When cutting laminated flooring, the question often arises of how to cut the laminate and what tools need to be used for this. There are two ways to solve this problem: production and manual. As a result of production cutting, the cut is obtained without chipping.

1. They do not need to be refueled.
2. The motor part has a large working resource.
3. This tool can be used indoors.
4. Circulator saws do not produce much noise during operation.

Advice! Due to the fact that the disk in the circular spins from bottom to top, it is better to cut laminated lamellas from the front side. If you do everything the other way around, cut paper base will have an unattractive torn appearance.

There is only one drawback to using this tool - to work with it you need to have certain skills. This is important to consider when choosing a tool for cutting laminated panels.

Hand sawing

Hand cutting is done using a metal hacksaw with fine teeth. The cut is made from the “wrong” side of the lamellas. Working with the tool is as easy as shelling pears. But this choice has many disadvantages. They simply need to be identified.

• Firstly, the manual sawing process is very labor-intensive and time-consuming.
• Secondly, working with a hand saw requires special care and caution.
• Thirdly, cutting laminate flooring to length with a hacksaw without chipping will be very problematic.

Advice! For those who do not have a lot of time to lay laminate flooring, experienced craftsmen It is recommended to use not a hacksaw for cutting elements, but an ordinary construction knife. It will be much easier for them to work; the cut is made as follows: a line is drawn on the top layer and a ruler is applied to it. A knife is placed under it and a deep line is made with it. One part of the lamella is held with the knee, and the second is broken with a blow of the hand. The cut is quite smooth.

Laminate cutter

A cutter operating on the guillotine principle will help to simplify manual cutting of laminate as much as possible. Cutting is done without noise and dust, very quickly, the cut is high-quality and neat. In this case, you do not need to have experience working with this tool, but cutting can only be done in the transverse direction. And this is the main disadvantage of choosing this tool.

When answering the question of how to cut laminate, experts recommend choosing the tool that is at hand, which device will be more convenient to work with. When selecting a tool, it is important to consider the volume of work. The use of industrial saws is justified when laying laminate flooring in a large house.

The process of cutting laminated flooring, although quite simple, requires compliance with certain rules. For achievement best result It is recommended to use power tools with high power. A jigsaw will allow you to cut out parts of various shapes and sizes, and will also prevent the edges of the lamella from fraying.

To ensure that the process of cutting laminate is simple and the cut is neat, you should adhere to the following rules:

1. The lamellas should be cut at maximum speed of the power tool.
2. It is advisable to go through the laminate cutting line in one go. Stopping and slowing down can cause minor unevenness, as well as chipping and other damage to the laminate flooring.
3. The pendulum mechanism of the jigsaw should be turned off.
4. When cutting, you must use saw blades for laminate flooring. If the required saw blades are not available, you can use a file with small teeth.
5. When choosing and purchasing a file, it is important to take into account the shape of the parts being cut. Thin files are ideal for cutting round shapes, while wide blades are great for straight lines.
6. Reliable fastening of the panels will prevent the appearance of roughness and nicks on the cut.
7. When arranging the teeth of a jigsaw file, the top of the lamella should be laid face down. Cutting in this way will prevent damage to the laminated layer. In the case where the teeth are located in the opposite direction, the laminate must be cut with the front part facing up.
8. For best results, press the material along the cut line.

Fast and confident cutting of laminate will ensure the aesthetics of the finished elements, and will also reduce the processing time of the panels.

How to choose a saw blade for cutting laminated panels

Many manufacturers offer laminate files in their product range, which are made from a special bimetallic alloy. They are distinguished by small teeth and sharpness, and also have increased strength and flexibility. The most popular blades for cutting laminate with a jigsaw are blades from the Bosch and DeWALT brands. The Bosch T101B saw blade is the standard saw blade for laminated panels. It will provide excellent results when cutting both along and across the lamella.

For cutting shaped parts great solution will become a T119BO file. It is distinguished by a narrow blade and a special shape that prevents the saw blade from getting caught on bends. If you don’t have the necessary sawing blade at hand, the best solution is to use narrow models for metal with fine teeth.

When choosing a saw, it is important to consider the type of shank, which must match the clamping device of the power tool used.

