I've had Armstrong down for about 5 years in my "kid area" (their bedroom, playroom, hallway and closets). It has held up well - it's no hardwood, but it isn't priced like hardwood either. I put the blue plastic/jute stuff under it and it is really nice underfoot.

 

I have been a flooring installer for 30 some years. Done about every type of flooring there is [aside from tile/marble/granite]. Makita makes a nice little 1000rpm [no-load] saw that works pretty good for the end cuts, but that's about all I used it for. As for the angles. I have always preferred a good sliding compound mitre. There's nothing that beats a quality saw for a professional final product.

As far as the lay-out goes, consider buying some 1/8th" door skin material. When you lay it out, use 1/4" pieces of wood to get the correct spacing from the exterior walls. I use the door skin as my template. Cut the door skin into 2" wide strips the full length [8'] and lay them out to the 1/4" blocks. As you lay-out the perimiter, attach them together with a glue gun at the corners using 4" scraps of the 1/8" door skin. Do the whole area. Depending on the size of the area, a bevel square might be a faster way when it comes to the corners.

I have even went to the extent of taping all the pieces [flooring] together and have had the tolerances be 1/32nd or less.
When you're building the template, make sure that it all fits EXACTLY as you want the final appearance to be.....sanding to shape if needed to conform to the curvatures and maintaining the needed spacing.

When it's all done you'll have a complete pattern of the area and you can cut it all out using a router as all your pieces are taped together in the finished form.

This might be more than you want to mess with for the application....but, it's guaranteed to be as accurate as you laid it out.

I have done hundreds of floors this way over the past years on the yachts I help build and the method is proven to 1/64th of an inch.


I can show you pictures of many floors I've done if needed


Hope this helps. But, then again, one never knows the tolerances one needs to apply.

Good Luck....Happy floor laying !!!

 

Not too shabby of a job there my friend

 

hey christian,

one more thing: are you gonna do baseboards as well? when we looked at our new laminate against the existing (cheap) apartment-style baseboards, we said "time to upgrade this too". so we did and it looked so much better. also, i bought a piece of quarter round and put it up against the new laminate and baseboards. i knew i had to do it too. it looks sooo much better than if we just did the laminate by itself.

bob

 

Bob-

Well, I did have to replace the baseboards in the closet because I screwed up so bad. It actually didn't turn out all that bad considering the magnitude of my cutting errors. Anyway, ideally we want to keep the existing baseboards in our Great Room for a few reasons:

1. They aren't that bad for a spec home.
2. They actually continue into the hallway and kitchen, so new baseboards would create an abrupt beginning and end so to speak. It might look funny in our case.

Here is the closet I just finished. Whew! I am glad that's over.

 

Christian, are you close to either tucson or chandler? Both cities have a woodcraft franchises (checked). woodcraft if pretty fancy shmancy, but usually the guys who work there are a lot more knowledgeable and helpful than the ones at the big box stores. I know they sell all kinds of bitchin saw guides and so forth. If one of them is close, I'd suggest a visit, just tell the guys what you are trying to do (mention you want to get away with doing it with circ saw) and they will probably point you in the right direction.

I don't work for woodcraft, enjoy their stores tho.

Also, as a side note, a lot of trim carpenters uses portable table saws, tho probably ones that are a little higher price ( a couple of hundred bucks). the main bummer with cheap table saws isn;t the power, its the quality of the fence, and the resulting cuts (IMHO)

Phoenix

3002 North Arizona Ave.
Suite 12
Chandler, AZ 85225
Phone: 480-539-9663
Fax: 480-539-7856
woodcraft563@woodcraft.com

Tucson

Oracle Plaza Shopping Center
6230 N. Oracle Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85704
Phone: (520) 742-9663 Toll Free (888) 749-9663
Fax: 520-877-3850
tucson-retail@woodcraft.com

 

Thanks! I will check into that.

 

Costco has two options:

1. Delta Table Saw, 15A, 10", one speed with carbide blade. $129

2. Porter Cable 12" Mitre Saw (Dual laser?), carbide 40 tooth blade. $179

If I understand all the responses to this thread correctly, either tool will do the job. Correct? My plan, in all honesty, would be to sell whichever saw I get after installing the floor. I figure I might take a $30 - $50 hit, which is fine. I was able to touch the PC Mitre and it felt pretty sturdy. The stage changed angles and locked in place nicely; the guard came down and moved out of the way smoothly.

