarter-round, 8 ft piece | $9.00 |
| Baseboard, 16 ft piece | $20.00 |
| Brad nails, box | $8.00 |
| Transition strip, each | $25.00 |
| Spacers, tapping block and pull bar kit | $15.00 |
| Bought | Item | Buy | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laminate or vinyl plank flooring184.8 sq ft with 10% extra, 20 sq ft per box; 200 sq ft bought | 10 boxes | $600.00 | |
| Foam underlayment168 sq ft + 5% in 100 sq ft rolls | 2 rolls | $60.00 | |
| Seam tapeTo tape the underlayment seams | 1 roll | $8.00 | |
| Quarter-round, 8 ft49 ft along the walls + 10%; nailed to the baseboard, never to the floor | 7 pieces | $63.00 | |
| Brad nails, 18 gauge, 2 inFor the trim | 1 box | $8.00 | |
| Transition strips, 6 ft1 per 3 ft doorway: T-molding to another hard floor, reducer to a lower floor, carpet edge to carpet | 1 | $25.00 | |
| Installation kitSpacers to hold the ¼ in gap, a tapping block and a pull bar | 1 kit | $15.00 | |
| Estimated materials total | $779.00 | ||
Tips before you buy
- Mix planks from three or four boxes as you go, so color and pattern repeats spread out across the floor.
- Never fasten a floating floor down: no nails through the planks, and nothing heavy fixed on top, such as kitchen islands. Lay the floor around them and leave the same gap.
- Rooms longer than the maximum run in your plank’s instructions need a T-molding break in the middle so the floor can move.
- Run the planks toward the main window or along the longest wall; the seams show least that way.
- Write down the product name and color and keep one unopened box. Discontinued flooring is almost impossible to match later.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to install laminate flooring in a 12×14 room?
For a 14 × 12 ft room on a plywood subfloor with one doorway and 20 sq ft boxes: 10 boxes of flooring, 2 rolls of foam underlayment, a roll of seam tape, 7 pieces of 8 ft quarter-round, a box of brad nails, 1 transition strip and an installation kit. At typical prices ($3 per sq ft for the flooring) that comes to about $779, of which $600 is the flooring.
How wide should the last row of laminate or vinyl plank be?
At least 2 in, and ideally close to half a plank. In a room 12 ft wide with 7½ in planks and a ¼ in gap at each wall, starting with a full plank leaves a 1 in last row. Rip the first and last rows to 4¼ in each instead; the floor then has 20 rows.
Do I need underlayment for vinyl plank flooring?
Not if the planks have a pad attached, and most makers say not to add a second pad under them. Laminate without a pad needs foam underlayment. On a concrete slab, most laminate also needs a vapor barrier: 6-mil polyethylene with the seams lapped 8 in, or an underlayment with the film built in.
How big should the expansion gap be?
Usually ¼ to ⅜ in at every wall and around anything fixed, such as cabinets, pipes and door casing. Floating floors grow and shrink with the seasons. The gap is hidden by quarter-round or baseboard, which is nailed to the wall and never into the floor.