Hi, everyone, escapee from Knots here. We’re laying our engineered hardwood flooring starting tomorrow and keep flopping about trying to decide what direction it should go in. We’re doing the bedroom, small alcove-type “hallway” and the living room in a small house. Attached is a diagram of the area involved. Is there a compelling reason to go in one direction or another?? Our current thought is to go left-to-right as the drawing is presented. We’d like to get by without using transition pieces (T-molding) in the various doorways. Any advice much appreciated!
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Replies
I'm not a flooring expert, just an occasional remuddler. I usually try to alternate... If the joists go n-s, the subfloor will go e-w and then the finished floor would be n-s.
But I don't see this as a hard and fast rule. If one layout works better for you, then I'd probably go with it.
jt8
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our subfloor, found underneath the carpet when we tore it out, is old, old oak parquet, so it goes in all direction, LOL. I'll check the joist direction, not remembering offhand.
PS: I love the term "occasional remuddler." May I borrow it?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
If you are 2 or 3 layers above the subfloor already, the direction probably doesn't matter. We keep this thread on top long enough, and one of the pro floor guys will eventually respond.
I love the term "occasional remuddler." May I borrow it?
Go right ahead. BT is the land of colorful 'characters' and their witty one-liners. A more relaxed group than those snobby Knotties. ;)
jt8
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
one last question then I gotta log off:
Our subfloor, found underneath the carpet when we tore it out, is old, old oak parquet...
Did ya consider refinishing that old flooring instead of covering it up with a floating engineered big box product??? ("they don't make em like they used to..." is the phrase running thru my mind as I ask...)
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
My flooring guy likes to do the opposite. and he sticks by it as much as possible. he runs opposite to floor joists. View Image View Image
The joist and subfloor direction have no bearing on this decision for modern construction.
The predominant concern is to go with the flow of light. For instance, if the major source of natural light in the room on the right side of your drawing is where you label a 10'8" dimension, the ends of the flooring pieces should point that way and the long sides the other.
I can well imagine that both rooms in your case might have equal sides sourcing the light flow though. In that case, the length of the grain should run with the length of the room, especially in that larger room on the left.
But neither of these are hard and fast rules. They just have certain advantages in working with light to hide flaws and optically enlarge the room.
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Hi, Piffin, wow it's been a long time. Hope you are well.
Most of the room on the right (bedroom) is completely obscured by furniture so I guess the living room is the one we'll think about light-wise. The main other factor we were pondering isgetting through doorways into the next space without stopping to add T-molding -- in other words, having the flooring flow completely through all the areas. Is this likely to be possible?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
As I remember the drawing, that can work either way.
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So in common English, you're saying to run the boards parallel with the window light or perpendicular?
Confused
draw a window on the plan.Draw an arrow pointing the direction the light rays flow in through the room from the window.The grain of the wood is parallel with that arrow.I have a problem with Common English, was that OK?
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Thank you mysterious electronic cyberperson. Run the boardlength with the windowlight!
Enlightened
Actually, the use of the term 'windowlight' could be used to identify an opening in a framed wall for glass panes used to let in light and air instead of detailing the meaning as infiltration of lightrays into the structure.
Hence, to 'run the boardlength with the windowlight' to another reader might seem to reference a procedure of running the boards parallel to the wall and windowlight.
'Light rays' might be a better description to convey the meaning in this cyberworld.
be but maybe I'm just a cyberpunk
.
I thought I understood Piffin perfectly and now you get me all confused. :)
"The joist and subfloor direction have no bearing on this decision for modern construction."
why? more info please. View Image View Image
First, because There is no strength axis to be oncerned about when you have a subfloor of plywood or Advantec over properly sized framing.
A hundred years ago, it may hjave served a purpose to orient the finish flooring perp to joists with subfoor of #4 boarding laid diagonally, but now, your flooring is no longer than 5' with many shorts to 8-9".And especially in this ccaase where she has engineered flooring. It is designed for stability and wear, not for strength. But all details of finish flooring aside, there is plenty of strength in the subfloor sheqthing
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Thanks Piffin for the further clarification.
