[keitht]

I typically use a story board to tell me where my pieces will fall before ever starting the job

I saw this on another thread. Could someone elaborate on what it is?

[DarisMulkin]

I don't know if this is what they are talking about but when I did ceramic back in the 60's we used to mark out tile onto a dowel rod. That would tell us where each tile would hit and where to start first tile.

Daris

[framer52]

I have seen drawings and that might be what is referenced....

[Ernesto]

Otherwise known as a grid, using trammel points.

[keitht]

The phrase came up in the thread just a few lines down -"1 inch miss from wall."

When I start laying laminate in a room that is 21 feet wide, how will I know how wide that last run will be?

In the thread below, the poster (polestretch) used the "story board" to figure this out. I just don't have a clue what he's talking about?

[Polestretch]

When doing laminate, hardwood or ceramic, I take a 1x4x8 and lay it on the floor. Then I take my flooring ( whether any of the 3) and "dry" lay the pieces out in a row 8 feet long. If working with laminate, I would open 2 or 3 boxes and continuously stack the pieces until you have 8 foot of pieces all clicked together. Take the 1x4x8 (story board) and lay it on top of the laminate, start one end of the story board net with the beginning of the laminate. Now go along and mark the story board with a pen or pencil where each joint falls on the story board until you have marked up all 8 feet. Make sure you mark the end of the story that you started with!!!! Very important that you don't get the 2 ends confused!
Figure out which way you want to run your boards in your room. Now that you have your story board marked off, find the middle of your room and mark the floor as dead center. Now take the story board and lay it net at the dead center mark and work towards the wall until you see where the seams fall. If your room is 30 feet wide you would need to mark the floor several times to see where you would end up. If you end up with a sliver on the end board, then go back to the dead center of the room, and move that mark by half the width of a board.
I hope I explained that well enough for you.

[highup]

I do it a bit different than Polstretch, but same idea.
I just cut up an entire piece of laminate into 2 to 4 inch wide pieces, then lock em all together. Tape em together with duct or strapping tape.
I find the place where I want the boards to begin and slide my story board to that point. I then mark where the opposite end my story board is, then slide it foreword to that mark, and forward again till I hit the opposite wall. If the ending piece looks large enough to work out, I use my original starting point. If the last piece is too short, then I make adjustments.

I make a lot of measurements when doing this so that I know in advance, where every important plank will end up......... in doorways, hallways etc. Layout is very important.

[Ernesto]

Oh that......Hmmmm, why not use a calculator and a tape measure. You know, it's called division? Divide the width of the room by the size of the plank?

[BudCline]

hehehe...Ernesto beat me to it!
I was going to ask "Whatever happened to using a calculator?"

[highup]

Originally Posted by Ernesto

Oh that......Hmmmm, why not use a calculator and a tape measure. You know, it's called division? Divide the width of the room by the size of the plank?

Originally Posted by BudCline

hehehe...Ernesto beat me to it!
I was going to ask "Whatever happened to using a calculator?"

I started using my method when pergo came out and and it was metric enough that even boards to each side of the room including the 1/4 inch space using a calculator gave me a 3/16" allowance for error. I had to see it in "real time"
5 3/64ths don't fit into my calculator, especially when going 23 feet.