Interior

5 Common Mistakes When Laying Laminate Flooring and How to Avoid Them

By Andrew Arena

You have decided to use laminate flooring on your basement remodel, but you’re a planner, a type A personality. Before you begin, you want to know all the common mistakes when laying laminate flooring. Hey, that’s just being proactive; that’s working smart.

Well, lucky for you, here at homereference.net, we have put together a comprehensive list of common mistakes when laying laminate flooring. So sit back, relax, and enjoy; this one’s for you.

Table of Contents

Lack of Subfloor Preparation
Do You Need an Underlayment?
Not Removing Trim Before Laying Flooring
Incorrect Gaps
Identifiable, Repeating Patterns

common mistakes when laying laminate flooring

Lack of Subfloor Preparation

High and Low Areas in Your Subfloor

Even though most laminate floors are floating floors, most manufacturers require less than a 3/16″ variance in floor height over a 10′ radius for proper laminate floor installation. In other words, no big humps or dips in your subfloor. One of the most common mistakes when laying laminate flooring is disregarding this requirement. Why does this matter? A prominent hump in your floor could cause your planks to unlock from each other over time. A significant dip or low spot in your subfloor will result in your floor squishing down when you step on it. Floors aren’t supposed to squish.

Remove high spots on a plywood subfloor with an orbital sander or planer.
Remove high areas on a concrete floor with a grinder and diamond grinding wheel.
Fill low points on concrete and plywood subfloors with floor leveling compound.

Raised Nail and Screw Heads

You want your subsurface to be as smooth and flat as possible. Raised screw and nail heads can make locking planks together tricky, can cause joint failure over time, and can lead to flooring eventually breaking. The raised fastener acts as a high spot in the subsurface. It can cause the lower areas immediately surrounding it to feel squishy when walking. Come on, that’s no good.

Always thoroughly inspect the subfloor for raised fastener heads.
Hammer or drill everything flat before installing flooring.

Dirty, Dusty Floor

You want to avoid laying your lovely new laminate flooring on top of a layer of dirt and dust. Larger debris under the floor will create a high spot in your subflooring. A layer of general dirt and dust can cause walking across your floor to sound crunchy. The dirt and debris will crunch and crackle underneath your new flooring as you walk on it. You don’t want your floor to be loud; you want it to be quiet.

Give your subfloor a good vacuuming before laying your laminate flooring.
Lightly mop your floor before laying your flooring for extra peace of mind. Let it dry out before you lay the floor, though.

Do You Need an Underlayment?

Not all laminate flooring is created equal; some require you to install a separate underlayment before you lay down the flooring. Some laminate floors have a waterproof membrane integrated into the bottom of the planks themselves. Being aware of which type of floor you are looking at when shopping and researching your flooring options is essential.

Always check to see if the flooring option you are looking at has an integrated moisture barrier or if it requires an additional underlayment.
Failing to install a moisture barrier underneath laminate flooring that requires it will void the warranty and likely cause the lifespan of the flooring to be significantly shortened.

Laminate flooring with integrated moisture barrier.

Not Removing Trim Before Laying Flooring

The purpose of baseboard is to cover the intersection of the floor and wall. If you leave your baseboard on when laying your flooring, you still need to leave a gap between it and your flooring. This gap needs to be covered, so you will need to put another trim piece on top of your existing baseboard. This process becomes an impossible task if you have profiled door trim. If possible, always remove all of your trim before laying your flooring. Besides, if you ever decide to replace your trim, you won’t need to also replace the flooring with it.

Remove your baseboard and door trim before laying your flooring; this is the correct process and much more manageable.

Incorrect Gaps

Expansion Gaps

When installing flooring of any kind, you must leave space between your flooring and the wall. This space is left so that your walls have room to expand. Wood is a natural, porous material and therefore is subject to expansion and contraction with changes in temperature and humidity.

A common mistake when laying laminate flooring is to install your planks tight to the wall. As the wall expands, it will push the flooring and “pucker” it or cause it to lift. In tile floors, this will crack grout lines. With laminate flooring, this will cause the flooring to lift or bubble; this causes high spots and can cause joints to unlock and fail.