My hardwood floor installer still likes to run perpendicular to floor joists. View Image View Image
Nothing wrong with that. Just no reason to 99% of the time.
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Hi Piffin, Your advice, as far as joist direstion having no bearing on floor direction is contrary to the way I was taught. But I am open minded and always willing to learn new things especially if they have potential to free me up aesthetically. So as I learned flooring always runs perpendicular to the joist. The reasoning behind this as I understood it and it seemed to make sense to me is that over the years the floor could develop slight dips, bellys, between the joists. Do you think that line of reasoning is just another issue of overkill?Reading through I see someone else asked the same thing. Thanks anyway.
Edited 8/4/2007 10:06 am ET by quicksilver
I'd follow the longest wall (parallel) and run that direction throughout. I like the focal point to be as far distant as possible.
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Thanks for the input, I'm understanding the light thing now. Does anyone care to address the question about running the boards uninterruped through the doorways? Any problems there? Sorry to seem like a dunce, but we've never laid down this kind of flooring before.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Passing from room to room I would run the first board on through. Rip a "tongue" spline and change direction of laying from that board and go both ways in the next room or hall.
edit: I'm sorry. Glue that spline in the tongue and nail it off as normal after it dries or nail through that tongue area, insert the spline and face nail.
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Edited 8/2/2007 9:15 pm ET by calvin
I think I understand exactly your concern about running the boards thru the doorways. It can be done with a careful layout planning and a bit of luck.
Ideally you want the layout to be symmetrical over each doorway. This would only work if the width of the living room is divisible by the width of the planks and this will never happen unless you lay the floor first before you build the house.
Also you have to check how parallel the long walls are to each other. Try to avoid a thin strip along the walls. With six walls and two doorways it's going to be tricky and most likely you have to compromise somewhere.
Is that a fireplace where you marked "brick"? I would do a border there to define it.
"I think I understand exactly your concern about running the boards thru the doorways." Ahhhhhh, finally -- thank you. Fortunately, my husband is an engineer and has a suitable spatial mind, so I think we'll do OK. He can foresee problems and try to avoid them. I never see 'em until they hit me upside the head!
Do you happen to know if most installers put an underlayment with the engineered hardwood? I'm thinking it would help dampen the sound, but we may have trouble finding any in stock. Not sure how important it is, or how sorry we'd be if we didn't use it.
Thanks for the tip about doing a border -- I hadn't thought that far ahead. We're going to go cross-wise in the room (left to right in the drawing). The reasoning being that most of the upper 2/3'ds will be covered by an area rug, and the most visible part as you enter the house will actually be from the front door, past the fireplace and into the little "hallway" alcove. Besides being a bit easier to lay, orienting the boards along that axis will be a good visual thing -- it'll be a long visual there, but as soon as you get to the real part of the (smalllllll) living room, that's all covered by an area run (to keep the dogs off the flooring AMAP).
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 8/3/2007 1:37 am by forestgirl
I assume these are plywood core engineering boards and you are going to nail them.
In that case just treat it like hardwood and use rosin or felt as cheap insurance even though engineering board doesn't move that much; but they do move. You can always check with the place where you get the board from and see what they recommend.
As bob said there are only rules of thumb as to which way the boards run, ultimately you decide what looks good to you.
"I assume these are plywood core engineering boards..." Yes
"...and you are going to nail them." Nope, or at least we're not planning to. These are supposed to form a "floating floor" and we're hoping they do, otherwise, I'll have to buy another pneumatic nailer!
We found the underlayment (foam-sorta-stuff) at Lowe's, which is where we bought the flooring. Home Depot was a miserable waste of time, really don't understand that company.
Since we have light coming from two directions, but mostly in the part of the room that's covered by area rug, it's a toss-up direction-wise.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
For a floating floor, yes, foam underlayment.
Good luck and have fun. Post some pics when finished.
Thanks, Tom. We painted today, lay 1st floor tomorrow. Here's what else we accomplished today (big willow, went down ~10 days ago; chain sawyer is a local woodworker, mill guy):
View Image View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
What's he going to do with the willow?
