DIY GUIDE · TRADES & CONSTRUCTION

How to lay click laminate flooring yourself
A day for a normal room. €125–250 in materials.

Acclimatise for 48 hours, leave an 8–10 mm gap everywhere, and never fix it down.

DIFFICULTY
Moderate
no licence needed
TIME
1 day + 48 hours
48 hours' acclimatisation, then half a day preparing and half a day laying
MATERIALS
€125–250
underlay, beading and trims for a 16 m² room; the planks are extra
A PRO CHARGES
€20–€60
  • Every step, start to finish
  • Checked 2026-10 — sources at the end
  • Honest about when to call a pro

FIRST, THE HONEST ANSWER

Do it yourself, or get a floorer?

Do it yourself if…

  • The subfloor is sound, dry and reasonably level
  • You can leave the packs in the room for 48 hours before starting
  • You can cut accurately with a hand saw or a jigsaw
  • You are prepared to take the skirting off, or to fit beading afterwards

Get a pro if…

  • The subfloor is uneven enough to need screeding or ply
  • There is damp in a solid floor — a membrane is not a damp cure
  • It is going over underfloor heating, where the maximum surface temperature and the right underlay matter
  • The room is a complex shape full of pipes, or it runs through several doorways

Safety first

  • Cut with the plank supported and the offcut unsupported, and keep your free hand behind the blade line. A jigsaw blade in laminate wanders if the board is not held.
  • Wear eye protection when cutting: laminate chips are hard and sharp, and a jigsaw throws them upwards.
  • Wear a dust mask when cutting or when grinding a high spot in a screed — the dust is fine and contains silica.
  • Knee pads and a mat. A day on a hard floor does real damage to knees, and it is the injury people actually get from this job.
  • Keep the room ventilated if you use a levelling compound or adhesive, and keep both off your skin.

MATERIALCOVERAGEFOR THIS JOB
Laminate or click vinyl planksArea plus about 10% for cuts16 m² room → about 18 m² of boards
Damp-proof underlayArea, plus a little for overlaps16 m² room → one 15 m² roll plus a part roll
PE foil or DPMOnly over a damp-sealed covering, or on concrete16 m² → one roll
Scotia beading or the original skirtingRoom perimeter plus 10%16 m perimeter → about 18 m of beading
Door threshold trimsOne per doorwayTwo doorways → two trims

How much flooring

Packs you need: 9 packs

9 packs (17.6 m² needed) — 9 packs, and keep the offcuts until the job is signed off

Add more than 10% for a diagonal lay or a room with bays and alcoves. Pack coverage differs by range — the figure is on the pack.

AC rating, which is the wear rating

AC3 for a bedroom, AC4 for a living room or hall, AC5 for a very busy hall. The rating is about the surface wear layer, not the thickness, and under-specifying it in a hall shows within a year at the door.

Thickness and the feel underfoot

7 mm is the cheap end and sounds hollow; 8–12 mm feels and sounds considerably better and is more forgiving of a slightly uneven subfloor. The thicker board is not more waterproof — that is a different property.

Water resistance, which is not the same as waterproof

A water-resistant laminate tolerates a spill wiped up promptly. For a bathroom or a utility, a click vinyl (LVT) is the right product; laminate in a wet room will swell at the joints and the swelling is permanent.

Underlay, and the damp-proof membrane

Quick-Step says always use a damp-proof underlay, and that on a damp-sealed floor covering such as PVC or linoleum you need an underlay with a damp-proof membrane or a separate PE foil to stop moisture migrating. On a concrete subfloor a membrane is not optional.

The expansion gap, which the product sets

Quick-Step specifies a minimum 8–10 mm joint on all sides of the floor, around pipes, at thresholds and under doors, and 8 mm for its vinyl range; EGGER gives 8–10 mm as typical and says to check your own product's sheet. This is the figure to read before you buy the beading, because the beading has to cover it.

Beading or lifting the skirting

Lifting the skirting and refitting it over the floor looks far better and hides the gap completely. Scotia beading is quicker and is pinned to the SKIRTING, never to the floor — pinning it to the floor stops the floor floating and defeats the whole design.

Buy about 10% extra for cuts and waste, and more for a diagonal lay or a complicated room.
Check every pack is the same batch and decant from several packs as you lay, so any shade variation is distributed rather than banded.

THE PART THAT DECIDES THE FINISH

The subfloor, case by case

A floating floor copies whatever is underneath it. Get the subfloor right and the rest is carpentry; get it wrong and no amount of care with the planks will save it.

Concrete or screed

The commonest, and the one that needs a membrane.

