Unlike when you lay a tiled floor, there is no need to mark out the position of each wood board that you lay. However, it is recommended that you lay a trial row before you begin installing the self-adhesive underlay. This is to help to determine the direction and position you will begin laying the flooring, and also to help calculate how much of the end-of-row boards you will need to cut when you come to it. A good tip is to start laying your wood flooring in the lightest part of the room. You should try to avoid a layout that will result in you having to cut more than 50% away from the depth of your end-of-row boards, or less than 400mm off from the width of your boards.
Step 4 - laying self-adhesive underlay
We will be installing a 'floating floor' through the methods used in this tutorial. This means that technically the new wood flooring is not directly reclaimed white oak fixed to the old sub-floor. This is a very common, efficient, and perfectly effective way to install wood flooring. With this in mind, begin laying your underlay with the shiny-side up. This is because the shiny side is the one that features adhesive. Ensure you have your spacers in place, and you are laying the rolls at a 90 degree angle to the way you will lay your laminate boards; this is to prevent the seams between the pieces of underlay ever corresponding to the joins between the piece of wood flooring. As you lay the underlay, make sure there is no gap or overlap between the sections as either of these might cause the wood boards to sink or stand proud. The goal here is a nice consistent surface. Tape down the joins between the sections with a bit of masking tape to hold them in place.