A jigsaw will help you cut out various shaped elements and provide an even cut without chips on the laminated layer. Working with the tool is quite simple, thanks to which even a novice master can cope with the task. The use of special files will make the process of cutting laminate precise and convenient.

Laminate - comparatively new material for covering floors, but has gained well-deserved popularity due to its practicality and aesthetic appearance. In addition, it is easy to assemble it yourself by taking all the necessary measurements.

During assembly, laminate boards must be laid in a checkerboard pattern to give strength to the entire structure. Therefore, each row requires length correction, both at the beginning and at the end.

Shortening boards or cutting pieces of a certain shape is not so difficult, the main thing is to do right choice– How to cut laminate flooring at home. Let's look at exactly what tools can be used to cut laminate boards.

Hand saw: nuances of work, safety precautions

If the work area is small - one or two rooms - and there are no electric cutting tools, it will be quite suitable hand saw. The hand saw blade should have very fine and frequent teeth.

A hacksaw is best suited for metal, since laminate is a hard, very durable, pressed material, and it is difficult to cut it with a conventional tool with large and sparse teeth.

The laminate board is sawn from the front side, and to prevent nicks and chips from forming, masking tape must be glued along the cut line.

On top of the tape, draw an exact line under a ruler or square along which the material will be cut.

An electric hacksaw will greatly facilitate and speed up the process, and the quality of the cut will be better. Using an electric or hacksaw for metal, you can make corner cuts in the laminate, but such tools are not suitable for rounded cuts (for example, under a pipe or an arch column). To cut, the board must be laid on the work table so that the cutting line is from the edge of the table

at a distance of at least 20 mm.

Cutting laminate with a jigsaw The best tool for cutting laminate can be called jigsaw.

This is a fairly comfortable and easy-to-use tool.

• The main advantages of a jigsaw over other tools are:

• compactness, low weight;

• the ability to make a cut of any configuration (wavy, rounded with a different radius);

• simplicity, ease of use;

high quality cut without chips or cracks.

Cutting laminate boards with a jigsaw is carried out at high speeds, so the cuts are of high quality - both curly, and across the board, and along the entire blade. The main nuance is the choice of a jigsaw file. For cutting laminate, special saws are used with a special tooth shape, frequency and cutting method. Standard saw blade for cutting laminate with reverse teeth marked T101.

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Video: How to cut laminate smoothly and without chipping The cutting line is drawn with reverse side

laminate (usually the manufacturer indicates which side is best to cut from). Then the board is laid on a table or a special stand so that the cut part is outside the plane of the desktop. The laminate board is pressed firmly onto the surface with your hand and the excess part is quickly cut off. The most important thing is to secure the board well so as not to damage it and avoid accidental injuries.

During the work process, you should not rush or press hard on the jigsaw.

Circular saw for laminate work

If you don't have a jigsaw, you can use a circular saw to cut the laminate. This is a more complex tool and requires certain skills to use it. Using a circular saw, you can obtain the highest quality cuts of laminate boards along and across the blade. Cutting element – When working with this tool, you must follow a certain sequence of actions:

• remove the protective cover, install and fix the cutting disc on the laminate;

• using a protractor, align the saw blade perpendicular to the lamella;

• make markings on the front side of the panel and fix it so that nothing interferes with the movement of the saw;

• cut off the excess part with a smooth movement.

During cutting, the tool should be held strictly perpendicular to the laminate panels so that the cut is smooth, cut smoothly, without stopping or jerking, since they are the cause of chips.

This cutting method has a rather significant drawback - a dust cloud and the smell of burnt material. Therefore, you need to work on a balcony or outdoors.

Laminate cutter

Another of the tools designed for cutting laminate flooring is a cutter that works according to the guillotine principle. In other words, it is a sharp knife that, with the help of a handle, is lowered onto the board and smoothly cuts it. To work with the cutter, no skills or force are required; the cut is very high quality, smooth, without chips, and the process itself proceeds without noise or dust.

With the help of a cutter you can easily achieve a perfect, professional-quality result. But it is advisable to use this tool specifically for professionals, since it has a narrow specialization and is intended only for cutting laminate. That's why To repair two or three rooms, it makes no sense to purchase this tool.

Another disadvantage is that it is impossible to cut the laminate panel along the canvas, but only across it.

