Laminate is one of the most popular floor coverings. Natural color and texture give the room coziness and warmth. At the same time, it is difficult to surprise anyone with such material. The most common option for laying laminate flooring is longitudinal. Further in the article, the diagonal laying method will be considered.
Advantages and disadvantages
This type of installation gives a spectacular appearance to the room, adds volume, while the length and width do not visually decrease. Also, this method will look relevant in long and narrow rooms. In rooms of complex shape, it is undesirable to choose longitudinal laying - all the flaws will be visible, so you should choose another option.
The advantages of such styling include:
- The ability to hide uneven walls. If the room has more than four corners or the walls are not parallel to each other, such styling will help hide almost all the flaws. With longitudinal laying, all these shortcomings will be clearly visible;
- In small rooms, there is a visual increase in volume, especially when the room is not occupied with furniture;
- Clearly emphasizes the naturalness of the coating;
- With asymmetric windows, diagonal laying allows for better and more uniform penetration of light into the room;
- In a square and rectangular room, such a laying of a laminate will give a special beauty. To do this, it is advisable not to make the floor monotonous, but to choose several colors and combine them correctly;
- If it is necessary to connect two rooms, the transition of the floor from one to another room will be less noticeable;
- With the right combination of straight and diagonal laying, your floors will look amazingly beautiful;
- Easily determine the focal point of a room. In the corners from which the coating pattern comes, it is necessary to place something large that attracts the eye: a fireplace, a chest of drawers, a corner sofa or a large floor mirror.
The main disadvantages include:
- Increased material consumption and a large amount of waste. Material consumption increases by about a quarter of the actual floor area;
- A large amount of time for calculations, sketching a plan and for the workflow itself;
- A small room with asymmetrical walls is the most inconvenient for this type of work. Much more waste will remain;
- If moisture gets in, especially on cheap material, swelling or changes in the properties of the material are possible. Only an expensive laminate can withstand changes in humidity or a small amount of water.
We calculate the costs
To start calculations, you need to know these parameters: length, width, area, number of angles, degree measure of angles. We also determine the laying angle of the laminate itself. Most often, an angle of 45 degrees is chosen due to the convenience of calculations. An angle of 30 degrees is less commonly used, the rest are almost never used due to the complexity in calculations and drawing.
To correctly calculate the number of elements, you need to know exactly the floor area, the length and width of each part. You also need to remember the geometry. There is a universal formula for calculating if the laying angle is 45 degrees, it looks like this: Number of elements \u003d (room area + (floorboard width x room width x 1.42)) / area of one floorboard.
As an example of a calculation, you can take an area of \u200b\u200b6x9 m. The width of the part is 10 cm, its length is 1 m. The quantity will be = (6 x 9) + (0.1 x 6 x 1.42) / 1 x 0.1 \u003d 548.5 floorboards . We can conclude that to cover a room with such dimensions, 549 elements will be needed. At the same time, you should always take a stock: it is recommended to take 10% more than it turned out in the calculations, that is, 549 + 10% = 604 parts.
For angles other than 45 degrees, there are no universal formulas, so it is easier to use just such an angle.
Ways
There are two installation methods:
- From the center to two opposite corners;
- From one corner to the opposite.
The first option is chosen when working alone. When working together, you can choose both the first and second options. Together, you can start from the center and move to different corners.
There are also some styling tips:
- Don't stop at the cheapest laminate. During installation and over time, various defects may appear;
- Before installation, the material must be kept for a day in the room where it will be used. This is necessary in order for the laminate to get used to the temperature;
- Work should be carried out in a warm and dry room.
Technology
Before starting work, you need to prepare the necessary tool:
- Hacksaw or jigsaw;
- Hammer or mallet;
- Square;
- Roulette;
- Pencil or marker;
- Scotch;
- Stationery knife.
It is also best that, before starting work, a plan drawing of a diagonal layout is drawn up, which will clearly indicate how many boards are needed and how to properly lay them. This scheme will help both when buying material and when installing it, putting the drawing in front of you.