I was unable to mess with the table saw as it was being displayed up on a shelf for some reason, putting the actual top of the saw/table at about 10ft.

Opinions?

 

Given those two options, I'd go with the Mitre Saw. If you don't sell it, you'll find it pretty useful around the house

 

x2...

 

x3

When I was building my house, I bought a cheap table saw for similar work, and it was a nightmare. The fence never clamped square, so you always had to fiddle with it. I ended up using it more as an expensive workbench than a saw. The only good thing I have to say about it was it used the same size blade as my miter saw. I think table saws are one of those things you have to spend some bucks on to get a halfway decent one.

I have a Craftsman miter saw that was in the price range you mention and LOVE it. Look for one with the laser guide - makes a huge difference. You will find all sorts of use for a miter saw. Costco option #2 sounds good.

I would buy a circular saw before a table saw. I got a long (8') straightedge at Lowe's that you clamp to the board, and make cuts as good or better than I could with the cheap table saw. Also allows you to do long tapers pretty easy.

If I had it to do over, I would have bought a sliding miter saw. It would be able to do most everything I wanted to do with the table saw, and all the miter saw stuff. (It's essentially a smaller cheaper radial arm saw). Whatever else could be done with the jigsaw, sawzall, or circular saw with sufficient accuracy.

IMHO, the money is best spent on blades. Usually the ones that come with the saw are junk. They are hugely important as they are the only part that actually touches the wood! (Kinda like tires on your truck) Carbide or nothing - really. Use a really good blade once, and you'll understand. Freud is quite good and readily available. CMH and Forrest are top of the line, lifetime blades. (You send Forrest blades back in to be sharpened for free!)

Depends on the store, I'm sure, but I would avoid Woodcraft. Every one I've been in has been staffed by snobs that look down their nose at anyone building something out of anything other than Zebrawood and using anything other than $2000 table saws.

 

The mitre saw will take care of 95% of the cuts on your project, but unless you are lucky, you will need another saw to rip the first or last course:

At some point, (probably your last course) you will need to rip (i.e. "cut the laminate piece parallel to it's long edge") so that the resulting cut piece is the appropriate width to fill the space between the wall and the next-to-last row. If you get incredibly lucky, all the pieces would fit perfectly no ripping would be required (Odds are against you, so I wouldn't count on it.)

Now, you cannot rip wood over approx 8" with a normal mitre saw. Even with a sliding mitre, you still can't rip more than approx 24". I'm guessing your laminate comes in 4' to 8' lengths. There is no way to rip those pieces on a mitre saw.

For ripping, you need a table saw, a radial arm saw, or a circular (aka Skill) saw with a cheap guide. I think you mentioned having access to a circular saw, and since it is just a few cuts, I would recommend borrowing the circular saw and buying a cheap straight edge and buying the mitre saw.

In conclusion, mark me up for a x4 on purchasing the mitre saw, a x3 on the Freud blades mentioned above, and remember that you will need something else to do the final course.

Good luck-

Scubaduck

 

Good point about the rip cut. I am sure it will work out that way too. Funny, because the closet I did (pic on page 1) worked out to be exactly the right width. I couldn't believe it. I got real lucky.

 

The only thing I can add....

Whatever you buy, Get the table saw and the Mitre saw in the same size so you can share blades.

 

Well, you guys sold me on the Mitre for sure. Let the games begin!

 

OK guys, I made the run to Costco. Turns out the Porter Cable was a 10", not a 12". As I was checking out the PC before buying it, I noticed a DeWalt to the right. This hadn't been there the other day. Hmmm.

The DeWalt was $199 ($20 more than the PC). It came with a construction blade and a wood-working blade (both carbide). I figured $20 was worth an extra blade and another 2". I also think DeWalt is a pretty good name in construction, right? Turns out this thing got good reviews on epinions too. I think I made the right call.

The model is the DW705, and the price was $199.



What do you guys think? Good move?

It's $279 at Toolbarn: http://www.toolbarn.com/product/dewalt/DW705/

 

So how did the floor come out?

 

You'll be happy with that DeWalt saw. I have the same one - It's worked flawlessly for 9 years.

 

if your building your tool collection (like I do) then it's an awesome saw.

But if this is just a one time project, and you dont forsee a need for it, then I would just rent it from home depot $15