Many people, starting to renovate their apartment with their own hands, simply do not know how to cut laminate flooring. As it turned out, the most convenient and easy-to-use tool is an electric jigsaw.

If you follow certain rules, you can quickly learn and achieve good results. Each of the tools discussed above has some advantages over the others - the choice must be made in accordance with professional skills.

Laminate is the most common floor covering today, which is made from compressed material - fibreboard (fibreboard). Appearance The laminated board is defined by a decorative layer, usually imitating the surface of wood, although other options are possible. The board itself consists of 4 layers, sealed (“laminated”) in protective film, due to which the material got its name.

The material is quite simple to install, so its installation can be done by both professionals and ordinary home craftsmen who try to do everything with their own hands whenever possible. The technology is such that the laminate must be cut at the time of installation. Accordingly, the question arises: How to cut laminate so that the cut is neat and without chips?

About laminate

From practice it is clear that it is almost impossible to adjust laminate slabs to the size of the room; they need to be filed down right size. You need to determine which saw to cut the laminate so that the cut is even.

To do this, it is important to study the structure of the material being processed.

• The first, lowest layer of the product consists of unrefined paper. It protects against moisture penetration. Sometimes an additional substrate is added under this layer, which is intended for sound and heat insulation, but this makes the price of the product higher.
• The next layer is made of high-density fiberboard and the greater its density, the better the fixation between the panels.
• Then comes a layer of decorative paper, which can depict imitation of various types of wood, stone, sand, marble and other natural materials.
• The topmost layer is colorless and consists of acrylic resin. Through it, the decorative pattern on the panel is clearly visible. It is its thickness that affects the wear resistance class of the laminate and its service life.

Laminate flooring can be classified into residential and commercial. The latter has increased durability protective coating and is designed for rooms with high human traffic.

Sawing tool

When processing any structure, it is imperative to use tools that are suitable specifically for the given composition of the material. After all, it is impossible to cut ceramic with a jigsaw. floor tiles, and with a glass cutter - hardware. Likewise, the best cutter for one raw material cannot be useful for another.

Any professional or just an “amateur” probably knows that cutting a laminate board requires a special tool to ensure that the structure of the material is not damaged.

These tools include:

• jigsaw;
• a circular saw;
• hacksaw;
• laminate cutter.

Jigsaw

What is the best way to cut laminate? The best cuts are obtained when using a jigsaw. A jigsaw file for laminate must be designed for working with wood.

Advice!
Before making a cut, you need to draw a cut edge on the laminated side of the board with a pencil, then cut the protective film with a paint knife.

The board should be placed face down on a flat surface and secured. When cutting, it is very important not to make sudden movements, in order to avoid the formation of chips and damage to the structure of the material. A neat cut can be made both transversely and longitudinally.

Saw

In order to get a neat cut of the laminate board, you can use a hand-held circular saw with a metal disc, called a “grinder.” As in the previous case, the board must be laid on a flat surface with its front side firmly secured. Carefully lower the grinder disk and draw along the line marked with a pencil.

If you don’t have either tool, you can use a handsaw or a hacksaw. When using this method, you need to work with maximum caution. And the whole process takes quite a long time. This method is not easy and the cut is not of sufficient quality.

It can justify itself only with small volumes of work.

Cutter

To cut large volumes of laminate, you can use a special cutter that looks like a sharp blade that is lowered onto the material using a handle. Using this method, laminate can only be cut in the transverse direction. The cutting line is very accurate. This method is convenient for those who install laminate flooring on an ongoing basis, since the price of the tool is very “decent”.

What saw to use to cut laminate?

If the tool has already been selected, then you need to decide on its components. Jigsaw files for laminate differ in shape, pitch and method of setting the teeth, as well as in blade material. The quality of installation also depends on the quality of cutting the material elements. If you try to cut laminate with a file not intended for this purpose, there is a high probability of leaving multiple chips on the edge of the workpiece.

If there is no special file for a jigsaw on laminate, you can use any file with fine teeth and a narrow blade. For figured or curved cuts, the narrower the canvas, the more accurate the cut will be.

The wood saw should have the tops of the teeth pointing in the opposite direction. Thanks to this, the possibility of chipping is eliminated when sawing the material from the front side and will eliminate the “turning” of the decorative layer outward. The evenness of the cut is affected not only by the size of the teeth, but also by the speed at which the panel blade is cut, as well as the quality of the metal from which the laminate saw is made.

