The Best Saw Blades for Laminate Flooring
Find the perfect blade to cut laminate flooring without chipping with your table saw, circular saw, or miter saw.
Laminate flooring is a very popular choice for both new construction and remodeling, thanks to its durability and wide variety of looks. If you’re thinking of installing some laminate yourself, you might be wondering what tools you’ll need for the job. The good news is, you may very well already have almost everything you need to install laminate flooring!
Common equipment like circular saws, table saws, and miter saws can all do the job. Really, if a saw can cut wood, it can also cut laminate flooring. The thing you really need to pay attention to, though, is the saw blade. You need one that can make clean cuts without chipping, while standing up to the abrasive nature of laminate flooring.
Here are all my top picks for cutting laminate, while I’ll discuss in more detail below:
If you want a more general-purpose blade, check out our roundup of the best table saw blades and the best circular saw blades.
What is Laminate Flooring?
Laminate flooring planks generally consist of four distinct layers of material that have been fused (or laminated) together. Each layer is made of different material and serves a different function:
- The back layer or backing paper sits at the bottom and protects the upper layers from moisture that may seep through from below. Not all laminate flooring has its own backing paper; if not, you’ll need to put a layer of backer paper down yourself before installation. Always follow the installation guidelines specific to your product.
- The core layer is made of material like HDF (high-density fiberboard) or MDF (medium-density fiberboard). It provides the main strength of the plank and is solid enough to prevent indentations from heavy furniture.
- The decorative or design layer is a thin paper that has the flooring’s design printed on it. These high-resolution designs can mimic wood, stone, or other materials.
- The overlay or wear layer is a clear layer that protects the printed decorative layer beneath it. It needs to be strong enough to stand up to UV light, spills, and scuffs from humans, pets, and furniture. This layer usually contains aluminum oxide, which helps protect against all of the above threats.
What Makes a Good Blade?
Whether you’re using a table saw, circular saw, or miter saw, there are a few common factors to look at when selecting a blade for cutting laminate flooring.
Tooth Count
Higher tooth counts will generally produce a smoother cut. This is especially important in products that are prone to chipping like laminates. For a full-size 10” table saw blade, look for blades with at least 60 teeth. Smaller blades might have fewer teeth, but you still want to stick to the upper end of the tooth count range.
An exception to this are diamond-toothed blades made specifically for cutting the hardest laminates. They may have as few as four teeth.
Tooth Shape
There are a couple of different blade tooth configurations that can work well for laminate flooring. The first is triple chip grind, or TCG. These feature two alternating type of teeth. One tooth is trapezoidal-shaped (like the upper half of a stop sign), while the following one is flat but a little shorter. They combine to chip away material in small chunks, minimizing the tendency to tear out material.
The second shape is alternate top bevel, or ATB. Rather than being flat, these teeth are ground on a slant (or bevel), with the teeth alternating in the direction of the slant. They tend to slice through material instead of chipping at it.
Either tooth shape can work, but TCG teeth are a little better suited to this purpose. Avoid pure flat-topped teeth, as they tend to take out large chunks of material and will cause excessive chipping in laminate.
Tooth Material
The composition of laminate flooring, especially the aluminum oxide in the overlay layer, is very hard on saw blades. (Aluminum oxide is what makes up the grit on most common sandpaper, after all.) You absolutely want a carbide-toothed saw blade if you’re cutting more than a couple planks. While steel-toothed blades are cheaper, you will go through a lot more of them cutting laminate.
Even with carbide teeth, you’ll find the blade dulls pretty quickly. While it can still effectively cut through laminate flooring, it won’t be useful for precision work after that. Depending on the price of the blade, you can plan to either dispose of it after the project or get it resharpened.
If you really hate the idea of throwing away your blade, or paying for it to be resharpened, there is another option. Blades with synthetic diamond teeth will cost more, but will outlast carbide manyfold. Realistically, they may not be worth the price for the casual DIYer. But if you’re installing a lot of laminate flooring, over time, the savings could add up.
The Best Blades for Laminate Flooring
I’ll walk through the best options for a variety of tools.
Bosch DCB1072CD 10" x 72T Laminate Saw Blade
The stock blades that shipped with your table saw do an okay job at wood, but they aren’t the right tool for cutting laminate flooring. They’ll almost certainly chip the laminate more than you want. A higher tooth count like the 72 teeth on the Bosch DCB1072CD helps reduce chipping.
Its teeth are arranged in a triple chip grind (TCG) configuration. That lets it chip away material in little bits, rather than large chunks, further helping guard against chips.
