Luctor Pergo et Emergo Non

We finished installing the laminate flooring system last night. kitchen and dining room are complete. it looks impressive. i’ll post before and after photos after we get the film developed.we went with pergo prodigy… yes, we’re lazy, it has the built in underlayment… we wanted to get back into our life as soon as possible. I looked at tiles, hardwood, laminate/hardwood hybrid, laminate a, laminate b, armstrong, unilock, et al. ad naseaum. pergo was instock, on sale and we fit all 12 cartons in our little saturn all by ourselves.

I ended up having to go back and buy one extra carton of flooring. we were off by one plank and wouldn’t you know it… they don’t sell you just one plank – LOL. since we chose to to lay the planks out east to west instead of north and south in the room I guess the SF of planks required was different.

the biggest pain was moving our behemouth of a fridge without scratching up the newly layed flooring. a good tip – use padded potholders and old cotton towels. slip them under the corners and wheels/pegs of the fridge and you’ll be able to slide the fridge/oven across the floor without scratching/marring up the surface.

the instructions were pretty straightforward but i couldn’t find any websites or tips on installing this stuff. so i ended up making up a few tricks to get some things done neatly. if you’re reading this and you’re planning on doing a project like this drop me a line with your questions and i’ll be glad to offer up some of the things i learned.

best thing i could tell you is get the right tools, measure/plan accurately and go slowly.

— measure the room – corner to corner.
— plan each row layout – plan ahead as you finish up a row… go row by row ensuring proper overlap connections.
— use the right tools – buy/borrow yourself a good 10″ table saw ($80-$100), a contractor t-square ($8), a 17″ ‘japanese bonsai’ pull saw ($15) and a laminate (box)saw ($12) – the right will tools help you get the work done properly, neatly and with the least amount of frustration.

i was able to make cutouts and notches with a hammer and chisel. be sure to slot the notches with the table saw for larger areas. score the cut line (notched portion) with a sharp xacto/razor blade. the laminate material is brittle and tends to crack. chisel away 1/4″ at a time… you can do it this way or go with a jigsaw… we only had a few small areas to notch so it was easier with the hammer and chisel.