Follow This Professional Tip To Perfectly Stagger Floating Floors

Attempting to DIY your next home project is particularly tempting when there is so much advice to be found online. That said, if you aren't going in with any significant experience, you may find yourself running into some issues when it comes to doing things correctly if those directions are unclear or inaccurate. But alongside a slew of misinformation, there are also some great professional resources to be found that can help you build your dream home the right way. One common renovation many homeowners like to take on themselves to save money is updating floating floors, which is also something you definitely don't want to mess up in terms of aesthetics (don't break the flooring rule of 3) and installation. 

To help make sure that you are successful on your first try, House Digest reached out to expert Paul Henthorn, President of Slaughterbeck Floors, Inc., for exclusive tips on how to plan and stagger your floating floors like a pro. "Some professional tips in regard to perfectly staggering floating floors would be staggering a minimum of 3 different lengths, four if boards are long enough," said Henthorn. As he explained, you should divide the length of the board by three or four, with the first board starting a run being one-third or one-fourth of a board, the first board of the next row being two-thirds or one-half the length of a full board, and so on.

How you stagger your flooring is not only dependent on preference but also material. "Most hardwood flooring is random lengths, so it staggers itself," Henthorn told House Digest in an exclusive interview. If you aren't working with hardwood, however, and are opting for a more synthetic material like vinyl or laminate, you may have to do some staggering yourself. But there are quite a few beneficial reasons to stagger your vinyl plank flooring, as it not only looks better but also makes the installation more durable. Henthorn explained, "There is no right or wrong, as it should be done by preference. I personally would never do ½ board staggering, as you see the stagger as the same in every other row."

Ultimately, laying your floor really is simpler than it looks. When asked what the basic steps were to achieve a well-staggered installation, Henthorn gave only one. He stated that the only real "step" is making sure the pieces are staggered in a way that looks intentional (in that it is not uniform). Since floating floors are not permanently installed with an adhesive or nails, they are also pretty easy to remove. Plus, if you put down a piece and decide you don't like the placement, you can remove and replace it with a better fit. Since they do have some movement, this type of flooring may be a bit noisier than others, but there are plenty of DIY tips to silence squeaky floating floors.