Laminate wood

I laid a laminating floor, and it looks great. But, I can't find anyone to cut the pieces I need cut. I tried home depot, one person who said they could now can't. So, how do I do this? By the way, I won't use a circular saw. Sorry to say, I am afraid of them, lol. Any suggestions?

I understand the intimidation of a circular saw. I would say, though, given your industriousness with other projects, Cookie, you might invest in a power miter saw. That's a 'stationary' circular saw which gives you more control and will not kick back. Angles, clean cuts will be a breeze with a saw like that.

You might also consider getting a Dremel or Rotozip. For cutting 5/8" laminate pieces, these might work ok for you. Those tools are also very versatile for grinding/sanding/polishing/trimming just about anything in a pinch.

You could always do the job by hand with a good manual miter saw. I'm talking about the ones where the saw is attached to the guide. A handsaw and the plastic BuckBros POC won't cut it (no pun intended). You gotta get yrself a nice fine-tooth blade. IMHO, though, a power miter is the way to go. Delta MS250 is a good home saw for a cool $100.


The miter saw will make short work of all the pvc yr gonna have to eventually cut to replace your pesky floor drain ...

If your laminate is individual strips, then you can use almost any circular miter saw.

If you are using "panels" of several strips, then you need to be sure that the saw will handle the width of the "panels". And if you need to make diagonal cuts, you need even more capacity for the panels.

Most of the new miter saws have gaurds that make it difficult to cut your hand off at the wrist, or even your fingers. Some of them even make it diffucult to cut what you want to cut.

The ones with laser guides are nice because the blade often first touches the work at some point away from the edge where you may not have made your mark.

If the cut edge will be hidden underneath moulding, you could use a fine-toothed jig saw. Those are pretty tame. Clamp a straight-ege on the piece for guidance.

Yeehaw!

I lke the wine too.
but dunt be using somethin like a chop saw when yere drinkin it.
It's fun to drink wine, and beter to have your fingers.

So like I cut first,

then i go drink wine.

Some of us call mitre saws, Chop saws.
I don't know if it's correct, but they do in fact chop off the wood real nicely.

Let's see, do I go with the Cabernet tonight, or some Riesling?

"now tell me how, do I put these boarrds in their resptetive spaces since the floor the rest of it is now down? Hm... Will have to think about this. "

It could be a problem if you have fastened down strips with spaces between them at the ends for pieces that need to be trimmed. You might have to figure out how to take some up. That could be difficult.

A coping saw is a very different thing from a chop or mitre saw. A coping saw is used to make a coped moulding joint or follow a curved line, potentially at a skewed angle. The saw looks sort of like a flimsy hacksaw with a much deeper bow and a thin blade.

Cookie said:

To be honest, enlight of every fear I got, which is fire and motorized tools, I am just all female. No testrone in this body,

Cookie

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Ahem...Cookie, you are a member of a plumbers forum. No testosterone in this body? Look again.

Finishing nails into the wall, not the floor so it can float. You did leave the expansion gap around the edges it called for, didn't you?

Do the instructions say anything about leaving the spacers in or taking them out after the floor is laid?

The spacers should come out before you put up the moulding. The floor needs to be able to float - expand and contract. That is why you don't nail the moulding to the floor - it needs to slide underneath with the seasons, moisture content, and heat effects. The weight and friction of the large surface will keep it from shifting unless it is a very small area and you get really rambunctious.

As long as you take the spacers out, you should be fine. It needs that breathing room. Since you put it in when it was fairly hot and humid, it may not grow any this season. Most of the things tell you to NOT open the package until you are installing the stuff to make sure it will lock together. Once it is locked together, it should be okay, but can be a bear if you use the solid wood instructions to let the material acclimate to the local conditions prior to install. That will give you big grief with a laminate or engineered wood floor product.

Cookie said:

Well, they don't fit in. Now what? OH, pleaseee, don't say those words. (Pull up the floor eh?)

Ah, well, wha cha goin do. At least I had some fun.

WHAT if I would trim off the edges?? Would that work?

Cookie

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Sorry, this is kind of late. That's what I would do. Trim off the bottom of one of the edge on the groove so you could snap it into one piece and then use some wood glue to glue it to other piece.

Jason

I like coffee!

I would need a 10 pod coffee maker...I like coffee!!

I am laying a laminate floor now myself. I had to cuss alittle myself to get some in. This one was a cheap version but I couldn't pass up the price. It's for a rental so I hope I am not replacing it in 1-2 years. This version is basically glorified cardboard w/ wood print stickers on the top.

My dau & I layed a thicker bamboo floor in bath and that one has held up well and went in good. I think installation depends on type, shape of obstructions, etc. Some harder than others.

I noticed no one touched your tampon comment.

Bye