First you need to carefully clean and make the floor even and clean. After that, the substrate is laid on the entire surface of the floor. Joints and seams are sealed with adhesive tape. Excess pieces are removed with a knife.
It is necessary to decide whether there will be a room without thresholds or with thresholds. If there are thresholds, you need to calculate the gap from the material to the wall and make a workpiece in order to observe this gap.
We start laying from the corner of the room. It is always necessary to take into account and cut holes for pipes in advance.
When joining the first and second rows of laminate, you must either ask someone to stand on them or use a weight. After that, you can safely continue to work.
Laying parts obliquely with your own hands is necessary in the same way as when laying bricks. It is necessary to make offsets of 25-35 cm so that the coating is stronger and does not deform at the joints.
Trimming parts must be done at the same angle. You can use a pre-prepared template, and for an angle of 45 degrees, you can use a regular square.
When a row consists of more than one floorboard, they will first need to be assembled in a row. Only then can a number of parts be laid at once. You can immediately assemble a trapezoid with corners, but there is an option to assemble only long parts, and measure and saw off the corners separately. For perfect compaction of parts, you can use a hammer or rubber mallet.
According to this technology, row after row goes to the opposite corner. There is a small corner at the end. It is necessary to mark it correctly and carefully insert it into the right place.
For waterproofing, the joints of the elements are pre-coated with a hydrophobic compound or silicone.
Display rules
In order to properly lay the laminate, it is necessary to saw it correctly.
To do this, you must follow some rules:
- Strict adherence to the angle that you have chosen to work. It is best to make a template and work from it. Sawing is best with the tool you are used to;
- When working with a jigsaw, there should be increased speed. This is necessary to avoid chips and burrs. At low speeds, an even cut will not work;
- Cutting with a grinder is not difficult if a disc for metal or laminate is installed.
Laying linoleum, subject to the rules of calculation, is not difficult. The process itself will be simple if you properly prepare the surface, select the necessary material and be ready to work yourself.
Ideas in the interior
You might wonder if there is any point in laying the laminate diagonally. After all, this occupation is more expensive, takes more time than the usual, longitudinal laying. It requires great skill, constant observance of all angles. But the result is worth it.
Diagonal laying makes the room wider, which is especially important in long and narrow rooms. When choosing contrasting boards, this type of installation allows you to achieve a beautiful play of colors and shades. This type of installation is universal and can be used in all rooms.
Laminate diagonally - how to lay? See photos of the interior. There are two main laying methods - diagonal and straight. The second option is suitable for those who are new to this business, and it is only suitable for rooms that are narrow and stretched out in length. If your room is more square, then it is possible to lay out the laminate diagonally.
We will tell you how to do it right.
Very often, when laying a laminate diagonally, the laboriousness of the process and the complexity of the calculations are noted. Yes, in this case, you will have to use more material, since there will be several times more waste (offcuts) than with the classical method. But there is also a positive point: a chic appearance and showiness in the interior. This way of decorating the floor looks much more interesting.
Diagonal technology makes it possible to achieve a visual expansion of the space in the room, which will be a profitable solution for owners of a modest living space. This solution looks especially attractive in places that are not cluttered with furniture and other items. The drawing can be made by anyone, and any professional finisher will take advantage of this. And yet, builders who are responsible and working for the result will not complain that it is difficult, since they are also “for” the style and original design.
Note, that the “diagonal laminate” type of design is even easier to install in rooms of complex shape than using the standard method. But it should also be taken into account that the master will take up this work only with increased pay, since each of us values our time and effort.
How to lay laminate flooring diagonally
Training
Material consumption when laying laminate diagonally is a very important topic that requires the most accurate calculation and cutting. Ideally, you need to cut the laminate into more than three rows of panels. If you are preparing a large number of blocks, number each one so that when laying on it you forget which segment should be in which place. Since not everywhere there are completely right angles, it will be correct to evaluate the angle of cutting by simply trying on the material. Laminate, which will be laid over the ledge, recess, output, should be cut according to cardboard templates.