Fortunately, this is easily avoidable by just leaving a small gap between your flooring and the wall. A good rule of thumb is to cut your flooring to be about ¼” away from the wall.

Cut your flooring, so there is about a ¼” gap between the flooring and the wall.

Trim Coverage

Another common mistake when laying laminate flooring is to leave too big of a gap between the wall and your flooring. For example, If your baseboard is ¾” thick and you leave 1″ between the wall and your flooring, you will end up with a horrific ¼” gap between your flooring and trim. Don’t do that to yourself.

Make sure the maximum gap between the wall and your flooring is less than the thickness of your trim.

Identifiable, Repeating Patterns

One of the most common mistakes when laying laminate flooring is laying your starter pieces in a repeating pattern. You don’t want your eye to be drawn to anything in particular on the floor; you want it to blend together. The human eye is drawn to patterns. Although it is much easier to stagger your flooring by adding or subtracting 3″ to your starter on each new row, the pattern will immediately draw your eye to it.

Keep your starting lengths random for each new row of flooring. You want to avoid any identifiable patterns.

Nice! Now You Won’t Need to Worry About Those Common Mistakes When Laying Laminate Flooring

Phew! That was a lot to take in! But look at you now; you’re almost glowing with confidence! Knowledge really is power, huh? Now, take everything you’ve learned and tackle that flooring. You can do this!

How to Tighten a Kitchen Faucet- 3 Easy Steps

By Andrew Arena

You need to know how to tighten a kitchen faucet. Why? Your kitchen has handcrafted custom cabinets, a beautiful farmhouse sink, and top-of-the-line appliances. The most renowned french chefs could only imagine cooking in a space like this. Last week, however, you noticed something awry; the kitchen faucet was loose. Every time you went for a glass of water, the serene elegance of your kitchen was shattered by a janky, wobbly faucet.

Luckily, you can remedy this situation in just a few simple steps with a few basic tools. Read on to find out how!

Tools Required

Wrench

Depending on which kind of nut you find under your kitchen faucet, you may not even need a wrench, but probably best to have it on standby just in case. You can use an adjustable wrench or channel locks if you don’t have the correct size wrench for the job.

Step 1- Clear Out the Sink Cabinet

You’ll have to get under the sink in a very intimate way, so clean everything from under the sink. If it’s gross down there, you should also give it a quick wipe down; you’ll be lying down in there.

how to tighten a kitchen faucet — Oh boy, that’s a mess.

Step 2- Locate the Faucet Nut

Wiggle yourself under the sink and turn so that you are looking up. Looking to the back of the cabinet, you will notice your water lines running up towards the faucet.

If your sink has two handles with a faucet in the middle, your faucet nuts will be underneath the handles with the water lines running up through them.
If your sink has a faucet with an integrated handle, your faucet nut will be directly underneath, with the water lines running up through it.

Step 3- Tighten the Faucet Nut

This may seem easy, but it is a bit of a pain. The space between the sink basin and the back of the cabinet is pretty tight, and those darn nuts live right in that space. Take a couple of deep breaths before starting; you can do it.

There are two types of faucet nuts that you will find underneath your cabinet; winged nuts that you can tighten with your hand and standard nuts that you need to tighten with a wrench.

Winged Nuts
- These are often made out of nylon or some other type of plastic. As the name implies, you will notice a sort of flange or wings on the nut. If this is what you see, reach up with your hand and tighten as much as required to tighten up the faucet.
Standard Nuts
- These will be made out of zinc, stainless steel, or some other type of metal. You can reach up and tighten it as much as you can by hand, but you’ll probably need to finish it off with a wrench. This is a pretty tight space for a wrench, so get ready for some frustration. Hang in there, though; you’ll be done soon.
- You don’t want to overtighten this nut; you could crack your sink. Only tighten it enough to stabilize your kitchen faucet.

Congratulations, You Know How to Tighten a Kitchen Faucet!

