Laying a laminate on a concrete floor with a substrate

There are a large number of floor coverings, but laminated panels have gained the greatest popularity. The basis of the laminate is a fiberboard, protected from below with a layer of oiled paper, and above with a decorative coating. The topic of today's article is laying a laminate on a concrete floor with a substrate. There are other styling options, but this technique is a kind of “classic of the genre”. The detailed instructions given in the article will allow you to cope with this work yourself. In addition, issues related to the classification of the laminate and the selection criteria are raised here.

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Classification

Depending on the decorative coating, there are such varieties of laminated boards:

• Normal. Such a laminate is an imitation of wood. The surface is smooth, the pattern is evenly distributed on the panel.
• Glossy. Outwardly, this board resembles a tree covered with varnish. The room is very bright and elegant.
• Shea. The surface is even, smooth and without gloss. This is a realistic imitation of drying boards.
• Imitation of a waxed surface. The floor is flat, smooth, with a barely noticeable noble shine.
• Country. This is an imitation of a manually crafted tree. This floor is well suited for a room decorated in a rustic style, creates a cosiness in the room.
• Imitation of natural wood with a distinct texture. Great for living room floors.
• Aged surface. It looks like a noble old tree with a large and smooth texture.

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Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of this flooring are significantly greater than the cons. Let's start with the benefits:

• Relatively low price. The average price of a laminate is lower than the cost of other flooring materials.
• Resistance to mechanical damage and wear.
• Simple installation. To lay a laminate with your own hands on a concrete floor is quite realistic even for a beginner.
• An extensive selection of shades and textures. This is not only an imitation of wood of various types, but also an ornamental stone, various drawings (images of flowers, fruits, animals, etc.).
• Simple care. Modern modifications of the laminate well tolerate washing with special tools, have a dust-repellent effect.
• Preservation of color for a long time.

There are few disadvantages:

• Sensitivity to large amounts of water.
• Unnaturalness. The coating contains chemical constituents.

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Criterias of choice

There are two options: to fully trust the opinion of sales consultants or to carefully study the technical characteristics of the material.

Important! It’s not worth buying cheap products, since more expensive modifications are more reliable and reliable.

The main selection criteria are as follows:

• View. This is not only the design of the decorative layer, but also the thickness of the product, and the total number of layers (from 3 to 5). Its resistance to wear and moisture resistance depend on the thickness of the material and the number of layers.
• Class. Industrial grades of laminate have a class from 31 to 34. Class 31 is laid in rooms with a small floor load. Class 32 is suitable for corridors and living rooms. Class 33, 34 material is suitable for kitchens. For installation in the bathroom, this coating is not suitable.
• Type of castle connection.There are 2 types of locks: Lock and Click. Locks Lock is a model with spikes and grooves on the sides of the board. The grooves are equipped with a special comb for fixing the tenon. This coating is mounted with a wooden mallet. The disadvantage of this connection is that the comb erases over time, and gaps form between adjacent panels.

Important! Click lock products are more expensive. The panels are assembled at an angle of 450, installation does not require much physical effort. Locking, the lock provides good connection reliability. The joints do not diverge, there are no gaps between adjacent floorboards.

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How to lay a laminate on a concrete floor with your own hands?

Before laying the laminate on a concrete floor, it is necessary to calculate the amount of material for flooring, choose the right substrate and prepare all the necessary tools.

To calculate the required amount of material, first determine the area of ​​the room by multiplying its length by width:

• If you are laying the coating perpendicular to the plane of the window, add 7% to the margin.
• With diagonal styling, a little more margin is required - 15%.

Divide the desired number by the number of square meters on the laminate packaging. The resulting number, rounded to the nearest whole unit, is the number of packages of material that you need to buy.

Choose a background

Now it’s the turn to choose the substrate - the duration of the floor depends on the correctness of this material. It is necessary that the material from which the substrate is made is waterproof and saturated with an antibacterial composition:

• The best cork backing (it is quite expensive).
• More budget option - polyethylene.

Important! The optimum thickness ranges from 3 to 5 mm.

Instruments

In order to properly lay the laminate on a concrete floor, you will need:

• Ruler, building square, pencil for measurements and marking.
• Hammer to fit the panels.
• Sealing composition.
• Electric jigsaw of good power.
• Wedges for laying floorboards at some distance from the walls.
• The steel bracket is the right size to fit the end in the row of the last panel.

Foundation preparation

First of all, it is necessary to identify uneven floors. The presence of irregularities is detected using the construction level. If the magnitude of the differences exceeds 2 mm per 2 m of the floor, it is impossible to do without leveling:

1. Before leveling, the floor is cleaned of dirt and primed.
2. To align, find the highest point, apply a horizontal rail to it, and then transfer the markings to the walls.
3. After that, pull the cord along the marking.
4. The result is a limited area, which is poured with mortar.

Important! The composition of the mortar for screed: 5 kg of dry mixture per 1 liter of water. The solution is evenly distributed throughout the room. For alignment use a plastic studded roller.

When leveling the screed, be sure to check the levelness of the surface using the building level.

The minimum thickness of the solution layer is 1 cm. After it dries, the surface is primed and poured for a day with a self-leveling mixture. When the composition hardens, you can begin to lay the laminate. In this case, it must be remembered that the resulting base should be perfectly smooth, without pits and cracks.

How to lay a laminate on a concrete floor yourself?

Before laying, the boards are brought into the room so that the material adapts to the temperature regime and humidity. The drying time for the screed is 80 days. The space between the laminated board and the concrete floor is occupied by the substrate.

Important! If you use a natural cork backing, you need to lay a layer of plastic film between the concrete and the cork. The polyethylene is overlapped and fixed with tape.

Decide how you will lay the coating: perpendicular to the plane of the window or in the diagonal direction. There is another option - the creation of various patterns.

Important! For the novice master, the simplest way of laying is optimal - perpendicular to the window.

The thickness of the protective wedges between the wall surface and the floorboards is 1 cm.

Laminated boards are laid on the principle of “brickwork”, cutting the subsequent panel in half. The fastening technology depends, as already mentioned, on the type of lock. After the boards are mounted, it remains to install the baseboard - plastic, polyurethane or wooden.

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Stock footage

It turned out stylish, beautiful flooring, creating an atmosphere of coziness and comfort in the room. We hope that this is the result you were able to get by applying a little of your strength and time.