Parts of the willow are going to 3, no 4, different people. The woodworker you saw in the pictures will mill some boards out of the trunk, and also some slabs to make tables out of -- there are 2 or 3 areas of the trunk that promise to provide some interesting slabs. Here's his web site.
A few of the boards and some of the bigger branches will go to Islandwood, a fantastic environmental learning center and conference center on our island. They're building a new lodge and will make coat racks from the branches, something from the boards, not sure what.
The really twist-turny branches are going to Gregory Glenn, an award-winning sculptor here on the island, who uses only naturally downed trees for his work. I couldn't find a picture of his natural stuff, but here he is (courtesty of this Kitsap Sun newspaper article):
View Image
And the switches or whatever you call them (the long droopy things) are mainly going to a Native American woman who will use them for some shield frames I think she said).
I'll be following up on what David, Gregory and Islandwood do with their parts, probably take pictures in about a year.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Cool what's being done with your ex willow tree (why'd it have to come down?)!
How about "blogging" your floor project for us: you know, show us some pics of the "before" condition of your floors, room by room, some pics of the materials and underlayment, some pics of the 1/4" spacers you're using (can one use cabinet squishy balls I wonder...?), etc?
Please?
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
The demise of our willow was a sad, sad thing. We were out of town for a memorial service, gone 3 days, and when we came home, there it was laying on the ground! IMHO, we let the canopy get too big, and when there was a several-day-rain thing going, it just got so heavy down it went. Don't know if there was any wind involved. Can't see, inspecting the stump, any other reason for it. I guess they don't live forever, oh well.
We have another one in the center of the yard, not quite as big, that lost one of it's big main branches several years ago when it rained and then froze down to about 15°. The rest of it's looking pretty OK.
I'll think about the blogging thing. If it turns out "just awful" you may not hear from me, LOL! No spacers -- this stuff is designed to snap together snugly.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 8/4/2007 1:24 pm by forestgirl
SPACERS aren't for between the planks, they're for between the planks and your walls (i.e. the border of the floating wooden floor). Usually that space allows for thermal expansion/contraction and is covered by base or shoe moulding.
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
When it said "1/4" spacer" and referred to the ball-thingies, it sounded like it referred to between the boards. The Bruce instructions indicate 1/2" expansion gap, which seems a little large to us. We're planning on 3/8" instead. Any thoughts on that??forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
1/2" expansion gap? gosh. I'm surprised Bruce (flooring) requires that.
It always gets a little risky when ya don't follow mfr's recommendations as then they use any deviation to say you caused the problem with "faulty installation" of their flawless product...
They ought to know though what kinda expansion/contraction their product can be expected to give. (gee, I wonder if that 1/2 inch is CUMULATIVE for both ends of the board length - i.e. the LEFT end of the RUN and the terminal RIGHT end - at 1/4" at each end would total an overall 1/2 inch...??????????) Just a thought.
FYI: I tore up all the flooring in my LR long time ago and it's been bare concrete for longer than I care to admit while I search and search for what product I want to install. So you and your DH are about to go where I've not yet gone seeing as you've made a product selection and are gearing up to do the installation. So yeah, I'm particularly interested in hearing how it goes, and what's good or a problem and your lessons learned (if you'll be so kind to share).
Anyway - while perusing Woodcrafters catalogue (see http://www.woodcraft.com and item 142284 is "space balls") I was wondering about this alternate flooring use for a product that's designed to be a spacer that will COMPRESS when wood products abutting it, expand. Their "real" use is for space between components of floating panel doors...
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
Most of the expansion would be in the width, not the length, of the boards. Bruce indicates 1/2" expansion zone along each wall though.
Good luck deciding!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Be careful with that assumption. It would be true with solid wood flooring, but with engineered flooring, it will be equal both ways, I believe
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You're probably right, Piffin, but we're leaving the same distance all the way around. I don't get the 1/2" expansion gap instruction though. Wouldn't it be hard to find baseboard that would cover that? I'm thinking that in the living room, with its larger size, we may need to go to that.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
same all around is right for the engineered is what I was affirming.I think typical modern base is 9/16" which is too small for that alone. Would need a show too. I use 3/4" base for all mine tho.And since the SR is normally up of the floor a bit, you can end up with 1/2" spacing to the plate easily, then base over the flooring.