That wasn’t too bad, was it? And to think, you almost called a plumber for that. It’s pretty uncomfortable under that cabinet, and those darn nuts are in a rather inconvenient space. Still, it’s a pretty simple job. Now you know how to tighten a kitchen faucet, peace and order in your kitchen have been restored.

Tile Around a Window Without Trim in 3 Steps

By Dominic Busher

Can you tile around a window without trim? Answer: Yes! And it’ll look great if you follow these steps.
Trim is usually seen as an easy way to cover up rough edges and allows tilers to throw the tiles up quicker, but it introduces a plasticky distraction to the overall tile effect. We’ll show you how easy it is to tile a window without trim.

Tiling a window without trim is a process that has three main phases

Step 1- Design, measurement and tile selection

Before you buy or acquire any tiles, think through your finished look, and the appearance of the external edges around the window reveal. Look carefully at the window operation, considering the free space around the window frame, as you may find a thicker tile covers up a larger space or that a thinner tile is required, or no tile, to keep the window operable.

Thicker, natural stone such as travertine tiles, and lighter-coloured tiles look particularly smart without trim. In addition, beige grout helps to blend with lighter-coloured tiles and gives a slicker finish. Rectified tiles are becoming more popular, and are used to give a modern aesthetic with reduced width grouting. They are generally considered to be more challenging to install because the reduced grouting gives less aesthetic tolerance to home-cut edges.

The lower reveal of a window is an excellent opportunity to create a functional or visually pleasing feature, using a single piece of stone or wood to create a window shelf, which should be cut and installed AFTER tiling.

Think about the extent of your tiling, mark the wall with a pencil and if possible, have a shower and see how far the water splashes. It may sound silly now, but there’s nothing worse than discovering that your beautiful new tiling design doesn’t protect the walls from the showering habits of every family member. Decide on whether you will tile around the entire window reveal.

Measure the area to be tiled, and order an extra 10-20% to allow for wastage, particularly as tiling around a window typically has high wastage.

CHECKLIST: Gather and prepare your materials, including:

Wooden offcuts to form a propping T to hold tiles in place at the top of your window reveal.
Straight-edged wooden offcuts will serve as guides to give your tiles a uniform, straight edge.
Tiles (provide your meterage plus 10-20% to your tile supplier).
Tile adhesive (your tile supplier will supply an appropriate quantity).
Grout (your tile supplier will supply an appropriate quantity).
Primer mix.
Tile spacers.

And your tools:

Dustpan and brush, and sheets protect your working space and keep it clean.
A brush for applying your primer.
Drill and screws for fixing your wooden edge guides.
Bucket and sponge.
A 96 inch spirit level to check that the wall and window reveals don’t have lumps and bumps…. And then the tools and plaster to straighten out the walls if required.. Or a plasterer.
A square notch (‘tiling’) trowel, with larger notches if using larger tiles, but ¼ inch is suitable for most applications.
Wet tile saw, for cutting those clean edges, you can do it!, but go carefully, use gloves, goggles, ear defenders, and practice on tile offcuts to get your cuts better.
Grouting bag

Step 2- Surface and workspace preparation

Using a long spirit level, check that you have a smooth plastered surface to fix your tiles. Hopefully, there’ll be no surprises. Use plaster or filler to remove any holes of low patches, and a sander (and mask) to remove any high patches. Any time spent at this stage will make the tile fixing easier and more enjoyable.

Once your spirit level convinces you that you have a REALLY even surface, fix your straight pieces of wood to the inside of your window reveal with a drill driver and screws, sticking out 1cm into the room beyond the reveal to give you a straight edge to tile up to.

If you want your tiles to butt joint, you could use some tile offcuts plus 3mm plastic spacers to bring your wooden guide off the reveal the same or 1 or 2mm less than the finished surface of the reveal once the tiles are in place. This will allow the tiles on the wall to stick out the correct amount into the window aperture.

Protect your floor with plastic sheeting and any skirting or installed pipework or ceramics. Have your bucket and sponge ready, and anything you need to keep your workspace well organised and clean.

