You cut cork flooring in much the same way that you cut laminates. Our easy step-by-step guide will teach you how to install laminate flooring in 7 simple steps. My problem is: I've got a few boards where I mistakenly cut off the wrong end, leaving me a board with no tongue or groove on either end. Why cut off tongue of first row of laminate? Pro Tips For Tongue & Groove Flooring. Why cut off tongue of first row of laminate? I am … If you are doing a laminate flooring installation that only requires making straight cuts, you will need a circular saw. Each laminate flooring plank contains a tongue and groove, these edges of the board cause your locking system to click together. So in this Home Flooring Pros guide we outline the tools you’ll need along with step by step instructions on how to cut laminate flooring like a pro. To fit the new laminate plank into the floor, you have to cut off the bottoms of the grooves on both one end and one side, and you also have to cut off the tongue on the side opposite the groove. Before you begin your laminate flooring installation you must allow the planks to … Use the end of the abutting installed plank as a reference to mark the cut line on the plank. If you mix the two up and start with the groove side, you will have difficulty … The tongue and groove are important because they keep your flooring locked together. Slide the end of the last plank to be cut to the wall and then back off 1/4-inch or place a spacer between the end of the plank and the wall. Then I add a full-length board, and then finally the groove side of the board I cut. ... you can lay out and create a custom-made threshold to jump or sink to that existing tile or laminate floor surface. It’s obviously important to figure out how much you need to stagger. You might be able to get by with a handsaw for a small job. Thanks to today’s glue-less click systems, installing laminate flooring is a snap! Typically, I cut the tongue side to width and use that at the start of my row. To remove laminate flooring, you first pry off the baseboards, then you pry up each board and pull it out.