If you leave the old base, then you have a problem having to only cover the gap with shoe.But all this iw a variable. I don't believe in a one size fits all guide. If you are laying this in hot humid summer, the material will do nothing but shrink. If you are laying in cool winter with hot air heat drying and shrinking before laid, it will then grow come summer - around here anyways. So there is some judgement needed.
Also, a small bathroom or hall will not much as much as a great room 20' x 14'I just used some engineered flooring in a powder room 38" x 60". I used a 1/8" gap and carefully caulked to the existing baseboard with a flexible caulk
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Piffin, I'm suggesting to hubby that we increase the expansion gap to 1/2" in the living room, since the area to be covered is so much bigger.
I'm going to need some translation of your last post -- maybe I'm tired, or dense, or clueless or all three, LOL!
"...typical modern base is 9/16" which is too small for that alone. Would need a show too." What's a show? How much wider does the baseboard need to be than the gap it's covering??
"...since the SR is normally up of the floor a bit, you can end up with 1/2" spacing to the plate easily...." Wha's SR?? What's "the plate"??
We're done with the easy part of the bedroom now, and are about to tackle inside the closet, which has to go around a built-in drawer unit, and make our way through that first doorway. I'm game for buying new baseboard if it seems like a good idea. Ours is slightly less than 9/16", old stuff.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
show = shoe. Sorry for my poor proofreading.SR = sheetrock. Plarte is th eframing of the wall under the SR
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Ha! Those last lines were pretty funny whether you did it unintentionally or on purpose.
's OK Piffin, all's well. We finished the bedroom, taking a break for a short trip, then back at it on Saturday. Maybe by Tuesday, we'll be mostly finished. I'm gonna have some questions about framing that hearth. Thinking about making a border under which the ends of the flooring can "float" in their expansion zone -- a rabbeted area underneath the frame. Make sense?forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Yes it does. Mill a piece with beveled edge to lip over the engineeered flooring and dado under 3/4" with some solid wood that compliments the new surface.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Well, our boy-kitty approves! Here he is testing the new throw-rug in the bedroom. We're working on the living room, but we're slowwwwww -- old knees, LOL!!
View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I realize you are not putting down a laminate, but I believe the floor you are installing goes together the same way. ????If so, then this thread on how to get through a doorway might apply:
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=92753.1
Rich BeckmanComing to the Fest? Don't forget pencils!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, Rich, good call! Thanks for the link! I'm too tired to read it right now, but am printing it off for tomorrow. (Who was giving me grief for worrying about this? Eddy? See, I'm not the only one!)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
"Hey, Rich, good call! Thanks for the link!"Your welcome.Now that I see how narrow your planks are, I'm not as certain that getting through the doorway will be all that complicated.You may not need any special techniques to pull it off. But I don't know that being aware of the possibilities will hurt.Regarding Piffin's post...."Show" is a typo for shoe (quarter round, for example). SR is sheet rock (drywall). The plate is the bottom 2 x 4 of the wall framing.
Rich BeckmanComing to the Fest? Don't forget pencils!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the translation, Rich. That room's paneled, and as tired as I was, "sheet rock" didn't come close the surface mentally. This wall had tall baseboard, no quarter-round, unless that's what you call the inside-corner stuff? I get the feeling it's finished off differently than most houses these days, LOL!
The doorways are already undercut by the previous owners, so it may not be too difficult getting through the doors. Both hubby and I are feeling much better about the project now that we've laid a fair amount of the flooring. Thanks for the help!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
OK, just got back from Lumbermen's -- I see how the quarter-round and shoe are used.. forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Neighbor and I share a brook behind our places and each has an old giant willow that was huge even back when I was a kid.
Might you know the record diameter of a willow?
It would be either a Hankow or white although they aren't the low hanging weeping branches.