You can cut your tiles at this stage, though some people prefer to cut them as they go. If you want to do it now, take your time and use a wet cutter to get the neatest cuts you possibly can. You can also sand some tiles, particularly natural stone tiles, to get smooth and pleasing edges, or even design detail.

Start by making the cuts that will be hidden in the internal corners of the window reveal, and as you develop your skills, progress to the cuts that will form the more visible external edges of the reveal.

Apply your primer to the walls with a brush, which will make the walls more resistant to moisture or any water that gets through the tiles over time, reducing the risk of plaster damage over time.

Keep your long level close, for checking the wall and then the tiling as you progress, to avoid difficulty and unpleasant surprises.

Step 3- Tiling time! Now you can tile around a window without trim.

Follow regular tiling methods, applying your adhesive to the back of the tile, and pushing it gently onto the wall, using spacers to separate it evenly from neighbouring tiles. Start at the bottom of the wall, working your way up course by course. As you come to the window, tile up to the wooden straight edge ensuring that your adhesive doesn’t go beyond the wall.

Clean up any spilt adhesive immediately as you go with the damp sponge because it will dry quickly on the exposed tile face, and in order to clean it later you will need to scrub and scrape, and risk dislodging freshly laid tiles.

Once you’ve tiled around the window, it’s time to tile inside the reveals. Once the adhesive on the walls has properly dried, carefully take off the wooden guide, which should not have any adhesive on it at all.

Start with the top reveal, using your wooden T to hold the tiles with their adhesive in place, and not forgetting your spacers, even if they drop out a few times in the process. The T should be cut to a length that allows you to progress with the vertical reveals with the T still in place supporting the tiles on the top reveal.

Remember to bring manufactured tile edges to the front, orientating your cut edges, however good they are, into the less visible internal corner where the reveal meets the window frame.

If your design is to tile the bottom reveal you will need to wait until the top reveal is fixed and dry BEYOND DOUBT. Again, don’t be tempted to do it without spacers. Use them.

With your tiles in place you now have the pleasure of cautiously half-loading your grouting bag, to carefully go back and forth, filling those regular gaps, as well as our external corner gaps, and the top edge of the tiled section if we haven’t tiled to the ceiling. It’s really important to carefully grout that top edge, otherwise, water will go down the back of the tiles.

Finally, tidy up as soon as you’re done, even if you’re knackered. By doing this you’ll spot any spilt adhesive and resolve grout haze whilst it’s all fresh and easily resolvable. With a tidied workspace, your trimless corners will hopefully continue to look great, but if they don’t then at least you have time still to weigh up whether it’s worth carefully replacing, stripping back, or if it’ll be sufficient to sand them once the grout is definitely dry as a bone.

Dealing with common errors and frustrations

Most errors and frustrations come from spontaneous tile purchases, or accepting some leftover tiles from a builder or a friend, and then just getting stuck in without preparation. Follow the steps laid out in this article and look before you leap. If you are likely to change the window in the near future, do so before you do your tiling- it seems so obvious but you’d be amazed…

Another common source of rookie and professional frustration alike is a messy workspace that reveals a dried stuck-on mess once when we attempt to tidy up afterwards, or scattered spacers and lost tools that lead us to try shortcuts that cause a spiral of frustration.

On a similar note, cleaning your trowels IMMEDIATELY after use, will ensure that they remain easy to use and that they spread the adhesive well on the tile. A dried build-up on the trowel will grow and grow, making it progressively harder to apply the adhesive effectively.

Beyond that, our trimless reveal technique requires a little patience to hone those tile-cutting skills and set the wooden edge guide properly.

One way to increase the manufactured tile edges at the exposed corner, is to tile from the reveal, using manufactured edges to form the external edge of the reveal. This ensures a perfect edge, even using the manufactured edge-end of your half tiles in a brick bond pattern. This needs to be considered carefully because it also determines the tile layout above and below the window.

Another top tip is to sand down the whole corner once all is dried, though this only really works with natural stone tiles.

How and when do you know you’ve nailed it

Throughout the process, take a moment to stand back now and then, to ensure that you’re lines are straight, that your tiling looks good, and that muck is cleaned off as soon as you notice it. Tile in sections, or courses, using just the right amount of adhesive and the right amount of pressure to fix it to the wall. This will allow you to do a course at a time, or sections at a time, giving you a chance to step back, take a break, and review progress.

