Installing Laminate Over Hardwood

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We have two people and an active dog living in our small house, and our maple hardwood floors are in pretty rough shape. They're scratched and gouged from activity in our home and if there is any hope of keeping them for the future we probably need to refinish them soon.

Our home is a 912 sq foot ranch with two small bedrooms, one tiny bathroom, and about 515 feet of hardwood flooring that extends throughout the living and bedroom areas (the bathroom and kitchen/dining area are tile). Because our home is so small, refinishing the floors would involve us and the dog moving out for at least a week, plus moving all of our furniture into temporary storage. After the initial refinishing, it was recommended that we re-urethane the floors every 1-3 years to keep them looking fresh and to avoid not needing to refinish them every 10 years or so. I feel with the amount of traffic in our house and the size, keeping hardwood floors in good shape is just going to be a constant battle.

My husband suggested that we could self install laminate or some other interlocking floating floor option over our existing hardwoods instead of refinishing the floors. The biggest advantage for us would be that installing a floating floor is something we could do on our own, and we could do it a bit more piecemeal, doing one room at a time and avoiding having to move ourselves and all of our furniture out of the house. It would also preserve the hardwood for the future, so if/when we want to sell the house one day we could take up the laminate and refinish the hardwoods right before showing it to buyers. I love the idea! Plus it could cost 1/3 to 1/2 of what refinishing would after you factor in the cost of labor and materials plus storage and housing for us.

I read up about the process and it seems very doable (husband likely already knows the basics, but I like to research everything). The one thing I'm a bit unsure about is the padding. If we install laminate over hardwoods, are we better off buying planks with the pads attached or a separate padding layer? Also I'm assuming we go with a breathable pad vs a vapor barrier because we are installing over hardwood and breathable is recommended for install over plywood subfloor and in areas that aren't high moisture, vs vapor barrier seems to be the recommendation for concrete and/or bathroom areas. If laminate comes with padding on the back, how do we know what type of padding it is?

Please share your tips/experiences for installing laminate/floating floor over hardwood floors. Also if there are any other flooring options we should look at (easy install direct over hardwood) please let me know.

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Comments (5)

SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
If you MUST do this, then look for thinner laminate (8mm or so). I like cork as a layer of separation between hardwood and laminate. I would use 3mm cork underlay OR a plank with cork underlay attached. Do NOT use anything with a foam. Ever! It will cause MORE damage to the hardwood than you ever thought possible.

And remember to purchase EVERYTHING at the same time. Purchase enough laminate to cover the flooring + 10% waste to KEEP.

Now...before you get excited. Go ahead and check the clearance you have at all doorways. And check the floor-height variation between different surfaces (wood to tile). And make sure your front door will open/close if you put in an 11mm product (8mm + 3mm).

And now factor in the cost of trim...all of it. The baseboards will have to be REMOVED and reinstalled OR you have to add shoe/quarter round molding. And then there are all the reducers you have to use. Any time the floor enters a bedroom, you need a T-molding. Every time the laminate runs up against the tile, you need a reducer (could be as much as 1/2" drop).

Think about how much you REALLY WANT those speed bumps everywhere in your home.
Kari P thanked SJ McCarthy
Kari P
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
JuneKnow, I know how to care for my dog and the assumption that I don't is offensive. We have a five year old 65 pound boxer mix - a very athletic and energetic dog that likes to run and play. I dremel his nails regularly, run with him daily, and he's very well trained, but we have so little floor space in our home that what is exposed get a lot of wear and tear. We have entry/exit mats to trap dirt, don't make a habit of wearing shoes in the house, and I vacuum several times a week.

If you want to give helpful advise, please don't start by assuming that people don't care for what they have.
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Kari P
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
SJ McCarthy, thanks for the tips about cork vs foam.

We're not house project newbies - we've done drywall, built-ins, moulding, baseboard, window framing/trim, etc - and actually installed nearly all the baseboard in our house so removing and reinstalling is a non-issue. Our house has just five rooms. The hardwood goes from the living area straight into the bedrooms (continuous) so no transitions there. Where it transitions to tile in the bathroom and kitchen/dining area already have drops (the hardwood is lower than the tile) so adding laminate on top would make the floors more even or just reverse the drop slightly if anything. Edit: We measured and there is currently a 15mm drop from our kitchen to hardwoods already, so adding laminate on top would help there.

The interior doors are ones we already replaced and trimmed to fit (so nothing new there), but it would be ideal to not have to shave them further. I would love to find a floating floor that can go over what we have without requiring us to shave the doors more so that when removed the doors wouldn't have a weird gap over the hardwood. Update: Hubby informed me that the four doors we have that open over the hardwood each cost about $30, so shaving them further is a non-issue and replacing them in the future is also a non-issue. The door frames trim is already higher cut (we cut little spacers to put under them to make them flush with the floor) because carpet had previously been installed over the hardwood.

I'm not opposed to using a different material other than laminate either, I just don't want to have to move myself and everything out of the house only to pay a lot to have our floors redone and then have them look worn in another few years. With a floating floor we can do the install ourselves and do it piecemeal, one room at a time, which is logistically a bit more manageable. We also wouldn't mind changing the up the color of our floors a bit, so laminate would allow us to do that while maintaining the integrity of the existing floor.