Nope, don't know the record. When I was a kid, around 5-6 years old, my aunt or someone had one in their back yard, very close to a bank. We'd swing on the branches and launch ourselves into the air, see how far we could go!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
>>>>"I assume these are plywood core engineering boards..." Yes
>>"...and you are going to nail them." Nope, or at least we're not planning to. These are supposed to form a "floating floor" and we're hoping they do, otherwise, I'll have to buy another pneumatic nailer!
SO far as I know, all "engineered" boards (with a "standard" tongue and grove) are intended to be nailed.
The floating, snap together floors are laminate, not wood/hardwood.
Have a brand name?
May your whole life become a response to the truth that you've always been loved, you are loved and you always will be loved" Rob Bell, Nooma, "Bullhorn"
"We Live" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kuBgh0VCqI&mode=related&search
And Annie Ross's "Twisted" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lqivrCIRGo&mode=related&search=
SO far as I know, all "engineered" boards (with a "standard" tongue and grove) are intended to be nailed.
Not true. Google any of the hardwood flooring sites ya want, search under their engineered flooring products, and you'll see that there's plenty meant to be floated.
One e.g. for ya: Mannington brand.
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
You can see it right here.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Step 2 of that website's installation video talks to you about "allow the necessary expansion zone/space..."
spacers help maintain that spacing while you're putting the floating field of flooring together
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
FG -
Conventional wisdom says that the flooring should be parallel with the long axis of the room. That would probably work in your case, but you would have to use transition moldings - or have the flooring not look quite right.
Have you considered laying the floor on the diagonal? It can really do a great job of eliminating those "awkward" transitions where the direction needs to change.
If you have some pieces of your flooring, lay them down on the diagonal and see what you think. You may be surprised at how nice it looks.
After a second look at your sketch, I would definitely suggest diagonal - and parallel with the front of the fireplace.
Edited 8/2/2007 9:36 pm by Dave45
Hi, Dave. The diagonal approach is intriguing, but for this little house and our first hardwood experience, I think we'll just go on the straight and narrow. We'll miter the boards where they hit the angled hearth.
We had 4 projects lined up for this summer, and are running 2 projects behind due to family crises scatter throughout the spring and summer. This one's gotta get done in just a few working days! Thanks for the input.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
but for this little house and our first hardwood experience
Ah, well then, that makes it easy. Start in the room that will have the biggest area rug or the most "stuff on it," and use that for a learning experience.
Changing direction with a "real" floor is not as big an issue as with, oh say, a click-lock floor. When you get to a doorway, let the boards run as they will. Then set your scraps in not-quite so permanently. Dado the edge for a spline to connect to a fastened-to-floor edge to hold things until you get to the next space.
From your sketch, I'd recommend L to R like as not. The "ideal" is to "point" the lengths at what ever the room's feature is. In the LR, that'd be either the TV or the fireplace. You've vetoed FP, so that's pretty much that (unless you change your mind in two more pages of resonces I've not gotten to yet <g>).Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Nick finished the bedroom today. That's the room that shows the least floor by the time all the furniture is in there. Add the two 80+pound dogs, and there's virtually no floor showing, LOL!
We'll go L-to-R in the living room also, no direction changes involved. Nick made it through the first doorway just fine, really not hard. We have to break for 3 days, then will be back at it. I've been kinda useless, as my back is completely on strike at the moment.
Have to ponder how to frame the brick in front of the fireplace, lots of time before we get to that point though. Thanks!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I'm not sure why you keep asking about going through the doorways. Are you concerned about leaving expansion gaps? That's not really an issue with your engineered floor. The only problem I would see there is keeping the l;ayout straight and parallel.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
As piffin said, direction of the light is a primary consideration and the boards should generally be parallel to the "line" of light.
Another "primary" consideration, though, is to run the boards in the direction of the longer axis of the room.
The two "rules" often conflict.
FWIW, with carpeting, you always have the carpeting run in the same direction in several adjacent rooms, but that "rule" doesn't apply to wood flooring.
But you might perhaps consider the effect of such alignments
Ultimately, it's a cosmetic choice
May your whole life become a response to the truth that you've always been loved, you are loved and you always will be loved" Rob Bell, Nooma, "Bullhorn"
"We Live" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kuBgh0VCqI&mode=related&search
And Annie Ross's "Twisted" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lqivrCIRGo&mode=related&search=
Hey - any of your KNOThead buddies able to help me with this, ya think?