  1. Check it is dry — a new screed can hold moisture for weeks per 25 mm of thickness, and sealing damp in does not stop it
  2. Use a damp-proof underlay, or a separate PE foil under a standard underlay; Quick-Step is explicit that a damp-proof layer is needed
  3. Check level with a long straightedge: a dip of more than about 3 mm under a 1 m straightedge wants filling with a levelling compound
  4. Vacuum thoroughly — a single stone under the underlay telegraphs through the finished floor
Floorboards or chipboard

Usually fine, and usually needs screwing down first.

  1. Walk the whole floor and screw down every board that creaks or moves; a floating floor will not cure a creak, it will amplify it
  2. Punch any raised nails below the surface
  3. Fill large gaps between boards, or lay a 5 mm ply over the whole floor if it is very uneven
  4. You still need an underlay, but over timber you do not need a vapour barrier unless the space below is unventilated
Over existing vinyl or linoleum

Allowed, with one specific condition.

  1. Quick-Step says a damp-sealed covering such as PVC or linoleum needs an underlay with a damp-proof membrane, or a separate PE foil, to stop moisture migration
  2. Check the old covering is stuck down everywhere; lift and re-stick or cut out any bubbles
  3. Make sure the extra height still clears the doors — two coverings plus underlay adds up
  4. Do not lay over carpet, foam-backed vinyl, or anything soft
Over underfloor heating

Possible, and the most rule-bound case.

  1. Check the plank is approved for underfloor heating and note the maximum surface temperature in its instructions
  2. Use the specific low-resistance underlay for heated floors; a thick acoustic underlay insulates the heat away
  3. Bring the system up and down slowly before and after laying, per the floor's own sheet
  4. Follow the manufacturer's instructions rather than this guide where the two differ — this is the case where they vary most
A floor that is out of level

Decide now, not after the first row.

  1. Measure with a long straightedge in several directions and note the worst dip
  2. Fill dips with a levelling compound and let it cure fully
  3. Sand or grind local high spots rather than bridging them
  4. An unlevel floor shows up as flexing joints and eventually as clicked joints that open
Acclimatising the planks

Not optional, and it is a step not a surface.

  1. Quick-Step: 48 hours in UNOPENED packaging, at room temperature, in the MIDDLE of the room
  2. Ideal conditions are 15–22°C and 30–75% relative humidity
  3. Outside that humidity range, Quick-Step advises a week with the packages opened
  4. Do not stack the packs against a cold external wall or stand them on edge

THE JOB

How to lay a click laminate floor

  1. Acclimatise the packs

    48 hours

    Lay the unopened packs flat in the middle of the room where the floor is going, at room temperature, for 48 hours. Quick-Step gives 15–22°C and 30–75% relative humidity as the target, and advises a week with the packs opened if the humidity is outside that.

    • Middle of the room, flat, unopened — not against a wall and not on edge
    • Get the heating to its normal setting during this period, not afterwards
    • Use the two days to prepare the subfloor

    Mistake to avoid: Starting the day the floor is delivered. A plank laid cold and dry grows afterwards, and a floor with no room to grow lifts in the middle.

  2. Prepare and clean the subfloor

    1–3 hours

    Screw down loose boards, punch nails, fill dips with levelling compound and let it cure, grind high spots. Then vacuum the whole floor, twice.

    • A long straightedge finds what your eye will not
    • Vacuum, then vacuum again after you have walked on it
    • Deal with any damp now; a membrane manages vapour, it does not fix a damp problem

    Mistake to avoid: Laying over a creaking board intending to live with it. The click floor transmits and amplifies it, and fixing it later means lifting the floor.

  3. Undercut the door architraves

    30 min

    Lay a scrap of underlay and plank beside each architrave as a height gauge and cut the architrave with a jamb saw so the finished floor slides underneath. Cut the door bottoms if needed.

    • Undercutting looks far better than scribing the plank around the moulding
    • Check the door still clears the new floor before you lay it, not after
    • Keep the offcut as your gauge for every doorway

    Mistake to avoid: Scribing planks around the architrave instead. It is slower, it looks worse, and it leaves no expansion gap at exactly the point that needs one.

  4. Lay the underlay

    30 min

    Roll the underlay out strip by strip, in the direction you will lay the planks, butting the edges and taping the seams. Quick-Step advises laying it ahead of the planks strip by strip rather than covering the whole floor at once. Add a PE foil or a damp-proof underlay where the subfloor needs it.

