What are Tongues and Grooves?
Each plank has two kinds of edges. Tongues and grooves. Tongues stick out past the finished wood. They slip into the grooves which are notches or channels in the planks. The groove helps lock the tongue in place and that keeps the boards from coming up. You also have to staple into the tongue side. This means that your first piece should have a tongue pointing towards you when you lay it down on the floor.
I lined up the first piece with my two marks and made sure that the tongue was exposed. The planks also have tongues and grooves on the ends. Make sure the first piece is held in place and put a staple in one end. Since this is the first piece, make sure your lined up on your mark and staple the other end. Here's the fun part. Hold the stapler on the tongue and you can slide it down the wood, pulling the trigger every 4 inches or so. You'll get to where you almost sound like a machine gun eventually. :)
In this case, you can use a level to press up against your stapled piece and draw a line for the next piece. I only needed a short piece to finish out the first course of the hallway. The groove simply covers the tongue and you line things up to make sure you're straight, then staple it down in the same way.
The Second Course of Laminate
Here is where the trick comes in. You do not want any seams to be within 8 inches of adjacent courses. This means that the next course can't start with the same size piece as the first course did. If you want to create a random pattern, do not start each new course with a predictable piece (for example going from 36" to 24" to 12"). There are several sizes to choose from in the box, and if you're starting a new course, you always have the privilege of cutting a piece (cut the side that will start at the wall though!) if you need something to fit just right.
The Stanley Bostitch gun we had came with a white block that is used to tap the laminate into place. This is a great tool that did a great job. It was also nice of Stanley to include it with the purchase of the gun. You lay the block up against the laminate and tap it into place. You have to tap on the end as well sometimes. You want a fairly snug fit at all times. Once it's in place, staple away. You can now go from one end to the other because you do not have to worry about the board moving on you.
You basically continue on in this way staggering your seams and keeping things tight. Every once in awhile measure from one end of a course to the snapped line that you have, then measure from the other end of the course to the snapped line. This will tell you if you're drifting and if you check often enough, you can 'fix' this by tapping harder on one end or relaxing the other end a bit to make up for it. You do not want to do something like that in just 5 or 6 courses though, so check often. Again, we are talking a hallway here, so there is little room for error. It's short pieces.
Before we go much further, how do we deal with door jams?
