How to Use Spacers Along the Wall for Laminate

Flooring materials, including laminates, expand and contract with changes in humidity. An expansion gap allows for this movement. Without an expansion gap, laminate floors would buckle as the material took on moisture in the air. Spacers help create the gap when you install the floor. Typically, laminate flooring calls for a gap of 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch. Spacers often come with the flooring, or you may purchase them separately. You can also make spacers yourself by cutting pieces of 3/8-inch or 1/2-inch plywood.

  1. Place at least two spacers along the wall that runs parallel to the long direction of your laminate flooring planks. This is the wall that runs in the same direction as your flooring. If you have enough spacers on hand, run them all along the parallel wall, allowing at least two spacers for each plank.

  2. Drop one spacer on the adjacent wall where the end of the first laminate plank will meet that wall.

  3. Keep the spacers in place along the walls as you lay down planks. This will prevent the flooring from shifting as you install, and as you walk over the freshly installed floor.

  4. Lay spacers along the wall that runs parallel to the long direction of the flooring, and opposite of the first wall. At this point, you can remove the spacers you used earlier since the floor is nearly complete and not likely to shift as you finish the installation.

  5. Remove all the spacers before adding any base or shoe molding.

  6. Things You Will Need

    • Spacer blocks

    • Laminate floor planks


    Molding covers the expansion gap, so it’s not visible after completing installation. Base molding hides the gap between the flooring and the wall. If you left the base molding in place while installing the floor, shoe molding added in front of base molding hides the expansion gap.