    • Butt the edges, do not overlap them — an overlap is a ridge
    • EGGER suggests leaving about 10 mm between the underlay edge and the wall
    • Tape the seams so nothing shifts as you work across the room

    Mistake to avoid: Covering the whole floor in underlay first and then walking all over it. It shifts, tears and bunches under the planks.

  5. Plan the first row and set the spacers

    30 min

    Lay the planks parallel to the longest wall or towards the main light. Measure the room width and adjust the first row's width so the last row is not a sliver — anything under about 50 mm is hard to click and looks wrong. Set 8–10 mm spacers against every wall.

    • Dry-lay the first two rows before clicking anything
    • Stagger the end joints by at least 300 mm between rows; Quick-Step shows 500 mm on its own instructions
    • Spacers on every wall and in every corner, not just the first wall

    Mistake to avoid: Starting against the wall with a full-width plank and discovering the last row is 20 mm wide. Work the width out first; it takes ten minutes.

  6. Lay the first three rows

    1 hour

    Click the first row together end to end, spacers against the wall. Start the second row with a cut plank so the joints stagger, and work across. Use the tapping block on the long edge and the pull bar on the last plank of a row.

    • Get the first three rows straight and square — everything after copies them
    • Tap the BLOCK, never the plank edge; a crushed tongue will not click
    • Check the gap at the wall is still there after each row; spacers migrate

    Mistake to avoid: Hitting the plank directly with the mallet. It damages the click profile invisibly, and the joint then opens weeks later.

  7. Work across the room

    2–3 hours

    Carry on row by row, decanting planks from several packs as you go so any shade variation is spread. Cut around pipes with a hole slightly oversize — the 8–10 mm rule applies to pipes too.

    • Mix packs as you lay; banding is obvious and permanent
    • Keep the offcut from the end of each row to start the next, if it is over 300 mm
    • Check every few rows that the run is still parallel to the wall

    Mistake to avoid: Cutting a tight hole around a pipe. The floor needs to move there as much as at the walls, and a tight pipe hole is enough to peak a whole floor.

  8. Cut and fit the last row

    45 min

    Measure the remaining width at several points — walls are rarely parallel — and rip the last row to width, remembering the expansion gap. Ease it in with the pull bar.

    • Measure at both ends and in the middle; scribe if the wall is bowed
    • Keep the gap at the last wall; it is the one most often lost
    • If the last row is very narrow, glue its long edge to the row before it for stability

    Mistake to avoid: Pushing the last row tight to the wall to close a gap at the other end. Both ends need the gap; what you actually need is to re-check the first row.

  9. Remove the spacers and fit the trims

    45 min

    Take out every spacer. Refit the original skirting over the floor, or pin scotia beading to the SKIRTING. Fit a threshold trim at each doorway.

    • Pin beading to the skirting only — never to the floor
    • Leave the expansion joints unfilled: Quick-Step says do not fill them and do not silicone the floor
    • Walk the whole perimeter and check nothing is pinched

    Mistake to avoid: Nailing or siliconing the floor at the edges. Quick-Step is explicit that the floor must float and must never be fastened with nails, screws or silicone — fixing it is what makes it peak.

  10. Finish and settle

    15 min

    Vacuum, then clean with a barely damp mop or the manufacturer's own cleaner. Fit felt pads to furniture legs and a mat at every external door.

    • Barely damp — standing water at a joint is how laminate swells
    • Felt pads before the furniture goes back, not after the first scratch
    • Keep two spare planks for the day something gets damaged

    Mistake to avoid: Wet-mopping a new laminate floor. Water sits in the joints, the core swells, and swelling does not reverse.

The four mistakes that ruin a laminate floor

  • Not acclimatising — Quick-Step asks 48 hours in unopened packs, and the floor grows afterwards if you skip it
  • Losing the 8–10 mm expansion gap, at a wall, at the last row, or around a pipe
  • Pinning the beading through the floor instead of into the skirting
  • Wet-mopping it — the swelling at the joints does not reverse

Stop here and get a floor fitter

  • There is damp in a solid floor — a membrane manages vapour, it does not fix damp, and a floor laid over it will fail
  • The subfloor needs screeding or over-boarding to be flat enough — that is a different job with its own curing times
  • It is going over underfloor heating and the plank's own instructions are not clear on temperature and underlay
  • The room runs into several others through wide openings, where the expansion strategy across thresholds has to be planned rather than improvised
How to hire a laminate and vinyl fitter →