If the household has a circular saw, it can also be adapted for cutting laminate flooring.

Instructions for cutting laminate using a circular saw look like this:

• It is important that saw blades for laminate have fine teeth;
• A mark is applied to the front side of the laminate board at the intended cut location;
• After which, the bar is installed on the machine in a horizontal position and with the pattern down.
• The edges of the bar must be held tightly with your hands and slowly pushed away from you in the direction of the rotating disk.
• When using saw blades for laminate flooring, you need to be very careful not to injure your hands. Sleeves outerwear the operator must be fastened, the disk is covered with a special casing.

The complexity of the entire cutting process is that the laminate saw blade is not designed for curved cutting. But an electric jigsaw can handle this task quite easily. Using this tool, you can make any shaped cut.

When cutting laminate with a hand-held circular saw, it is important to know that the disk on it rotates from bottom to top; therefore, if it is not sharp enough, torn edges will remain on the material. To avoid this, when preparing the board for cutting, it should be placed face down.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a little about what professionals use to cut laminate flooring. People who deal with this kind of work every day most often use a special laminate cutting machine in their practice. It has a very sharp blade that makes a precise and even cut. With its help, professionals can cut large volumes of material very quickly.

This tool is practically indispensable for professionals involved in professional styling. floor coverings. To make the whole process more visual, you can view photo and video materials on this topic.

Laminate cutting can be done by production and manually. In the first case, the lamellas are cut on special machines equipped with two types of files:

• trimming (removing the bottom layer),
• for cutting boards (rotates in the direction opposite to the movement of the first saw).

As a result of production cutting, the lamellas are obtained without chipping.

During the process of installing flooring in a house, the question often arises: “how to cut the laminate?” There are several types of devices for these purposes.

Using an electric jigsaw

A jigsaw is an easy-to-use tool that even a beginner can handle. Cutting the lamellas should be done at high speeds. In this case, damage to the structure of the material can be avoided.

The evenness of the cut depends on the choice of nozzle. You can use a metal file with small narrow teeth, however the best option there will be a special saw for cutting laminate, which has a special shape and method of setting the teeth.

Having decided what to cut the laminate with, get down to business. We draw the cutting line on the board with a pencil from the wrong side. To do this, we place the lamella on the table with the wrong side up so that the part where the cutting will take place is suspended. Pressing the board with one hand, quickly saw the laminate using a jigsaw.

Cutting laminate with an angle grinder (grinder)

A grinder is a tool with which you can cut different types material, incl. and laminate. The cut must be made along the front surface. This will create a chip-free edge. In this case, you should use discs according to ceramic tiles or concrete. The disadvantages of using this material include the formation of a significant amount of dust and a burning smell during operation.

Cutting laminate with a circular saw

Using a circular saw, you can get a neat cut along the edge of the lamella. Working with this tool is more difficult than with an electric jigsaw. However, if you have some skills, cutting laminate will go quite quickly. To do this, place the board on a hard surface face up and fix it. By pressing the saw, we move the disc along the marked line, smoothly and without stopping.

Cutting laminate with a hacksaw

To cut lamellas for small amounts of work, you can use a regular hacksaw for metal or wood. It is more convenient to work with a hacksaw that has fine teeth. The cut is made from the reverse side of the lamella. This method is quite labor-intensive, requires special care and caution, and takes a lot of time.

Using a Laminate Cutter

This tool operates on the principle of a guillotine - a knife is lowered onto the surface of the lamella and cuts it. With the help of a cutter, cutting is carried out without chips and noise. At the same time, you do not need to have certain skills and remarkable strength. Considering the design of the cutter, cutting boards can only be done in the transverse direction.

How to make curly cuts?

For these purposes, the best tool is a jigsaw equipped with a fine-toothed blade. Before you start working, prepare a template from cardboard or paper, attach it to the wrong side of the board with the design down and trace it with a pencil. Secure the cutting line with masking tape. Draw the lines along which the cutting will be made onto the surface of the tape.

Start cutting. Using an electric jigsaw you can create a straight edge. If necessary, change the angle of the jigsaw ski during operation.