How to Install Laminate Wood Flooring: Like A Pro

Among the plethora of longish manuals, full-scale do-it-yourself guides, printed home remodelling books and YouTube tutorials on one side, and thousands of free online articles on the other, one can get easily confused trying to find just the right stuff, and more to the point, in the right size.This simple manual by Mark Dansford puts most of the key points at one place. Still, once I went through the pages, I started asking myself if I could ever really install laminate floor like a pro. This is not to say that the instructions are not good but that I had no idea how much preparation the process takes and that a person can easily fail to plan everything ahead.Did you know that you need a list of about 30-40 tools to do the job properly? I definitely don’t have all of them in my basement. If I decide to go for it I will need to rely on my neighbor's toolbox and owe him a few beer rounds to compensate afterwards.What I liked about Mark’s quick quide is that you can easily print if off and carry it in the garage to read it while you check if you have everything in place. He summarized all main steps from preparation to maintenance in just the right volume. There were occasional weird missing or extra words but I’m no grammar nazi. With the price of laminate floors moving around $10 per square foot, these 3 bucks are an excellent investment for many inches saved. Thanks Mark!

Mark Dansford has a unique ability to teach the principle of installing laminate wood flooring thoroughly and simply. He was able to break down each step required in common language that even someone who is unfamiliar with installing laminate wood flooring can feel confident enough to tackle the job.I was looking to see what was needed to redo the floor in my bathroom and I was impressed with what should be done before doing the job to ensure the flooring was able to withstand the moisture of the room. He also covered what should be used to keep the laminate wood flooring in peak condition, or how to fix chips or scratches if they appear. I am looking forward, instead of dreading, this future DIY job.

A very interesting read, who would think one day you will find a book about how to install laminate wood flooring? Best of all, it was quite a good read.First, there is a lot information here, so depend on how you are going to read this book (if you are going to follow the instructions and start installing it yourself, or just going to read it on daily terms) you really need to write certain tips or highlights of each section for better understanding, but overall it was quite educative, I can’t relate with any of this stuff and yet I could understand everything, although, it is not the kind of thing I do but now that I read this book I might try it.

This book is not a really good book on how to do. It lacks detail information. It lacks of any photos, it has none. I found it not to helpful at all. I need to look for another.

very helpful

There is only one microscopic size illustration in this this thin book about laminate floor installation and it is too primitive to be of much use. With most how-to-do-it books, illustrations are crucial to the novice reader in visualizing the practices being described--it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Essentially without any illustrations or photos to augment this self-published book, the reader is left with the author's verbal narrative that consists mostly of repetitive statements placed to fill space and increase the number of pages. The actual information someone would need to know to plan, prepare the base floor and install the floating laminate floor on top, is confused and incomplete at best. I am not a flooring expert, but have installed floating laminate floors and bamboo floors and would not recommend this 8 dollar book to anyone. If anyone is going to invest a sizable amount of money and energy in installing a laminate floor themselves, buying a more expensive book with illustrations, photos and well explained descriptions of practices is well worth the money. Besides, the flooring manufacturer provides much of the information one would need to know for free.(additional comment) The five star reviews written about this book are 180 degrees out of phase with reality. I did have fun with the book, marking it up in red--the odd choices of descriptive nouns and phrases and particularly the major omissions of necessary content that would instruct the first time installer. The author references his book as a "report" in one instance--to me that set off alarm bells-- but there were more to come.My wife bought me this book and another Amazon self-published book about installing laminate flooring, _How To Install Laminate Flooring_,by Gary Johnson. The second book by Johnson at least gives you the correct information, although it also suffers from lack of organization and clarity. If you are going to waste eight dollars I would recommend the second book. I have several other professionally written and illustrated books about flooring that cover laminate floor installation. The two-self published books have made me appreciate the professionally written, edited and illustrated books that cost two or three times as much.

easy to understand

Install laminate Like a pro is the best book ever it’s got a lot of tips that explains how to get the best result in completing your project and checking out your handy work there’s also schedule that guides you through out.

It is a short book with some useful advice. For the price it is okay. The writing style is a bit irritating in that each direction is prefaced by a phrase like "you will need to .." or "you will add .." or "you would do this .." etc. The writer also repeats whole paragraphs under different headings for sub-floor situations when these paragraphs could easily have been included once under a general heading. As I said, some useful information can be gained from this but the book could have used a good proofreading and editing before being published.

Lotsof information. Convicedme to hire a pro rather DIY