Installing Flooring When Walls Not Straight

Make sure you ve got the right amount of flooring for your space.

Installing flooring when walls not straight.

10 beginner mistakes installing vinyl plank flooring home renovation this video sponsored by skillshare. Measure away from the wall the width of one piece of flooring and add 1 4 inch for example if flooring is 5 inches wide measure out 5 1 4 inches and snap a chalk line across the room. If the wall isn t straight and you start a full course of flooring against it then the whole floor will look crooked. Generally this is done by working from the most visible wall usually the one that greets the eye as you enter the room then working outward toward the entryway.

When you re installing baseboards over vinyl wood or plastic laminate floors the best way to handle gaps between the drywall and the flooring is to shim the gap with narrow blocks of 1 2 in wood. Lining the flooring up based on the angle of the wall can cause big problems however since few homes or buildings have perfectly straight walls. When possible begin installation from the straightest longest wall and install the flooring perpendicular to the floor joists. When a hardwood floor is not straight it throws off the sightline of the entire room.

Vinyl plank flooring like laminate or wood flooring needs to have a layout that is pleasing to the eye. If your measurement at one end of the room is 10 feet and your measurement at the other end is 10 feet 2 inches then the room is 2 inches out. In order to keep the floor straight and square start laying the laminate away from the wall because the wall may not be straight. The solution is to angle cut the lengths of the first and last courses so the floor is straight even if the walls aren t.

With a laminate flooring wall not straight you ll need to measure the space between the two lines at one end of the room then at the other to determine how far out of square the walls are. Plan the flooring layout. The eye perceives the angle as disorder and it s difficult to correct. Most manufacturers recommend a standard cutting ordering allowance of 5 and a culling allowance up to an additional 10 percent if installed on a.