Where to start laying laminate flooring (and why the first wall decides everything)

Start against the longest, straightest wall that the boards will run parallel to. In most rooms that is the wall facing the main window, at the far end from the door. Lay the first board in its left-hand corner, tongue side to the wall, and work left to right. But before you click a single board, do one check: divide the room width by the plank width. If the last row would come out under about 50 mm, rip the first row narrower now, because the first wall you choose decides the width of the last row you'll be stuck with.

Which wall should you start from?

Three factors pick the wall, in this order:

When the factors disagree, say the straightest wall is the door wall, keep the direction, start from the straight wall, and simply plan the room so you are not boxed into a corner. Straightness outranks convenience: a 10 mm bow in row one is still there in row twenty.

Why does the starting wall matter so much?

Because laminate is laid one row against the previous, the first row is the datum for the entire floor. Three things are locked in the moment it goes down:

1. The line. Every joint and every row runs parallel to row one. If it follows a bowed wall, the bow repeats across the room.
2. The last row's width. Room width minus (full rows × plank width) is whatever remains. A 190 mm plank in a 3.1 m room leaves a 62 mm final strip; in a 3.05 m room it leaves 12 mm, a sliver you cannot click together. Planning the first and last row shows the arithmetic in full.
3. The stagger. Your first row's starter length sets the joint pattern for the rows that follow (stagger rules here).

This is exactly the calculation a layout planner runs before you buy a single pack: it tries each starting line and keeps the one that avoids slivers and wasted rips.

Where do you start in a hallway?

At the dead end, working towards the exit, with boards running the length of the hall. Hallways add two wrinkles:

• Doorways. Each door bay means cutting boards around the frame or continuing into the next room. Dry-lay the first two rows past the first doorway before clicking anything, because door linings are where a bad starting line becomes obvious.
• Width. A 900 to 1,000 mm hallway fits only 4 to 5 plank widths, so the first-row and last-row check matters twice as much: a sliver in a hallway is in full view down the entire corridor.

Where do you start when laying several rooms?

Start in the largest room and work outwards, keeping one continuous direction. If the flooring runs through doorways without threshold strips, the starting line must be planned across all connected rooms at once, because an L-shaped or multi-room layout can force a sliver in room two from a choice made in room one. The L-shaped room guide covers picking the leg that controls the layout.

Do you have to start against a wall?

No, and in three cases you shouldn't:

• No straight wall exists. Snap a chalk line one plank-width plus the expansion gap (say 200 mm) from the best wall and lay row one to the line, scribing the wall side afterwards.
• Herringbone and chevron start from a centre line down the middle of the room, never from a wall.
• Very out-of-square rooms (more than 15 mm of taper): a centred layout splits the taper between both edge rows, hiding half of it under each skirting.

Left to right, or right to left?

Left to right, standing with your back to the starting wall. Click-lock profiles are milled so the tongue faces the wall and each new board's groove drops onto the previous board's tongue, so working right to left means click-assembling every row backwards. The practical checklist:

1. Tongue side towards the starting wall (trim it off row one if the manufacturer says so).
2. Spacers every 500 to 600 mm holding an 8 to 12 mm expansion gap.
3. First board in the left corner; end joint of the next row offset by at least 300 mm.
4. Work towards the door, finishing with the ripped row at the exit wall.