The warm honey colours of a floating bamboo floor give any room an instant contemporary look. And as they are laid on an underlay, they are soft to walk on, too.

Everybody loves a timber floor, but they can take a lot of work and money. You can get a similar effect with a floating floor, which is surprisingly easy to install yourself and much more affordable. They cost from $15 per square metre for laminated flooring on a composite base, through a range of qualities, up to about $60 per square metre for solid bamboo and $65 for solid timber.

While bamboo is technically a grass, your new floor will not look like a lawn. In fact, it’s harder wearing than an oak floor.

Before you begin
Floating floors are suitable for most rooms, except for wet areas, such as bathrooms and laundries. Using the Style Bamboo Floating Floor, the cost of a 12m2 room is about $750, including 3mm underlay. Each pack of boards covers about 1.3m2. Individual planks are 90 x 10.5mm in size, with both 1200 and 600mm lengths supplied. A 10m roll of soundproofing underlay costs about $47.

If you live in a unit or apartment, check with your body corporate or strata whether you are permitted to install a floating floor, as they may have reservations regarding noise transmission.

Floating floor

Gather your supplies
Suitable quantity floating floor packs (allow 5-10 per cent extra for wastage)

• Soundproofing underlay
• Beading to cover joint to skirting

you’ll also need

Utility knife; pinch bar; hammer; timber blocks for tapping boards into place; spacers; fine-toothed saw; broad chisel; Multi-Tool; floor-levelling compound (optional)

Note: Choose material quantities and dimensions to suit the size of your room.

STEP 1

Remove everything from the room, including old carpet and underlay if present. If the new floor and existing carpet are to meet at a doorway, use a straightedge and utility knife to cut carpet, so join will sit under door when it’s closed. When pulling up carpet, cut it down the centre so it’s easier to roll up and remove from the room in 2 pieces.

STEP 2

Use a pinch bar (cat’s claw) and hammer to prise up the old smooth edge, then break it up and dispose of it carefully. This stuff is nasty with all its spikes, so wear gloves and handle it gently. In this case the skirting was retained, as removing it would do too much damage to the rendered walls. The gap between skirting and floorboards will be covered with a bead. When old flooring is removed, sweep first, then vacuum the area.

STEP 3

Check floor for unevenness. If there are any spots that are out by more than 5mm over a 3m radius, you may need to use a floor-levelling compound such as Ardex K15 cement to even out the surface. If you are fitting out the room with built-in furniture, install furniture first and lay flooring around it.

STEP 4

Decide on which direction you want the floorboards to run. Normally, they run along the long wall of the room, which is also the easiest place to start. Check how square the room is and make an allowance to work into door openings and recesses near patio doors and windows. Roll out underlay which is about 3mm thick. It not only supports the floor, but also deadens sound. Lay it gold-foil-side down, with extended flap facing centre of room, and at right angles to the run of floating floorboards, with 50mm lapped up walls. Feed it into doorways.

STEP 5

Use a utility knife to cut underlay around door openings so it sits flat.

STEP 6

Roll out another length of underlay and align it so foam edges are just touching, with foil flap laying underneath. Pull out cover of double-sided tape and bond the 2 together. Continue until room is covered in underlay. You can also reinforce joints using duct tape on top, if you wish.

STEP 7

To fit flooring under architraves, hold an offcut of flooring upside down against the jamb and use a Multi-Tool with a plunge saw blade to cut bottom off doorstop of jamb so floorboards can slide underneath. Also check whether door needs to be trimmed in height, as you will need 10mm clearance between underside of door and completed floor.

STEP 8

Lay first long board against wall. It’s best to lay floorboards with tongues pushed into grooves, so start first row with tongue facing wall. Lock ends tightly together, tapping with a block and hammer. Never use hammer on its own as you’ll damage the grooves. Keep adding boards, and if they are of different lengths (as here), then lay them long and short.

STEP 9

When you reach the end of a row, measure length of board required, subtract 10mm and cut as required, using a fine-toothed handsaw, then fit in place.

STEP 10
Use offcut from far end to start next row of boards, unless it gives you aligned joints. If so, cut 250-300mm off floorboard so joints will be staggered. Lay out next row, making sure boards are locked together, end to end, first.

STEP 11

Trim off excess underlay against the wall where you started, and insert offcuts of boards as a spacer to give you a 10-15mm gap between wall and boards. This will allow for any expansion and contraction. Then use tapping block along edge of boards to close joint between rows. The shape of the tongue and groove locks boards together. At the third row, adjust assembly so it is square to wall if it has shifted out of alignment.

STEP 12

Keep laying your floorboards, row by row, making sure each one is securely locked in place as you go. Don’t be tempted to lay a whole batch at once and lock them in place as a group.

STEP 13

To install final row of boards, measure gap to wall or skirting, and, allowing for expansion gap to skirting, measure width at both ends of board, as walls and floorboards may not be entirely parallel.

STEP 14

Cut to correct width, then align in position and pull in place with a chisel, using an offcut of flooring as a fulcrum. Tap down with a hammer using an offcut as a block to lock it all in place.

STEP 15

If you need to cut into openings and around windows, repeat process in Steps 13 and 14, always allowing a gap for expansion. Cut as needed, and fit and lock in place as you go.

STEP 16

To finish gap between floor and skirting, use 19 x 19mm scotia, quad or square beading. Where you have to join it in length, use a 45° scarf joint, so if beading opens up a little, it will not be obvious. Nail bead to existing skirting or walls, not to floor.

STEP 17

Finally, cover join between floating floor and any other floor coverings with a metal cover strip.