While it’s definitely not cheap, this blade is reasonably priced for a specialty blade like this. Its durability puts it in a class above cheaper blades with similar specs. Some customers report that it is still cutting like brand new even after 1,000 cuts of laminate flooring.
Positives
- Less expensive than some competing laminate blades
Freud LU79R010 10" x 80T Thin Kerf Blade
The thin-kerf Freud LU79R010 has 80 teeth designed to make perfectly clean cuts in hard products like laminates.
And while it shines on laminate flooring, this blade is quite versatile and can be used on plywood and hardwood as well. It leaves a silky-smooth cut ideal for fine finish work.
While the carbide teeth are quite durable, even they will succumb to the abrasiveness of laminate flooring. After your flooring is installed, you’ll want to get this blade re-ground so it’s ready to go for your next project.
Positives
- Super-smooth cuts in laminates, melamine, and plywood
Negatives
- Quite expensive even for a specialty blade
Diablo D1012LF 10" x 12T Diamond-Toothed Blade
If you want the absolute longest-lasting blade for laminate flooring, even hard carbide teeth won’t cut it (pun intended). Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) is the hardest man-made material on the planet. The Diablo D1012LF features 12 PCD teeth designed to stand up to the heavy abuse that laminates dish out. It’s 10” in diameter, so designed for use in a table saw or miter saw.
You might expect to dispose of a blade, or at least have it re-ground, after every decent-sized laminate flooring install. Some professional flooring installers say this blade is still cutting like new even after a year of daily laminate cutting. While you might not be installing laminate every day, if you want to buy one blade that you won’t have to replace, this is it. The manufacturer claims the PCD teeth last up to 75 times longer than carbide teeth.
Note that this blade is highly optimized only for cutting laminate products. It’s not going to do a very good job on regular hardwood or other material like bamboo.
Positives
- Diamond teeth are highly durable even when cutting laminates
- Leaves very smooth cuts in laminate flooring
Negatives
- More expensive than carbide-toothed blades
- Not useful for cutting wood or other materials
Freud LU79R007 7-1/4" 60T Plywood & Laminate Blade
A circular saw is a great tool for cutting flooring, but the stock blades that come with a circular saw are not up to the task. You want a blade with a high enough tooth count to avoid chipping. The Freud LU79R007 has 60 carbide teeth to help resist the abrasiveness of laminate flooring. At 7 1/4” in diameter, it should fit most common circular saws. If you have a smaller saw, check to see if Freud makes a version in your size.
The high bevel angle of the teeth combines with the high tooth count to produce an extremely smooth cut. Some reviewers say it’s the smoothest cut they’ve ever gotten from a circular saw blade.
When you’re cutting material like this, be sure to put the “good” side face down. This will minimize chipping and tear-out caused by the blade exiting the cut. Note that this is the opposite of what you would do on a table saw!
Positives
- Leaves extremely smooth cuts in laminate, melamine, and other chip-prone materials
Negatives
- Quite expensive, best saved for jobs where it really excels rather than general-purpose use
Makita A-93681 10" x 80T Miter Saw Blade
Using a miter saw to cut laminate flooring lets you easily make perfectly square cuts every time. A miter saw blade like the Makita A-93681 is the perfect choice for cutting laminate. Its 80 teeth result in clean cuts without chipping.
A miter saw can cause chips on either the top or the bottom of the workpiece, depending on where the blade enters. For best results on laminate flooring, put the good side down and pull the blade forward past the plank. Then push it back through the blank, and you won’t chip the face of the board.
Bosch T128BHM3 14 TPI Jigsaw Blade
A jigsaw might not strike you as the right tool for cutting flooring. But the fact is that you can effectively cut laminate with a jigsaw provided you have the right blade. The Bosch T128BHM3 is specifically designed for cutting laminates.
It’s got a relatively high tooth count of 14 teeth per inch. That means it will cut slower than a jigsaw blade meant for tearing through wood with only 6-10 teeth per inch. So if you’re going to be tackling high volumes of laminate flooring, a jigsaw might not be the most efficient tool. But for smaller projects, or if you’d rather not invest in another tool just for one job, grab your jigsaw and a package of these blades.
You can buy this blade in a 1-pack, but it’s far more cost-effective to buy the 3-pack. And while they hold up fairly well to laminate, you’ll still want to have a spare or two in case they dull before you’re finished.
You’ll want to cut with the decorative side of the laminate flooring facing down when using a jigsaw. Especially with chip-prone material like laminate, this helps ensure a cleaner cut into the visible side of the plank.
Conclusion
Laminate flooring can be finicky to cut because it chips easily and wears out blades. Choosing the right blade will give you clean cuts and last for your entire project or longer, no matter what kind of saw you’re using.
