I am considering installing wood look laminate flooring in my house. I measured a few rooms and the total square footage is around 600. I have a couple of questions about the install.
1. Is 10 percent enough to add for waste?
2. How much should I add if I decide to install it diagonally?
Update 11/12
First I would like to say thanks to everyone for your posts. Let me add a little info that may help. I am only doing 2 rooms. The first room is a rectangle and approx 300sf. The second room is basically a square and is approx 160sf. My original post said 600sf because I added 10% and then rounded up the numbers up to the nearest 100 for each room assuming that would be enough especially since I am using the same color in each room. What I really want to know is if there is a general rule of thumb that applies to diagonal installation vs. straight. Take the first room. Based on actual measurements, it will take 300sf of materials to cover the area using a straight pattern(not counting waste). How much more material will be needed to cover the area if I use a diagonal pattern(again not counting waste)? Once I get this number I will add 10-20% for waste and I should be good to go. And now, back to the experts….
Edited 11/12/2006 2:26 pm by jcrew2
Replies
Gut feel is significantly more than 10% for diagonally - don't know how much more. Can you return it? Get too much; lots of piecing in your future!
Should look cool, though!
Forrest
Actually, with care you may use LESS going diagonally, especially if the flooring is fixed-size lengths vs random. With a reasonably square room each row is roughly 2x the plank width longer or shorter than the adjacent one, so you have a variety of different lengths to pick from when starting the row on the other end. And you're guaranteed that you won't have the worst-case scenario where you have to waste a significant amount on each row.Unless you save the below-the-diagonal end pieces to use as above-the-diagonal start pieces, however, you can figure on losing 2x the plank width on each row. This would be the worst-case "delta" over running the flooring parallel to a wall.
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
10% is plenty if you go random butts. You're gonna use that end cut on the next row as a starter more often than not. If you go patterned butts, up the ante to 15% and have a few extra garbage bags on hand for your scraps.
-duke
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius
You need to consider the size and shape of the rooms when figuring waste. If you had one large rectasngular room of 600 sf, your waste number would be very low. Several smaller rooms, or odd shapes, or cutting around cabinets and such, will run the number up. 10% should generally be enough.
15%
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
That sounds like smal rooms which ups the waaste percentage. 15% for straight and 25% for diagonally
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I'll up that 5% and raise you 2....whats the over and under on this?
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Why though? Small rooms equalls more cuts yes, but 10% should do. 600 feet? A six by ten waste factor is plenty. And as far as diagonal is concerned, I don't usually get more waste there than anywhere else. The only waste is in non-end cuts like doorways. Here's a thought though, can you click the last piece in place at a 45 without having too big of wall gap?DCG Your Neighbor's Contractor LLC
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius
Why?Because in all the piecework I have seen in my life, the waste always goes higher with smaller spaces and goes haigher again with diagonal installation. If you do it and see different, let me know.but for me, thirty five years of cutting stuff says I'm right. BTW, I learned this the hard way by making the same asssumptions you are now.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Okay, I'm not gonna fight for it when we start pulling out "years in the biz", but I cut my teeth laying floor, and ten percent was always too much on 600 sqft. The overage curve flattens inverse to the total order size. When I started out, it was 10 for everything, and on a 3000 sqft Jatoba job, 9 cartons of leftover looks kinda bad to the HO. I got in a real nasty pissing match one time early on over 50 extra feet on a 500 foot job 'cause I asked the home owner to buy 20% waste to cover odd angles, cabinets, and bay windows. Really nasty, and it was a very nice install. So I was thinking that small isn't so small here. Given what he's describing here, if it were me, and my house, I'd look to buy about 8-10 percent overage whatever rounds out to a case, and plan on having a box, or most of a box, to toss in the crawl for spares. I can tell by reading your work that yes, you do know more than me about most everything building related, and I respect that. I've come to BT with questions and you've given some of the best answers. But that old man/young man jive is false logic, and you're way too smart to believe otherwise. Every week I meet guys with "20 years in this buisness" who "know how to do everthing" becasue they've "been doing it that way for 20 years" and tell me "in 20 years (I'll) see"... When the truth is, they've been f-in up for twenty years becasue they don't have the brains to try someting new or the courage to admit when they're wrong. I could go on with this lament, and please understand I'm not lumping you in with the above group, I just burn a little when I catch a whiff of that line. Floor guy, go 20%, do it well and enjoy the job, if you're left wanting for an extra case at the day's end, mail me one of the angle cuts and I'll poke my eye with the pointy end in contrition.-dukeDCG Your Neighbor's Contractor LLC