Regardless of which method you choose to lay your laminate flooring with, special attention should be paid to surface preparation. First you need to treat the floor with mixtures for leveling to the “ideal” state, remove all debris and interfering objects. Before laying, sweep the subfloor and reinforce it again, and after that you need to place a cellophane film on the floor, and cork sheets or a substrate on top. After that, you can proceed to the main part of the work.
Mounting
How to lay laminate flooring diagonally?
The general rules are:
- Before laying the laminate should stay indoors for at least a day.
- should be aligned.
- After it is strengthened.
- The material base must be cleaned.
- On pave.
- Preparation of wedges for expansion gaps (wooden blocks or laminate trimmings, ideally the width of the wedges should be 1-1.5 cm).
Laying laminate diagonally from corner to corner requires that at the beginning a right-angled triangle be drawn on the back of the boards (the corners of the figure can be adjusted depending on the straightness of the joints on the walls in the room). In this case, your drawn hypotenuse should “look” in the direction of the groove. Next, the cut out figure is placed in the corner and wedging is done so that there is an interval.
Advice: do not rush to throw out the remaining boards, as they can be useful when laying in the second half of the room.
When you have a gap, you should select a solid panel from the side where the groove is, in the direction of the tongue section and draw a line at 45 degrees. Next, we lay a segment from the end point, its length should be the same as the base of the triangle. Connect the second point to the base (again at 45 degrees), and you should now have an isosceles trapezoid. If you follow these simple principles, you can achieve excellent results even without special skills and abilities.
Tools and fixtures
Laminate sawing is done with any object convenient for you with fine teeth. According to the recommendations of experts, it is better to use special machines or an electric jigsaw, you can try a circular saw. But if you don’t want to learn how to use these tools when repairing, it’s better to actually buy something from this list than to use hacksaws and hand saws.
In addition to the main tool, you will also need:
- Construction roll.
- A hammer.
- Wedges for creating gaps.
- Block for padding.
- Pencil, ruler to measure short pieces of material.
Material consumption - calculate the quantity to buy
Estimating the approximate material consumption is quite simple: you know the area of \u200b\u200bthe room in m 2, add another 15% to this figure and divide by the area of \u200b\u200ba single panel. If you are not satisfied with this calculation, there is a more accurate formula. Label the length of the room as X, the width as Y, and label the length and width of the laminate panels as A and B, respectively.
Next, we calculate the area of \u200b\u200bthe room (to do this, multiply the length by the width, X * Y). To calculate the margin, multiply the width of the room by the width of the panel and by 1.42 (Y * B * 1.42) - this way you will get the area for which you should definitely have enough material if it is not cut off at all when laying. Next, we summarize both figures, divide the resulting amount by the area of one panel block and round up.
Important: the area of \u200b\u200bthe room should be prepared and again talk with the seller in the hardware store, how much it costs to take coatings, otherwise you may miss and buy more than you need, or less (and there is no guarantee that when you return to buy laminate, its stocks will still be in stock - You are not the only one doing repairs.
Styling technique
Laying laminate diagonally has three main varieties:
- We start from the corner, the first element will be a right triangle.
- Laying starts indented from the corner, your original fragment is a trapezoid.
- We start laying from the middle of the room, from the line that diagonally crosses the entire room, the first row is prefabricated.
But most often, work begins from the corner, which is located farthest from the entrance, and when working, you should move from left to right. We lay the initial row away from ourselves with a comb and towards ourselves with a groove. If you will use standard panels with a typical lock, then first place them in the same plane, and after laying the wooden substrate, knock out the panels with light blows from a wooden mallet. Since it is easier to drive the spikes into the groove, you should not do everything the other way around, and do the work from one corner to another.
When you have multiple panels in a row(and this happens often), you can either add them one at a time, or immediately make a chain and fasten as a prefabricated structure. If you are laying blocks with latches, you do not need to knock them out, it is better to make a two-sided docking, which will go from the middle or from the indent.
