How to fit engineered wood flooring

Recreate the look of wood flooring with its natural characteristics, varying shade and abstract graining with the practical aspect of engineered flooring that’s built to last. Read our guide on what engineered wood flooring is if you’re still unsure but here’s a simple to follow guide to laying it properly if you’re after a DIY makeover.

This guide is suitable for the fixing of the following engineered wood flooring ranges: Rena. For our Ornes range see our herringbone engineered wood installation guide instead.

Unsuitable levels of moisture or air humidity are the common causes of wood floor movement issues which can result in cupping, distortion and expansion or lifting of boards. To avoid this, it’s key to ensure your substrate is properly prepared. Measure the flatness of the sub floor by using a spirit level or a 2m long straight edge. The level variance shouldn’t exceed 2mm. If it is bigger than this then the sub floor will need to be levelled to within the tolerance before you begin laying your new floor.

Avoid storing your flooring in extreme temperatures, ideally, they should be stored flat in the room you intend to refloor for at least 48 hours, only opening the packaging on the day you are installing the flooring. For the Rena range, the room temperature should remain consistent between 20-25°C and 30-65% relative humidity (before and after installation).

Check to see if your chosen floor has a built-in underlay or not. The Rena range does so you will not need to lay an additional underlay.

Commonly, the direction of the boards is determined by the dimensions of the room. It’s recommended to lay the boards parallel to the longest wall, minimising the board width dimension of the floor which lessens the overall natural expansion, whilst being the most visually pleasing layout. Next, measure the width of your room and then minus the width of your expansion gap at either end (Rena requires a gap of 6mm, so 12mm less in total) then divide by the board width of your chosen range.

The placement of your planks, avoid the plank’s joints falling on top of the substrate’s joints or seams. The length of your planks, the end joints of the planks should be staggered a minimum of 200mm apart at both the start and end of your floor. The final board width should not fall below a certain width and if this will be the case then the first row will need to be cut down to size to create the correct plank width at both ends. Rena requires a minimum planks width of 50mm.

Begin laying your planks from left to right. Position the first plank so that the grooved edge is facing you, using spacers between the wall to create a 6mm expansion joint.

Drop the second plank in place and tap down the end with a rubber mallet until it firmly locks into the previous plank at the same height. You need to ensure you’re tapping the mallet directly above the short end, so it locks correctly and doesn’t damage the joint. Continue this technique until you reach the other side of the room.

Once you reach the end of the first row, leave the 6mm expansion gap to the wall and measure the length of the last plank to fit. To cut the plank, use a utility knife and a ruler ensuring that the top side of the plank is facing up. Cut heavily and several times on the same axis as the knife needs to cut through the wood veneer. Then, push one half of the plank down using your other hand to hold the other part, the plank will split naturally.

Start the second row with the leftover cut plank (as long as it’s longer than 300mm), otherwise cut a new plank in half and use that instead to ensure the end joints of the adjoining rows are at least 200mm apart.

At angle of 25-30 degrees, click the long side of the plank into the first row and then place it tighter into the short end. Gently tap into place as before with the rubber mallet to ensure they’re all aligned at sitting at the same height. You can use scrap pieces of flooring to tap the planks into the previous row, ensure there are no gaps between the long side of the planks installed.

After the first 2-3 rows are installed, check with a string line that the rows are still running straight. If they’re not, it could be that the starting wall as irregularities causing bowing in the flooring. You can scribe and retrim them without having to dissemble all the rows.

To lay the last row, position a loose board exactly on top of the last row laid, place another board on top with the tongue side touching the wall. Draw a line along the edge of this board to mark the first board. Cut along this line for the required width (which should be no less than 50mm).

Once completed and your new engineered wood flooring is in place, you can cover the expansion joints with skirting boards or a scotia, ensuring to fix them to the walls and not the floor. Now you’ve installed your flooring, learn how to keep it clean and in tip top condition with our engineered wood cleaning guide.