Some Tips Before Your Buy Laminate Flooring

With interior design becoming a hobby rather than a chore for many of today's homeowners, the practice of doing up ones house has taken on a bigger role in the everyday life of many. Flooring is often a big choice in decoration terms, and one current trend is to do away with the traditional carpet and buy laminate flooring.

Laminate flooring is made up of a series of panels, generally made from reconstituted wood products, which can clip or glue together and be cut to size to cover a floor. It has many advantages over a carpet as it is hard wearing and easy to fit, and creates a light effect that many carpets do not give, adding to the illusion of extra space, and is easy to clean. In addition, the addition of a rug or throw can be used to decorate the floor with ease and simplicity.

Laminate flooring comes from many different makers, and there are different methods of fitting. Some versions glue together while others use an innovative method in which the panels clip as in a tongue and groove fitment. Many people find the latter easier to use, although some choose the glued versions for added stability.

When buying you will need to work out the overall floor space that needs to be covered. Simply, measure the width and length of the room, in metres, and multiply for the square area. For instance, a room measuring 3mtrs x 4mtrs will need 12 square metres of laminate flooring.

Flooring is sold in packs of panels that tend to cover between one and a half and two and a half square metres per pack - make sure you take note of this on the packaging. In addition, you will also need to allow for wastage, as the panels will not fit your room exactly and will need to be cut (an easy process, using either a jigsaw or circular saw) to fit, resulting in some wasted panels. It is advisable to allow ten percent waste in calculating your requirements.

For our twelve square metre room, then, we need to allow 13.2 square metres. Assuming the boards come in packs that cover two square metres, seven packs will give plenty of available panels to cover a room.

You will also need to purchase underlay, although an innovative tip is to lay the flooring down on the existing carpet or carpet underlay.

A further tip for fitting, one used by professionals, is to remove the skirting boards in the room you are flooring, allowing the boards to be fitted underneath the replaced skirting, and negating the need for complex trimming to cover the edges.

Laminate flooring can be bought in various colours - from light beech to dark oak - and is a cost effective and innovative way of flooring a room. There are many suppliers - any high street hardware store will stock it - and the above should be good advice for buying laminate flooring.