(in other words, do you think I should post this help request over there...?)
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=93121.1
Only dead fish swim with the stream.
Author Unknown
I saw that post (your pictures need to be smaller). You'd need to look only at the restoration hardware places, VanDyke's, etc. There's one called Renovation, I think. Give it a try, there's a couple people who build repros. Make those pictures only about 400 pixels wide though, please, if you're posting them in-line with the message.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hey, my pics in that thread are virtually the same size as YOUR pic in this one! LOL! but ok, I've deleted the open versions of them in my thread as it seems more probable that the search is over for replacement drwr pull(s) and a fix solution is the path fwd instead.
"ugly" = reason to cover up the parquet? ok. it's your house, your choice and since I can't see the parquet - can't argue the point with ya even if I would...which I wouldn't.
please DO share some pics of your endeavor - & any tips you discovered as you do/did the project, etc.
I'm sure you're allowing the product to acclimate in your home for at least the recommended period of time, before installing it. No idea what kind of temp/humidity swings your geographic location sees.
I'm very very curious to see/hear how you end up addressing the meeting of the flooring to the fireplace. I hear about and see different methods for that junction and I'm still ambivalent about how I want to handle mine. Seriously considered buying a Crain 812 undercut jamb saw to float the wood flooring right under bottom most course of brick I got but took a lot of flak from folks for that idea...
Getting ready to just take the plunge and decide on a product. I've read virtually EVERY reference to hw flooring on this BT site that the SEARCH feature will yield ya. There's truly little of substance on this site to help with regards engineered hdwd flooring products - these guys heavily use and favor solid HW floors and virtually all posts are about that. So this thread would be a welcome addition to the so-far-limited discussions about engineered HW flooring and its installation.
Only dead fish swim with the stream. Author Unknown
Edited 8/5/2007 4:27 pm by mizshredder2
Here are a couple of pictures to bear out the "ugly" description (I'm not interested in doing any sanding and refinishing here, LOL) and to demonstrate what I was griping about picture-wise (big discussion about this going on a Knots recently; one of my few pet peeves).
Note the pictures are visible in the right-hand frame of Breaktime without having to use a scroll bar. Pictures that are attached (rather than posted in-line with the post itself) can be bigger than the monitor and not cause the viewer any grief if their browser resizes them automatically (as does IE if it's set that way). The pictures below are 450 pixels wide. The could be wider, maybe -- depends on the size of the reader's monitor. 500 pixels would probably work for everyone.
OK, here's ugly -- this is what we found under the old carpet:
View Image
And here's today's shot of the installation. The flooring looks much better in person than in this photo, which leaves it looking very "flat" or something.
View Image
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 8/6/2007 1:56 am by forestgirl
"There's truly little of substance on this site to help with regards engineered hdwd flooring products - these guys heavily use and favor solid HW floors and virtually all posts are about that. So this thread would be a welcome addition to the so-far-limited discussions about engineered HW flooring and its installation." My impression (which could be wrong!) is that engineered hardwood is more forgiving than regular hardwood. It definitely can be laid over a bigger variety of subfloor, including concrete. You'd need to read carefully about allowable moisture transfer rates (or whatever the technical term is) and be sure moisture isn't going to be a problem.
I'll do more of a thread about this project, probably starting next weekend, but we have only 2 days of time before leaving on a 3-day trip, and I have a regular woodworking project to finish also.
Re: moisture, our house probably doesn't swing too much. It's drier in the winter when we run the oil furnace, but we keep them temp around 64° so it's not too bad. The boxes of flooring sat in so-called heated storage for about 6-8 weeks, and then sat in our kitchen for probably a month, since we had a death in the family that brought everything to a screeching halt.
The stuff is pretty easy to install once you get the hang of how the intricate little tongue-and-groove joints go together. Fortunately, I can rely on Nick-the-engineer to figure out the layout of each row in a way that wastes the least material but gives good structure to each row.
More next week.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Nah, too ugly.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
<forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) >
Ummmmmmm . . .
Forrest