Laminate flooring as a baseboard material?

[Stubby47]

As I'm in the process of replacing the kitchen flooring, I have a large quantity of 8mm, 95mm wide laminate tongue and groove planks.

 

Has anyone ever used this to make baseboards ?

 

I'm thinking it could be used for a sandwich side/end beams style open framework, with suitable softwood core and corner pieces.

 

Any experience or suggestions would be appreciated. 

Edited October 12, 2020 by Stubby47

[Mick Bonwick]

No experience (and it shows, I'm told).

 

Plenty of suggestions but none of them relevant.

 

Good to know you're making yourself useful.

 

[Hibelroad]

If this is mdf laminate then I have tried a similar construction method and found it to be very heavy compared to ply/softwood. 

[Wheatley]

Heavy, dreadful to cut, needs a pilot hole for every screw, warps, no load bearing properties other than for being walked on in the flat. 

 

That's just from using it for floors, I wouldn't go near it for baseboards. I know it's annoying just chucking it out though. 

[ikcdab]

Interesting, it's always good to reuse. I think this stuff varies in quality, but what I've used has been very tough and hard. The kitchen variety is usually damp resistant.

With panels that size, yes I would use it to make an open framework. I normally go for girders 100mm deep, so 95mm is very close. 

It's just such hard stuff to use and if it's MDF, not good to screw into.

I prefer ply,  but given that you have this stuff, give it a go and see what happens.

Ian

[Stubby47]

Thanks guys, much food for thought.

 

For sticking it together,  I could use the brass screws with brass cups, and make a feature of them ( at least on the viewing side), so yes they'd near clearance holes. 

 

4ft x 2ft, x 2 planks per side shouldn't be too heavy, end pieces might be thick ply anyway to allow for dowels / locating pins.

 

At the moment it's just an idea, but would be worth saving a few pieces rather than chucking the lot.

[Hibelroad]

I don’t like throwing anything away, particularly at the moment when it’s difficult to arrange to buy stuff. I cut old laminate into squares and use the mdf side as a disposable work bench cover for soldering, gluing, painting etc. Also if you have a plunge cut saw it makes a great sacrificial top or you can temporarily fit a couple of pieces together to make a clean flat worktop. 

[Stubby47]

4m x 3m will give me an awful lot of small squares

[shipbadger]

Does terrible things to saws.  Each time my son lays a laminate floor he borrows my mitre saw which despite having a tungsten carbide tipped blade requires a trip to the saw doctor for a re-sharpen each time.  I have a spare pack of laminate after flooring my train shed but think they will stay spare unless there is a catastrophe.  I do however use odd bits for jig making where their stability (if kept dry) can be of benefit.

 

Tony Comber

[Sir TophamHatt]

We have this in our airing cupboard but they're a little bendy.

 

I did use vinyl flooring instead of cork though.  Seems to be pretty good so far.

[hayfield]

I use off cuts as building boards for making track, even use a couple clicked together to make long wide boards for formations

 

The wide 300mm would be the best and choose a make that has a flat rear (makes differ). They will still need bracing, but would be fine if a cork or closed cell foam track bed is used. Look out for damaged packs at DIY stores, they can be very cheap

[Stubby47]

46 minutes ago, hayfield said:

Look out for damaged packs at DIY stores, they can be very cheap

 

I have 4m x 3m to get rid of...