When using the trapezoid method it is necessary that the length of the smaller base is not more / less than the length of the larger base of the previous one. If you lack one panel to close the gap between the walls, assemble in rows, and the corners can be cut in advance, but only for those blocks that close the chain.
You can also lay the laminate diagonally with your own hands if you connect the opposite corners with a diagonal strip that is drawn on the substrate. If this method is difficult for you, there is a way to simplify it - hammer nails in the corners or install self-tapping screws, and then stretch a cord or twine between them. It remains to measure the angle that the diagonal shares with the nearest wall - it will show you which panel should be cut first. It should be placed with a wide part on the marked line, and the field should be fenced off from the wall with wedges.
We fasten as many panels as required to the initial block with the ends, and only at the end of the row will we need a cut at a certain angle. Here, each tier will duplicate the previous one, but the cutting is done so that the seams scatter and in no case coincide.
Attention! To the right and left of the middle, only suitable elements should be used, if there is no threshold between several rooms, and each of these rooms will have the same flooring, trimming the laminate is not necessary. But the panels that will not be placed in one room will be immediately connected to others.
Laying laminate diagonally with a lock in the comb-groove format, it should be used only in one direction, while from the corner; if you purchased a cover with snaps, then this does not play a special role, and other chains can be attached to the previous ones from different sides.
If you started working from the middle of the room, leave the installation of small fragments for dessert so that there is no unnecessary material consumption. Expanding wedges are installed from the walls to the edge of the panels, which will need to be removed - they are needed to avoid an instant adjoining of the surface and creating an expansion joint.
Important: make sure that the walls do not narrow during the entire period of work, since then alternate laying will begin.
Finally, a part of the formation is converted into the source for the opposite segment. When laying diagonally, you should pay attention to specific features. Often there are problems with goods from such manufacturing companies as:
Each of these manufacturers has their own development methods that affect the specificity of the offset, the size and type of the castle. If you suddenly feel uncomfortable fixing the blocks, the simplest solution is to create rows with alternating short and long locks.
“The most convenient cutting option is from the inside out and with a jigsaw, as this makes it possible to avoid chips on the outer surface”
The laying of the laminate diagonally over even screeds should be started no earlier than one week after application. In winter, with interruptions in heating, you should wait all 3 weeks. In order to level wooden floors, use slabs, isolon or substrate.
Examples
If you want to expand the space visually, then it will be useful to put a laminate on the walls, and leave the middle of the room for linoleum of the same shade.
A combination of panels of different, contrasting shades will look great - this will give the floor expressiveness. The main emphasis is advised to enter into the corner parts of the coating.
For clarity and observation of the process "from" and "to", watch the training videos on the Internet.
If your room is narrow or has a non-standard layout, diagonal flooring can solve this problem. The right choice of laminate color and its correct laying in relation to the incident light from the window can transform any, even the most nondescript room.
Laminate is a material with many advantages. Among the advantages are beauty, versatility, resistance to temperature changes, moisture resistance. On the laminate, you can easily walk on heels, move furniture on wheels and ride children's cars.
Laminate retains its functional qualities for a very long time, the main thing at the same time is compliance with certain rules.
The process of laying laminate flooring largely depends on the type of floor on which the work will be done. It doesn't matter what kind of substrate to lay the laminate on, the surface must be flat and dust-free.
Laminate can be laid on a cement screed. To do this, it is important that the screed is even and dry. Therefore, if you decide to lay the laminate on cement, you need to wait at least 7 days before starting work. In winter, if there is no central heating in the room, 3 weeks should pass until the cement floor is ready for further use.
When laying laminate on a cement screed, it is recommended to cover the floor with plastic wrap to prevent moisture from escaping. Also, between the floor and the laminate flooring, you can use a polystyrene substrate, in case you need to insulate the floor.
If the laminate is mounted on a wooden floor, it will not work to level it with cement. In this case, you can use OSB boards to get an almost flawless floor. For insulation, also use a substrate or isolon.