The floor has peaked or lifted in the middleIt has no room to expand: the gap was too small, lost at the last row, tight around a pipe, or the beading was pinned through the floor. Relieve the gap at the perimeter and around pipes; if it is pinned down, that has to come out.
Gaps have opened between the end jointsEither the planks were laid before acclimatising and have shrunk, or a joint was never fully closed. Close individual joints with the pull bar; widespread gaps after a dry winter usually close again.
The joints creak or click underfootAn uneven subfloor, or a stone or crumb under the underlay. It means lifting the affected area, which is why the vacuuming matters.
A click joint will not closeThe tongue or groove is damaged — usually from a mallet used directly on the plank — or there is debris in the groove. Check the groove, and replace the plank rather than forcing it.
The edges have swollen and are rough to the touchWater got into the joints, from wet mopping or a spill left standing. Laminate swelling is permanent; the affected planks have to be replaced.
The last row is only 20 mm wideThe first row's width was not planned. It can be lived with if it is glued for stability, but the fix is to re-plan from the first row.
There is a visible band of darker planksThe packs were laid one after another instead of mixed. It cannot be corrected without lifting; from the start, decant from three or four packs at once.
The floor feels bouncy in one areaA dip in the subfloor that was bridged rather than filled. Lift, fill with levelling compound, and relay.
The door now catches on the floorThe combined height of underlay and plank was not checked against the door. Taking a few millimetres off the door bottom is the usual remedy.

WHAT YOU SAVE

What it costs to do it yourself

Damp-proof underlay, 16 m²€45–90
Scotia beading or refitting skirting€35–70
Threshold trims€20–45
Spacers, tapping block, pull bar€25–45
Total, excluding the planks€125–250
DIY total€125–250
A laminate and vinyl fitter charges per m²
LOW
€20
TYPICAL
€35
HIGH
€60
Laminate & Vinyl Flooring price guide →

Guide prices compiled by the Locufy team from published Irish and UK provider price lists and 2026/27 cost guides. Updated 2026.

The planks themselves are the bulk of the cost and vary enormously by range — the price guide has the fitted band for comparison.

RATHER NOT?

Laminate and vinyl fitters near you, with prices shown

The ones who cover your area, nearest first, with one score from every review. No account needed to look.

Or post the job free and let them come to you.

Keep two spare planks

From the same batch. A damaged plank in two years is replaceable only if you have them.

Clean it the way the maker says

Barely damp, or their own cleaner. Steam mops are the quickest way to ruin a laminate floor.

Felt pads and door mats

Grit is what wears the surface layer, and a mat at the door stops most of it.

Write down what you used

Range, colour, batch and pack count, inside a cupboard door.

Laying click laminate: questions people ask

Quick-Step asks for 48 hours in unopened packaging at room temperature, in the middle of the room, with ideal conditions of 15–22°C and 30–75% relative humidity. Outside that humidity range it advises a week with the packs opened.

Quick-Step specifies a minimum 8–10 mm on all sides of the floor, around pipes, at thresholds and under doors, and 8 mm for its vinyl range; EGGER gives 8–10 mm as typical and says to check your own product's sheet. The gap matters as much at a pipe as at a wall.

Yes, with one condition: Quick-Step says a damp-sealed covering such as PVC or linoleum needs an underlay with a damp-proof membrane, or a separate PE foil, to stop moisture migrating. Check the old covering is stuck down and that the doors still clear.

No. The floor has to float. Quick-Step says it must never be fastened with nails, screws or silicone, that expansion joints are left unfilled, and that skirting is attached to the WALL rather than the floor. Fixing it down is what makes a floor peak.

Use click vinyl instead. Water-resistant laminate tolerates a wiped-up spill, but standing water at the joints swells the core, and that swelling is permanent.

About 10% over the floor area for cuts and waste, and more for a diagonal lay or a room with bays. Keep the offcuts and two whole spare planks from the same batch.

MORE GUIDES

More DIY guides

Painting a roomSealing a bath or showerClearing gutters from a ladderBleeding radiators and re-pressurisingAssembling flat-pack furnitureTiling a wall or a small floorInsulating an attic between and over the joistsFitting a carpet
All 90 DIY guides →How to hire a laminate and vinyl fitter →Laminate & Vinyl Flooring price guide →Laminate and vinyl fitters on Locufy →

Sources — checked 2026-10

  1. HSA — work at height
  2. Quick-Step — laminate installation instructions: 48 h acclimatisation, 15–22°C, 30–75% RH, minimum 8–10 mm joint on all sides, floor must float
  3. Quick-Step — how to lay laminate flooring
  4. Quick-Step — LVT Click installation instructions (8 mm joint for vinyl)
  5. EGGER — common mistakes when laying laminate flooring, and the 8–10 mm typical gap
  6. EGGER — how to lay a laminate underlay