How to Install Click-Lock Flooring

Click-lock flooring is a form of glueless floating flooring, with planks that snap together via special fittings at the sides. The precise method varies depending on different flooring, but in general they connect by pressing the edges together at an angle (with one board flat and the other raised), until they click, then laying them flat. Floating floors can go over any hard, flat surface, but can't go over carpeting.

• 1

  Lay plastic underlayment alongside one edge of the floor, where you want to start, rolling it along the length of the floor from wall to wall and then cutting it at the end to fit. You can start at any side of the room you want, but the flooring generally looks best starting at the longest edge of the floor.

• 2

  Set your first piece of click-lock flooring at the end of the floor where you want to start, on the underlayment and running in the same direction. Put spaces alongside the board and at the end to hold it out from the floor.

• 3

  Set the rest of the boards for the first course in place, linking them end to end and running alongside the wall. To link them, lay one piece flat, pressing the next piece against the end of it at a downward angle until you feel it click into place, then drop the board flat to the surface. Put spacers between the edges of the boards and the wall all along the length of the first course, using two spacers per board.

• 4

  Measure the space left past the end of the last full board that will fit before you get to the side wall. Mark the measurement on a board and cut it on your miter saw to fit.

• 5

  Set the next courses in place by pressing the long sides of the boards downward at an angle against the first course, until they click, then dropping them flat. Stagger the ends of the boards between courses by picking different size boards if your kits comes with variations; if not, then start each course with a cut piece to make the staggering effect.

• 6

  Continue working across the floor course by course, clicking the boards together and cutting the boards at the ends as needed. Lay more underlayment as needed, rolling out a new course of it alongside the previous course with the sides overlapping slightly. Lay courses of underlayment and flooring over the whole floor.

• 7

  Use a table saw to cut the boards of the final course along their lengths, so they will have a small gap at the ending wall. Do this by measuring the space left between the side of the final full course of flooring and the wall, and then cutting the boards to be 3/8 inch thinner than that measurement.

• 8

  Measure and cut floor trim on your miter saw, to go around the perimeter of the room. Install it with your finishing nail gun. The trim should hide the spaces by the walls.