Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Laminate Floors through the door to the Closet

Hello All, little background on my issue. I am replacing the carpet in the second story of my home with a glueless laminate, brand is Dream Home "just clip", from reading the posts and the price I paid (1.31 per sqft) I know I have the cheaper stuff and therefore some of the cheaper problems of splitting and poor mill-work. Got it.

To my issue and any help would be greatly appreciated. I started in one bedroom laying the planks as directed perpendicular to the wall with windows. I was doing fine until I got to the closet on the far wall.

I didn't have a problem undercutting the door jambs but what I need to know is do I cut the doorstops within the doorframe as well?

Is there any special considerations I need to make for the final row before the "T" molding / U-channel that I put down for the width of the door? Plank width is 7 5/8. My final row along the wall before I go into the closet is about 3" wide in the doorway and 2" along the wall. I didn't rip the first row, when I started, because I figured the 3" within the doorway would be fine for the width.

I have attempted 3 different techniques to get the last piece in and haven't had any real luck with the results (gaps at the corners of the door frame). Could I uses some colored caulk to dress it up?

I hope I have articulated my questions if not please let me know. Bottom line I have looked all over the net and at various manufacturers websites and none of them accurately provide enough information to transition into the closet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: After putting a little more thought into problem I have noticed a few things.

1. My closet is less than 30" deep so I can run continuous planks without using the expansion joint.

2. In my caution not to screw anything up when cut the door jambs, I only cut the trim inside and outside the closet, I failed to cut the actual jamb which includes the door stop and the faces within the doorway. I am cutting those too to see if that will make putting the pieces together to finish out the room.

Thanks.

Well, the trimming of the whole door jam made all the difference. I got the closet all finished out today and the doorway leading out of the office I am doing. I pulled up the carpet and baseboards in the hall which is the next room on the list.

Although I got no posts to these, I feel writing them out helped me think through the problem. Thanks

Not that anyone is tracking this but me but here are a few pictures of the project.

where's the pics?

Sorry thought I posted them. They will only let me upload one at at time, I think. Actually I don't know what is going on now. I tried to add it but it didn't seem to take. Maybe I need some technical support on this. LOL

Here we go I uploaded the pictures at this website. If you don't mind sifting through the Family shots.

http://www.msnusers.com/VABeales

Got done with the 2nd of 3 bedrooms. I won't be able to get to the third till this weekend. Enjoy.

looks good!

Originally posted by BealeJon
Here we go I uploaded the pictures at this website. If you don't mind sifting through the Family shots.

http://www.msnusers.com/VABeales

You have done excellent job. I saw the pictures. How did you manage under the door frame job? I am putting my laminate floor and stuck at the door frame in my hallway to bedroom.
It will be great help if could spell out how exactly you did it.

The other point is how did you level the sub-floor or it was already leveled?

Great job!!!

Sunil

Beautiful!

Appreciate all the compliments.

Sunil, not sure I can articulate it well enough but here it is best I can say...

With respect to the sub-floor I was lucky and it was level from jump street with no low-spots. I did have some water damage in the closet that I had to fix but other than that I have had good luck with the particle board sub-floors. (This is on the second story)

As for the closets...the first closet I did, I made the mistake of having an end joint (butt joint) in the middle of the door opening, plus I only had about 2 inches on the outside of the closet so the width of the plank actually made it into the closet. That meant that I had to cut two planks with U-shaped cut-outs and then situate them so I could get them down then interlock with the last full row in the room. Well lots of frustration and wasted planks later I only made that mistake once.

Best advice is to lay your room out so that you end up with the last row of the room meeting about the center for the closet door opening and ensure that you have a full plank covering the doorway. That way you just need to cut the ends to match leaving the whole plank and groove intact to match up with the first plank inside the closet. The second two closets were done this way and saved considerable time and materials. The first plank inside the closet will just have to be cut on the ends leaving the center the width of the door opening to match up with the final piece outside the closet.

With respect to getting under the door jambs, I initiallly didn't cut them all the way through and that caused problems because the space under the jambs is what gives you the working room to put your planks in place before you "click" (a term I use loosely) them together. Having this room serves two purposes 1. It gives you the room to work with getting the joints together. 2. It also gives you the expansion space you need so that your planks don't bind when they expand with the temperature/ humidity changes.

Finally, a trick that works also is that when your putting your door-way planks together don't lock in the second to last row in the room. Leave them loose and slide the door-way planks in under them that way you're not fighting the angle issue of getting the tounge in the groove for the last row.

Hope this helps. I am finishing the last room this weekend but these are walk-in closets so I will be using the expansion joint for the door-ways.

Finished the final room last weekend. Sorry it took me so long to post back. You can check the pics out here.

http://www.msnusers.com/VABeales

The last room was the master bedroom. I should finish the closets out next week.