- 1). Remove the baseboards from your kitchen and put them aside. They can be reattached after the new flooring has been installed.
- 2). Measure the exact dimensions of the room and calculate how much laminate flooring you'll need. Add 10 percent. This will give you extra flooring to work with in case of measurement or installation errors.
- 3). Lay the underlayment on your existing kitchen floor. Laminate floors aren't attached directly to the subfloor, so the underlayment is important to absorb noise, hide minor imperfections in the subfloor and cushion your step. Underlayments are commonly made from foam and can be purchased at your local hardware store along with your new laminate flooring.
- 4). Read the installation directions for your laminate flooring. Very few brands of laminate flooring require glue. In most cases, the laminate panels will snap together easily or require a few taps with a mallet to create a tight fit.
- 5). Install the laminate flooring, beginning at your kitchen's longest wall. Leave a 1/4-inch gap between the flooring and the walls to adjust for the expansion and contraction of the laminate panels. Stagger the panels so the seams don't match up. This will give the flooring a more realistic look.
- 6). Re-install the baseboards. If there is a gap between the baseboards and the flooring, install shoe molding around the perimeter of the kitchen to cover the expansion gaps.
Source...