Are there any tricks to Installing Uniclic style flooring?
artisanfarms
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m considering cork flooring for the master bedroom and guestroom of my Pretty Good House renovation. Most of this type flooring is either Uniclic or gluedown. I’d prefer to avoid gluedown because it seems like a lot of extra work, but have never used Uniclic style flooring. Are there any tricks or things to watch out for when installing this style floor? In one room the subfloor is 3/4″ plywood, in the other it is OSB.
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There are lots of tricks, it's the kind of thing you have to do it once to get a feel for it.
The trickiest parts are the transitions. Basically the assumption with a floating floor is that the edges are going to have a gap and the gap will be covered with shoe molding. If you have a run that ends someplace where you can't do shoe molding you have to improvise.
Here's a really good trick, I laid a few floors before learning this one and it makes it all easier. Figure out how your tiles are going to run. Lay down a starter row about half a tile from the wall. Cut a piece of tile into strips, and lock a nesting piece next to every tile joint and screw it to the floor. That way you can bang on the tiles as much as you want and they won't move. Then unscrew and take up the pieces, and backfill the last row.
You'll need a banging block so that you can pound the tiles into locking without damaging the tongue and groove. You'll also need a special tool for working close to the wall. Also an assortment of prying tools for the difficult spots. For the last few little pieces you'll need to glue them in place.
You can use this trick on more than just the first row. If you go around a corner or through a doorway it often can be tricky to get started again and as you add more pieces things move around on you. Use little pieces locked into the first row and screwed to the floor to hold the first pieces in place until you get enough pieces down and locked that they stop moving around on you. This also works if you're trying to go down a long hallway.