Allow the laminate to sit indoors for a while before starting the laying process. He needs to get used to the temperature of the room.
Diagonal laying of laminate: features of work
Like any job, laminate flooring requires certain skills. The diagonal method is slightly different from the standard installation. The flooring of the boards is not mounted directly, along the wall, but starting from the far corner of the room.
Craftsmen who have already encountered laying laminate on an oblique more than once can do this work without auxiliary means. They can cut laminate by eye, join boards without any problems and easily determine the angle of inclination.
But if for the first time you decide to cover the floor with boards with your own hands, it is better to install beacons on which it will be easier to lay the laminate.
In appearance, the finished floor with diagonal laying of the laminate will look like brickwork.
Key points when laying laminate diagonally:
- The room is visually enlarged. If the floor is made light, the room will become spacious and bright. The motley floor, consisting of a laminate of different shades, will focus on itself.
- With diagonal laying, there is an emphasis on the corner of the room, so in this way you can shift the focus from the walls or other parts of the room to the corner.
- When laying the laminate diagonally, the seams between the boards are not so noticeable.
- If you use laying obliquely throughout the apartment, you can avoid installing thresholds between rooms.
- Laminate does not need to be nailed or screwed. The material may warp or crack.
This method of laminate flooring has significant disadvantages. The consumption of material is greater than with conventional installation. To save money, you can start laying from the middle of the room and move to the corners. Also, the calculation of the material is more difficult to make than with direct laying.
Laminate consumption when laying diagonally
Laying laminate diagonally requires an accurate calculation of the material. Specialists or consultants in hardware stores will help you calculate how many boards will go on the floor in the room. There are times when the calculation is very approximate and then the material may not be enough or there will be more boards than necessary.
You can calculate the laminate consumption yourself by calculating, according to the described scheme, the approximate piece consumption of boards to cover the entire floor. Add 3-4 boards to the amount received in case something gets damaged.
If it is not possible to draw up a detailed diagram of the room, but there is a general quadrature, you can calculate the flow rate as follows. When laying diagonally, add 10-12% to the total area of the room and divide the resulting number by the area of \u200b\u200bone board. Divide the number of planks by the number of laminates in the package.
How to lay laminate diagonally: laying technology
Before you start laying laminate boards, you need to lay the substrate. Roll out the material over the entire surface of the floor, glue the joints with adhesive tape or masking tape. So that when laying the boards, the substrate does not move, you can make a small overlap on the walls, the excess can be easily cut off with an ordinary clerical knife.
Perhaps in order to lay the laminate correctly, you will need a diagram that will show you sequentially how it is more convenient and economical to lay the boards.
The diagonal layout of the laminate starts from the far corner of the room, which is located near the window. You can lay a laminate both from right to left, and vice versa - there is no fundamental difference. When installing boards, you need to take into account the angle of inclination, it varies from 30 to 45 degrees.
Working process:
- The first row is assembled from a whole board, the ends of which are sawn at an angle for the correct joint with the wall.
- You can prepare a template according to which the board adjacent to the wall will be cut. According to the template, cut out the next board, connect with the main row along the entire length.
- Collect the next row, connect with the previous one. Using this technology, lay out the entire floor.
- Install plinth. It will hide all errors.
Between themselves, the laminate is connected by special locks. To dock the boards together, you need to bring the board into the lock at an angle of 30 degrees and gently lower it to the floor. If you hear a “click” sound, then you did everything right.
When laying the laminate obliquely, you need to adhere to the indentation from the wall of 20-30 mm. This is done so that the coating does not deform when loaded on it. These indents will later be hidden by the plinth.
Laying laminate diagonally (video)
A high-quality result can be obtained only by observing all the rules of laying. Despite the fact that diagonal laying is a more complex and painstaking process than standard laying, the finished result will exceed all expectations. Thanks to this method of installing laminate, you can transform the room, make it original and beautiful.