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius
OK, so maybe I giv emore theory why. With preformatted engineered stuff, you have fewwer choices how to save and be efficient. Pattern repetition creeps in too. Simulated randomness from repetitive surfaces is hard to make look right if the staggering is not right. You can either make those lapps disappear or put them under a magnifying glass depending on how you pattern things.And that efficiency is what you are doing when you work alone. Personally, I can do some floors, roofs, or other piece work with as little as 2% waste up to ten percent in heavy cut areas.But when subbing it out, only a fool for a contractor will expect the same from subs laying the materials. The only way to get the same efficiency is to have them buying their own materials on a fixed price or to hire obsessive personalities fixated on efficiency.now then to size, he mentioned several rooms totalling 600 feet. That means a lot of cuts. Every cut means waste. I have learned over the years that diagoanl work means 25% waste in small areas. I figure less and I can lose money. I'm not in this to lose money.Can a DIY working alone save and rework every scrap and keep his waste down to 5-10 percent? Maybe, if he wants to spend a lot of time and allow for some poor patterns. I'm just trying to be realistic.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
If this laminate flooring is the 'click' type of flooring so popular nowadays, the diagonally cut end pieces will be hard to tap into the previous piece, using the manufacturer's hooked metal gizmo. I have no idea how to go about it.
First I would like to say thanks to everyone for your posts. Let me add a little info that may help. I am only doing 2 rooms. The first room is a rectangle and approx 300sf. The second room is basically a square and is approx 160sf. My original post said 600sf because I added 10% and then rounded up the numbers up to the nearest 100 for each room assuming that would be enough especially since I am using the same color in each room. What I really want to know is if there is a general rule of thumb that applies to diagonal installation vs. straight. Take the first room. Based on actual measurements, it will take 300sf of materials to cover the area using a straight pattern(not counting waste). How much more material will be needed to cover the area if I use a diagonal pattern(again not counting waste)? Once I get this number I will add 10-20% for waste and I should be good to go. And now, back to the experts....
let me say thanks for clarifying, and neener neener to you who thought it was several rooms, and to the original poster, the most important thing is, can you snap 'em in place against the wall at a forty-five, I know I saw someone else ask that.-dukeDCG Your Neighbor's Contractor LLC
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius
To the op, squared up there won't be hardly any waste. What you cut off you'll start the next row. Depending on the length of material. You should be able to plot it out according to the specified lengths in the box. For the diagonal, you should be able to figure pretty close so you don't end up buying a couple too many cartons. You'll at least need to figure twice the width of the board extra-each row for the angles you end up cutting and pitching. You'll lose about one square foot for each foot wide run across the room. The long runs, about 5 %, the short ones, more like 20. Again, depending on the usable lengths, I don't see a need for 25% overage.
duke, to do the diag if you can't raise the flooring to snap it when the wall gets in the way, spline the center and go both ways. You might have one side long edge, but you should be able to start on that side and go the other direction. Or remove the base and shoe, gain more room that might allow the long edge to raise up.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
15% at least... but more important(because you can always buy some more flooring) is to continuosly check your courses to make sure they're straight...itz possibul on a diagonal install to "walk" both ends of the course out of a straight line as the course widens as you floor out of the corner, the course width expands, and you must keep the expanding ends of the course straight if not, it leaves u with both ends "bent" back towards your starting point, open butt joints, and the problem grows as u continue into the room
for foolproof diagonal lay, some guys start in the center of the room (widest point)with straight starter courses and install in both directions off it.. use spline/slip tongue to fill the back to back grooves if you do this, nail securely to prevent movement off yor straight line even put a bead of subfloor adhesive under the first couple rows directly to the subfloor (then start laying rosin paper)
The straight line start from the middle is a good idea. Instead of 45 degrees, consider something in the 25 to 35 range for an interesting look. That's especially helpful if the rooms were built significantly out of square. Nothing gives away the mistakes that way.
-- J.S.