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Squaring the flooring is the most important step! Square the flooring up by using the 3-4-5- method against one of the long perrimeter walls (assuming that you are running the flooring that way) next find a corner and make a mark 3' from the very corner out along one wall. Next make a mark 4' out from the same corner along the other wall. Now take your tape measure and measure diagonally from one mark to the other, when you hit 5' make a mark, that is your square line. Draw a new line from the corner out to the 5' mark and that will be perfectly square. Copy and paste this link into your browser and you will see videos explaining how to lay the floor yourself- squarely and neatly.., Good luckhttp://www.thediyhomepro.com/a00026.phpAnswer

It depends on what you want it square to. Do you want it square against the far wall or the wall it butts up to? You can lay out the first row and measure it to the existing wall, adjusting the row so that you have the same measurements on each end. If you are looking to get an even starting row, law out your first row and slide it against the wall the best you can. Take a pencil and run it along the baseboard markign your row as you go. Cut at the line and your first row will be flush to the wall. If this helps great, if not e-mail me and I will see what I can do. cholbach@Yahoo.com

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You might want to make sure you are laying the laminate square to the room and not one wall in particular. If you use a wall that is not square as your starting point your floor could go start to angle slightly and this would become noticable as you stand back and look at it. I would suggest that you cut your first row of flooring to correspond with any imperfections in your wall. A bit more time consuming but very worth it in the long run.

just start on your longest outside wall, and make sure you use quarter inch shims to keep it from butting the wall. you can also cut a piece in half and nail it to the wall if the base is removed, for your spacing

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Q: When installing laminate flooring in an older home how do you get the floor square to lay the first row of planks?
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