How to Lay the Floor in a Basement

The challenge to laying a floor in a basement is that the basement flooring material is generally concrete. You can't nail floorboards to it, and if you glue or mortar tile over it, you'll never be able to get them up if you change your mind later. One great solution is to lay a no-glue laminate floor, which you can buy in tongue-and-groove kits that snap together like puzzle pieces and can be taken back up later if you change your mind about what you want there.

Things You'll Need

• Foam laminate floor underlayment (in rolls)
• Flooring tape
• Razor knife
• Laminate no-glue floor kit
• 1/4-inch-thick wood shims
• Miter saw
• Table saw
• Floor trim
• Trim nailer

Instructions

1. Remove any loose or crumbling surface material on the existing floor. Get the floor clean and dry.

2. Roll out foam underlayment alongside one wall. Cut it at the end with a razor knife. Roll additional courses out next to the first. Tape them together at the seams with flooring tape, but don't tape it to the floor itself. Cover the entire floor.

3. Lay the first course of flooring planks along your starting wall (usually the longest wall in the room), snapping them together at the ends. Position them with the grooved side facing the wall, and shimmed 1/4 inch out from it. Use a miter saw to cut the pieces at the ends to fit, as needed.

4. Lay subsequent courses of boards in the same manner, connecting them at the sides by their tongue-and-groove edging. Stagger the ends of the board so they don't line up between courses.

5. Cut the final course lengthwise with a table saw, so the flooring will fit against the opposite wall while leaving a 1/4-inch space.

6. Cut and install floor trim at the edges of the floor, using your miter saw and trim nailer, covering the 1/4-inch gaps by the walls. Nail the trim into the wall, not the floor.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear goggles when cutting floorboards.

References

• Floor Facts: Glueless, Click-Lock, Floating Wood Floors