well lets start at the begining.you do not need any additional underlayment.a jigsaw is enough ,but a small table saw would be better.fix the squeeks with drywall screws tru the vinyl in to the plywood.stop by home depot and pick up an install vidio for pergo or shaw ( all laminates install pretty much the same,or the vendor selling you the flooring may have a vidio)now the main question.can you do it? yes...its not that hard, most laminate floors are installed by the home owner as a D.I.Y. project.good luck

p.s. home depot has a free class every sat & sun on how to install laminates

I just put a Pergo laminate floor down in my (soon to be) finished basement. It also had the underlayment attached. What a great way to go - it makes installation so easy. It gives the floor a nice feel. You shouldn't need anything else.

My room is perfectly rectangular and 200 square feet. It was also pretty easy - being new construction, no angles at all, and few doors. I spent about 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon and got it about 2/3 done. I spent another 2 hours the next night and it was done. I did it all by myself.

They are a little bit tricky to get started. The first two or three rows are like a house of cards. You try to get one piece connected and another one comes un-done. Once you have a couple of rows down and you get the hang of snapping the pieces together, it goes fast.

I also bought the video and watched it the night before. It helped a lot. I can't imagine the angles being terribly hard - just time consuming.

A jigsaw will definitely work, but a table saw will give you much better results. The edges are all covered with baseboard anyway. You will need to rip the tongue off the first row and will have to rip the last row.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies!

I do wish in a way that we were thinking of doing this in a rectangular room, or that we at least had one I could do as practice. I have found a few installation videos which have been helpful, except that I wish there was one that showed someone doing a room that's other than perfectly square.

I did some more measuring last night and realized that there are *seven* door frames that would be affected, plus a bay window, two closets, and cutouts for the refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. That makes me wonder... if you needed about 6 hours to do a 200 sq. ft. rectangular room, and this is about 250 sq. ft. but with doors and angles and even a short dividing wall... maybe I'm crazy for even considering it.

Do you think, by the way, that I'd have to remove the existing vinyl floor? How can I tell if the vinyl and subfloor are in good enough condition (level, etc.) to install over them?

Thanks for the tips on the saws...
E

you will need a seven foot long level,most laminates require the floor be level to about 1/8 in 10ft. you can lay over the existing sheet vinyl,but make sure not to trap your dishwasher.also you will not be able to extend the laminate later (in to carpet areas)unless you remove the vinyl and underlayment.some stores will let you hire there installer for 2 hours to get you started...good luck