Home Laminate Flooring Can You Tap Laminate Flooring During Installation?

Can You Tap Laminate Flooring During Installation?

by Bestlaminate
Published: Last Updated on 2 comments 2 minutes read

Laminate flooring installation is a DIY project, however, when installing you want to make sure you are following all proper guidelines. Sometimes laminate flooring can be tricky with it’s locking system. It raises the question if you can tap laminate flooring during installation?

Make Sure It’s In The Instructions!

Always, always, always check to make sure that the instructions in the flooring say that you can tap the flooring. While certain laminate floors require that you use a tapping block to install them, most laminates these days are made to be installed without any tapping. Be sure to pay attention to all specific details of flooring noting whether the laminate has an angle-angle or drop lock locking system. Tapping a floor with one of these locking systems will damage the plank and could possibly void a warranty. Read all included instructions and know which type of plank you are installing before you lay the floor and you should have a smooth installation!

You can find installation kits on the market that can help with your installation:

Feather-Step Laminate and Engineered Floor Installation Kit 22 Piece

Feather-Step Laminate and Engineered Floor Installation Kit 22 Piece

Accu-Tile Laminate Flooring Installation Kit for Valinge Angle-Angle Locking System

Accu-Tile Laminate Flooring Installation Kit for Valinge Angle-Angle Locking System

If you’re not sure about if you should use a tapping block, write us in the comments below and we will be happy to help!

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2 comments

Liz McFarlin May 17, 2022 - 4:59 am

This might be hard to describe, but I’ll do my best. We worked our LVP floors down a long hallway and into the far end bedroom. Once into the bedroom, we had to work backwards (to the left) to lay into that one room. The hallway (<4 ft across) was all laid except the far right, ripped half planks. We used scrap pieces and construction adhesive to anchor the floor in place until it was (I thought) heavy enough that the tapping from working backwards into the bedroom wouldn’t shift it. Once we thought we had enough down, we removed the anchors so that my husband could work up that last strip in the hall while I finished off the bedroom. Too soon, apparently, because just as I was finishing up the bedroom, I noticed that the entire flooring of the bedroom had shifted back to the right by just over 1/4 inch. This caused the flooring hallway to shift as well, creating a visible gap under the door jam and just over a 1/2 inch on the left side of the hallway, enough that our baseboard will just slide right down into the gap and still have extra gap space. I’m almost certain we removed the anchors too soon because we were eager to each work an area but I did too much tapping before my husband caught up the hallway to the room. We didn’t catch this mistake until almost the entire room was filled in. Is my only option to disassemble the floor, re-anchor and then reassemble? Or is there some miracle way to shift this entire room of flooring slightly back to the left without taking apart all my work?? I’m a bit of a perfectionist and don’t want to only notice this one dumb mistake after spending so much time and money to make it awesome. I’d rather do it the right way than try to patch it in. Just hoping there’s an easier “right way”…
Signed- One Exhausted Mom Whose Hands are Already Tingling and Half Numb.

Reply
Rachel Vahcic May 18, 2022 - 4:23 pm

Thanks for your question, Liz. We understand that this issue can be very frustrating after all of your hard work! For the best results, we would suggest reinstalling the flooring in the bedroom and adding a T-molding at the door frame. This will create 2 separate segments of your flooring that will also prevent issues like this from happening. We always recommended using transition pieces when installing a floating floor into multiple rooms to prevent any shifting. The flooring in the hallway can possibly be tapped back into place much easier since it will no longer be attached to the bedroom flooring. If you have any other questions you can reach out to our customer service team at 800-520-0961.

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