Cut Laminate Flooring With Utility Knife

Cutting flooring already installed.

Cut laminate flooring with utility knife.

A regular utility knife blade can be used to cut flexible self adhering laminate strip material. This method works well for one or two shorter cuts but is too time consuming and inconsistent to use for larger projects. You should apply a moderate amount of pressure to cut roughly halfway through your vinyl plank. Using a miter saw.

The foam underlayment will be cut but that s okay. This cut would be a really tricky with a saw and utility knife easily cuts through the fiberboard tongue material. Formica is a leading brand whose name has been synonymous with laminate for decades. Don t worry about cutting all the way through the plank.

Consider enlisting the help of a professional. This will ensure that the saw does not cut into the subflooring. Use a utility knife to cut halfway through your vinyl plank. If you have already installed laminate but realize you need to make another slice be careful.

Using the framing square to guide your blade begin cutting along the marked line at a 45 degree angle. Cutting luxury vinyl actually involves more breaking than cutting. Since all plastic laminates are essentially the same cutting formica with a utility knife is identical to cutting most laminates. You can use either a sliding model or a non sliding model just make sure the blade is large enough to cut the entire width of the laminate flooring in one pass.

You use the utility knife to score the hard wear layer on the top surface of the flooring then you simply bend back the material at the scored line to break it in half. Use a sharp utility knife to trim off the tongue from the planks in the first row. The caveat is that you must change the blades frequently so the knife cuts properly a dull blade. You can also use utility knife to cut vinyl tiles squares around the corners for non linear cuts and l shaped cuts if you heat the material in advance with the help of heat gun in order to make it flexible.

Set the cut depth on a circular saw to 1 32 inch deeper than the thickness of the laminate flooring layer. A miter saw is nice because all you need is a simple little mark and the saw will do the rest of the work this is the ideal tool and can cut perfect 90 degree cuts or any other angle up to 50 degrees for most saws. Use a utility knife to make long incisions instead of a saw.