To ensure that you’re happy with the result, don’t accept a cut if it looks rough to you. Don’t fix it to the wall. Leave it to one side in case it can be used elsewhere re-cut it as a smaller piece, and try the cut again. When you finish and show off your work, you’ll be glad you did, because there’s nothing worse than busting a gut and then realising that you’ve done a bad tiling job.

Trimless window tiling takes a little more patience, but it shows off the tiles at their best. Enjoy!

How to Stagger Vinyl Plank Flooring- 2 Easy Tricks

By Andrew Arena

Why have you decided to look up how to stagger vinyl plank flooring? Well, you had just laid the first row of flooring in your basement remodel. “Piece of cake,” you thought to yourself as you admired your work.

You had your favorite old college sweatshirt on. The sweet melody of a Grateful Dead song drifted from the radio as you blissfully installed your second row of flooring. You had just laid the final piece and stood up to admire your work. Then, your wife asked, “Are all the seams supposed to be lined up like that?” You looked down. That could be a problem, you thought to yourself. The seams were not supposed to be aligned like that, which is how you found yourself here.

Luckily, we wrote this easy guide on how to stagger vinyl plank flooring just for you, so you can get back to your project and finish that floor confidently!

Why Do You Need to Stagger Vinyl Plank Flooring?

There are two main reasons that vinyl plank flooring needs to be staggered;

For a more natural and visually appealing look.
- Real hardwood floors have staggered seams; replicating this gives a more natural look.
- Your eye is drawn to patterns and things that are aligned. Randomly staggering your seams will help your flooring blend into the background.
For a structurally superior installation.
- As your subfloor moves over time, it can cause seams in the flooring to pop. By staggering your seams, you help lock your flooring in place, reducing the chances of movement. Although vinyl plank flooring is a floating floor, these same principles apply.

An example of staggering hardwood flooring.

How to Stagger Vinyl Plank Flooring- 2 Simple Keys To Success

Cut Your Starting Piece 2” Longer or Shorter Than Your Previous Two Starters
- The key to staggering your vinyl plank flooring is all in your first piece. Cut your starter, so it is at least 2” longer or shorter than your previous two starting pieces. From there, just run your flooring normally.
- Example: You are about to run your first row of flooring. You decide to start with a piece that is 10” long.
  1. On your second row, you start with a piece that is 7” long.
  2. On your third row, you start with a piece that is 3” long.
  3. On your fourth row, you start with a piece that is 12” long.

Randomize Your Starter Lengths
- It can be easy to fall into the trap of simply subtracting 2” from your previous starter for every course. While this would be much easier, it will create a noticeable pattern in your flooring. It is essential to keep things as random as possible. Get creative in choosing starter lengths; let the flooring gods guide you.

Wow! That’s Easy!

Look at that! You learned how to stagger vinyl plank flooring with a quick Google search and just a few minutes! Just remember; Keep your starter at least 2” longer or shorter than the previous two starters, and randomize your starter lengths. Armed with that knowledge, you’ll have this project done in no time! And it’s a good thing, too, because tomorrow is supposed to be seventy and sunny. You don’t want to be stuck in your basement all day; you want to be out on the golf course or lounging in your hammock. So get that floor done, get out of the basement, and back into the world. You can do this!

Which Way To Lay Wood Flooring

By Andoni Centino

So you’ve decided to install some beautiful hardwood floors. It’s a classic design choice, a timeless flooring material that you can’t go wrong with. But now you’re wondering which way to lay your new wood flooring. There are a lot of factors to consider: the plank shapes, the orientation, and the tiling pattern.

Larger rooms, for example, should have wood flooring oriented to create square, repeating patterns. Smaller rooms are more suited to having parallel wood planks. You can also play with the color of the planks, their size, and their bonds to create an endless variety of options.

Today, we’ll be going through the different considerations homeowners need to think about when laying down new wood flooring.

