Some Innovate Ways to Use Those Laminate Flooring Scraps

Laminate flooring is a favourite with homeowners in KZN for several good reasons. It is good to look at, it is incredibly tough, it takes very little effort to clean, and anyone with just a little DIY ability should be able to fit an average room in about half a day. When the installation is done, however, there will inevitably be some odd offcuts left and unused boards left over. Rather than confining those odds and ends to the refuse bin, here are a few suggestions as to how they could be more usefully employed.

For anyone with some elementary carpentry skills, leftover laminate flooring offers a wealth of possibilities. Though tough, these boards are easy to cut into all manner of shapes with a variety of tools including jigsaws, circular saws, band saws and even the hand-operated variety. They may also be drilled neatly and may be joined with the aid of wood adhesives which, for even greater ease, can be applied with a glue gun. With the stage set, the possibilities for those offcuts are limited only by your imagination.

Given their simulated wood-grain and plank-like format, perhaps the most obvious of the possible applications for any unused laminate flooring boards is to make shelving. You may prefer to trim off the tongues so that the shelves will fit flush to the wall and then use the grooved face as the leading edge. For shelves that are to be placed above eye-level, they will look better if you fit them so that their patterned surfaces face downwards. Alternatively, two planks glued back-to-back will serve to provide the thicker and more rigid base that may be needed to support heavier objects, will not warp despite the KZN humidity and will look equally attractive whether they are viewed from above or below.

Smaller lengths left from your laminate flooring installation can be used to create facia boards for a variety of purposes. In a hallway, for instance, it could serve as an elegant backing on which to mount a number of brass coat hooks for use by the family and visitors. By interlocking and gluing together a combination of short sections to form the sides and two longer lengths to form the top and bottom, you could create a unique picture frame of almost any size that you wish.

Perhaps one of the most innovative uses for laminate flooring is to bind books. Diaries and photo albums will better withstand the years when protected in this way. If, however, you don’t have laminate flooring, contact any Top Carpets and Floors retailer such as the Richards Bay branch.