Laminate floor installation
A hard-wearing wood look for living rooms, bedrooms and hallways, floated over concrete slabs and old floors across New York City.
Laminate gives a room the look of wood with a surface that stands up to chairs, pets and daily traffic. It is one of the quickest floors to install, and it goes down over most flat floors without taking them up.
We install laminate in apartments and houses in every borough. It suits dry rooms best: living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and home offices. In a kitchen or bathroom, where water sits on the floor, we will usually point you to vinyl plank or tile instead, because standing water is the one thing laminate does not forgive.
Laminate or vinyl plank?
They look alike on the shelf, and people often weigh one against the other. The difference is in the core. Laminate has a dense fiberboard core under a tough, scratch-resistant wear layer, which makes it firm underfoot and very hard-wearing. Vinyl plank has a vinyl core that shrugs off water and feels a little softer and warmer.
So the choice usually comes down to the room. For a dry living room or bedroom, laminate is excellent value and wears very well. Where water is part of daily life, vinyl plank is the safer floor. Many homes end up with both, and we match the transitions so they meet cleanly at the doorway.
How we install it in New York homes
Laminate is a floating floor. The boards lock together along their edges and rest on a thin underlayment rather than being nailed or glued. That makes it a good fit for the concrete slabs in post-war buildings and newer condos, and for older floors that are flat and sound.
Over concrete, we lay a moisture barrier first, because slabs can release damp that would swell the boards from below. In an apartment, the underlayment also does the job of keeping footsteps from reaching the unit below, so we choose it with the building in mind.
Laminate expands and contracts with the seasons, and New York's dry, steam-heated winters make that movement real. We leave a small gap at every wall and around each radiator pipe, hidden under the trim, so the floor never buckles or pulls apart at the joints. The boards also sit in your home for a while before we lay them, so they settle to its temperature and humidity.
What your laminate installation covers
Measuring and layout
We measure the rooms and plan the board direction so the floor runs the length of the space and lines up through doorways.
Preparing the base
We take up carpet and damaged floors, fix loose boards and level low spots so the floor lies flat and quiet.
Underlayment and moisture barrier
We lay the right underlayment for sound, and a moisture barrier over concrete.
Trim and thresholds
We finish the expansion gaps with trim, cut neatly around radiators, and fit a threshold at each doorway.
How the day goes
Prepare the room
We protect the space, move what needs moving and prepare the base.
Lay the boards
Rows go down with staggered joints, cut to fit at the walls and around radiators.
Finish and clean up
Trim and thresholds go on last, then we clean up and walk the room with you.
Back in use
A laminate floor can be walked on as soon as it is finished, usually the same day.
What moves the price
A laminate job depends on the boards you choose, the size of the rooms, whether an old floor needs to come up, how much leveling the base needs, and how many doorways, closets and radiators the floor has to work around. Laminate on stairs takes more time, because each tread and riser is cut and fitted separately. We measure first and give you one estimate that covers all of it.
Laminate questions
Is laminate waterproof?
Some laminate is sold as water-resistant, and it handles a spill wiped up quickly. Standing water can still swell the core over time, so we recommend vinyl plank or tile for bathrooms and for kitchens that see a lot of water.
Can laminate go over a concrete floor?
Yes, and it is a good fit for the concrete slabs in many New York buildings. We lay a moisture barrier over the slab first, then the underlayment and the floor.
Is laminate noisy in an apartment?
It can be without the right underlayment. A good acoustic underlayment under the boards cuts the sound of footsteps for you and for the unit below. We choose it with your building's rules in mind.
Laminate for a living room or bedroom? Let us measure it.
Send the room size and a photo of the floor you have now.