Wood planks are oriented perpendicular to natural light sources from windows to help hide the seams between boards. — unsplash.com / Jurre Houtkamp

Rectangular

Rectangular wood floorings are planks or tiles that have one dimension noticeably longer than the other. It’s the most common shape for wood floors and is widely used for its simplicity and flexibility.

It’s versatile enough to be used in both large and small rooms as well as outdoor spaces. And since rectangular floor patterns are relatively simple, they’re the easiest to maintain. Rectangular wood flooring is the best option for those new to installing and using hardwood flooring.

1. Parallel

One way to orient rectangular wood flooring is to lay them parallel to the orientation room. If you’re dealing with a generally square room, you’ll want to orient the floor pieces perpendicular to any light sources from windows or open doors. This helps make it so that the seams between wood planks are not so visible. If the room itself is rectangular, you can choose to lay your flooring parallel to either the shorter or longer dimension of the room. Both have their own pros and cons.

Laying your wood flooring parallel to the longer side of the room is useful if you’re looking to make that dimension seem longer. If you’re working with a particularly small floor area, orienting your wood flooring parallel to that room’s depth will help visually elongate it.

Conversely, if you’re dealing with a larger room, you can help balance the space by orienting your flooring parallel to the shorter side of the space.

2. Diagonal

Laying wood floors diagonally is an easy way to add some flair to your wood flooring. This is also useful if your natural light sources are located in the corner of a room and not in the middle of a wall.

3. Bonds

Bonds are how repeating flooring tiles are stacked next to each other. There are a few common ones that you can choose from when laying down your wood flooring.

a. Running

Running bonds are when you lay wood planks such that the next row is staggered from its preceding row. The most commonly used pattern is the ½ running bond which staggers the next row exactly halfway from the last. You can also choose to employ ⅓ and even ¼ running bonds which have varying visual effects on your finished floor.

b. Stack

Stack bonds have tiles lined up exactly in line with each other in both directions. Stack bonds create clean, crisp lines and are perfect for those looking to have a more modern, minimalist look for their flooring.

c. Random

Homeowners can also choose to run their flooring rows at random staggered intervals. When done right, it adds a homogenous, rustic feel to any room. This is also perfect when using faux wood tiles that have repeating patterns on them – breaking them up into random staggered intervals makes it less obvious.

Square

Some smaller wood planks and tiles come either in square shapes or come in sets of wood pieces that create square patterns on the floor. Since these patterns have no dominant dimension, they are highly flexible and easy to apply to any larger-sized room.

1. Mosaic

Wood parquets are small, hardwood finger tiles usually grouped in sets of 3 to 5 pieces that form a square. A mosaic floor pattern means that these groups or wood parquets are tiled next to each other such that the adjacent wood parquets are oriented perpendicular to the last.

Mosaic patterns are easy to achieve and are one of the more commonly used square wood flooring patterns.

2. Basket Weave

Basket weave patterns are achieved by using sets of parquet pieces and a square filler piece. They are arranged in a way that the floor looks like a series of weaves intertwined with each other.

Basket weaves are a classic wood tiling pattern and are used in many older homes. Use these if you want to add a timeless feel to a space.

3. Checkerboard

Checkerboard patterns use two sets of parquet pieces or square tiles with two varying tones, typically one being a lighter-toned material and another being darker. Stacking them in alternating order creates a floor that, true to its namesake, looks like a chessboard or checkerboard. To achieve this effect, homeowners can opt to use two different types of wood floor finish.

This is most commonly used in common areas such as the living room, kitchen, and dining room. These add a mid-century modern flair to a space.

Zigzagging

Zigzagging tile patterns, also known as a V arrangement, uses wood floor planks that are alternately oriented at a certain angle (usually 90 degrees) from their adjacent rows of planks.

1. Herringbone

The Herringbone pattern is ancient – it was used as far back as Roman times and has persisted today due to its ease of installation and visual impact. Rectangular wood pieces are arranged in a V shape, with the butt of one plank resting on the side of the opposite plank. With how versatile this pattern is, it can be used on high-end hardwood planks just as easily as pallet wood planks.

