Cutting laminate flooring

[live4ever]

I'm going to be doing my first laminate floor installation (blech).  I've managed to stay far away from the stuff for all this time but it's the appropriate floor for the project at hand.

Anyways, it's my understanding the most appropriate blade for this stuff is a TCG, i.e., the blades often labeled for aluminum/non-ferrous.  Is this correct?  Anything else that's worth knowing? 

I'll probably use my baby M18 slider for the crosscuts rather than subject the Kapex to this kind of abuse.  And the TSC55 for rips.

 

[Packard]

Marshalltown makes a guillotine cutter for laminate flooring for about $125.00.  Check Amazon.com.

Rips don’t have to be particularly smooth. You have to leave a generous margin at the walls, so all the cut edges will have to be hidden under shoe molding.

The Marshalltown cutter is light and easily set up in the floor with no electric.  There are better ones if you are planning lots of this work.

The local Hanneford supermarket installed luxury vinyl plank in the store. It took a full year of shopping cart traffic before I realized it was not ceramic, though the lack of grout lines should have been a clue.

In a residential installation it would have taken much longer before the grain showed signs of smoothing out.

Based on what I see at the supermarket I plan on using LVP for my sunroom and kitchen.

 

[Holzhacker]

I just use a jigsaw for laminate. Quick, easy, no big deal. I looked into the cutter but I don't do enough laminate to make it worthwhile. I have enough tools already.

 

[Cheese]

I've never done laminate...I assume you follow the same procedures that you'd follow for solid strip floors.

Acclimate the wood for 1-2 weeks in the actual environment.
Allow at least a 3/8" gap along the wall for expansion.
Make sure the first row you lay down is perfect because the rest of the rows will follow that line.
Top nailing is a no-no unless it's hidden by the trim.
For crosscuts I'd use a Kapex with the laminate HPL blade.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I've done a lot of laminate flooring by now. I find it pretty easy to do.

Laminate flooring consists of HDF and a thin laminate layer on top to make it look pretty. The laminate layer is very hard though, and dulls any blade quickly.

I mostly use a jigsaw for the cuts, and use Bosch laminate blades in it. Sometimes a professional laminate guy comes in on a job I work on, and they always use a jigsaw. If I can I also use the CS70 and I have Festool's special laminate blade for it. That blade is a must, if you use a normal wood blade it can be dulled in an afternoon, while the laminate blade keeps going on almost forever without sharpening.

I totally do not like the guillotine type of cutters, while they are dustless, they are heavy to work with, deform the material, and you can forget about special cuts for which you have to bring a jigsaw anyway. While you can get away with them on the cheap 6 mm thick laminate from a big box store, if you use it on 8 mm+ quality stuff you get awfull results.

I don't see why it would be abuse to cut laminate with a kapex.

Oh, and never nail a laminate floor down, anywhere. It must "float" to have space for thermal expansion. 48 hours acclimation in the room before install is good enough. And don't forget to use a sub floor.

 

[live4ever]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.  Will go with a laminate blade in the M18 chop for the crosscuts.  I would use the Kapex but I don’t want to spring for the Festool laminate blade.  That’s why I asked if the non-ferrous/aluminum blades work; I’ve got an Oshlun that has that designation.

Completely forgot about the jigsaw! 

The cutter sounds interesting.  I’ll see how much I hate the stuff after this install and whether anymore of it is in my future. 

Install suggestions jive with what I was planning so that’s a good sign.  Subfloor needs a little leveling first...