2. Chevron

The Chevron floor pattern is similar to the Herringbone with the key difference being how they are joined together at the ends. Instead of fitting the rectangular tiles as is, the ends are instead cut off so that they meet perfectly at the center. The result is clean midpoint lines that create a crisper, more angular look on the finished floor.

Chevron patterns make for clean but interesting wood floors. — unsplash.com / DDP

Hexagonal

Hexagonal floor patterns are among the most complex to be used on wood flooring. They come in odd angles, not the usual 90 degrees, to form a six-sided hexagon unit. As such, they’re not as common as the previously discussed patterns.

But they produce some of the most interesting visual patterns and, when utilize correctly, can add some character to any room.

1. Honeycomb

Wood tiles can come in hexagonal shapes that act as perfect tesselations with each other. That is, all of the sides fit snuggly against the adjacent tiles and no filler pieces are needed. They create a honeycomb pattern and create an interesting floor plane pattern.

2. Star

Instead of using full hexagonal pieces, you can also choose to utilize three separate diamond tiles that form a full hexagonal set. When viewed as a whole, you can also interpret the pattern as having six-sided stars.

In summary

Take careful stock of all the patterns you can use – the typical rectangular planks, the wood parquet square patterns, and the more eccentric hexagonal pieces. All are good options as floor tiles, depending on the room they are used in, and all of which we’ve covered in our article. Hopefully, this guide can help you decide on which way to lay your wood flooring.

How to Cut Ceiling Tiles- 3 Easy Steps

By Andrew Arena

You need to know how to cut ceiling tiles. Why? Because you love your house. Your bedroom is cozy, your bathroom is elegant, and you have a marvelous kitchen. There is one problem, though; the basement. It’s gross. After months of deliberation, you finally decided to turn that dingy old dungeon into an entertainment room. How exciting! Unfortunately, all of the plumbing was running below the floor joists above. No problem, you thought, a drop ceiling would be the perfect solution for this situation. As you considered this process, a shocking realization occurred; you don’t know how to cut ceiling tiles! No need to fear; our easy step-by-step guide will have you cutting ceiling tiles in no time.

How to Cut Ceiling Tiles- A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1- Measure

Your ceiling tiles sit on top of the metal framework of your drop ceiling. To account for this, measure the opening in the framing. Add 1″ to the measurement. This will ensure that your ceiling tiles overlap the opening by ½”, allowing them to rest securely on top of the metal framework.
Always measure both ends of your space. This way, you can confirm whether or not your opening is consistent or tapered.

how to cut ceiling tiles- measure this — Measure

Step 2- Mark

Transfer the measurements you found in step one to your ceiling tile using your tape measure and a pencil or marker.
Using a straight edge, draw a line along where you need to make your cut.

how to cut ceiling tiles- mark — Marking my measurement.

how to cut ceiling tiles- straight edge — Drawing a straight line connecting my measurements using a straight edge.

how to cut ceiling tiles- draw a line — My nice, straight line.

Step 3- Cut

Place your ceiling tile on a piece of plywood, a workbench, or another surface you don’t mind cutting.
Cut gently along the line you drew in step two with a sharp razor knife. Only penetrate ¼”-½” of the blade into the tile as you cut.
Make a second cut following the same line; this time, penetrate the full depth of the blade into the tile.
Break any remaining connecting between the ceiling tile and the portion you cut off.

how to cut ceiling tiles- cut — Cutting the line.

how to cut ceiling tiles- you did it! — The Finished Cut!

Congratulations, you have cut your ceiling tile!

Additional Tips For Cutting Ceiling Tiles

Use a new razor blade for each cut.
- A fresh, sharp knife will help keep your cut line straight and clean.
Use a wallboard saw for cutting circles or notches out of your ceiling tile.

Good Work! Now You Know How to Cut Ceiling Tiles!

See? Cutting those ceiling tiles was a piece of cake; we knew you could do it the whole time. And now look at that basement, what a beauty! Your friends are going to be so jealous. You invited them all over to watch the big game next weekend. Your biggest problem now will be getting them to leave!