I think across, not along, the floor joists makes sense structurally.

I have never heard someone talk about going with the sun. usually you pick the direction that is most aesthetically pleasing. In our living room, the floors boards run the length, that ways when they were laid in the dining room and going into the kitchen every thing worked together.

Blondie has it right for a solid 3/4" floor. An engineered floor is just a floor covering and not particularly structural. Unless the floor joists vary one to the next run the floor anyway you wish.

Ruthie51, The wood is 3.5" wide planks and are micro beveled edge--and so planks directed toward windows would show off the length of the plank which would be a nicer look versus the 3.5" plank breaks, am I understanding correctly?

BTW, floor will be glued to slab, joists are not an issue.

I'm inclined to have the planks go the width and not the length because it would then be towards the sun as well as leading into the rest of the house from the foyer into the living room. What are your opinions of the 13' width--is that too short a distance (with a 6' difference from the length) to look right?

Thank you all for your feedback.

Hi jamm1, Yes, in our case that's correct. We're the only homeowners in this particular model who had the floors installed on a diagonal. I've found that everyone else's floor looks much better when you walk in and see the sun shining on the long planks in front of you. Those long boards going towards the sun look great; ours...not so great. However, an NWFA inspector found that our concrete subfloor is not flat, so the sun also shows the resulting wavy, uneven appearance of the planks (we hired him because we had many many hollow spots and loose boards). We're having much of the floor replaced and I'm hoping the planks will look better in the sun when the floor is totally flat. So...in other words, there's the possibility that our floor looks bad in the sun moreso from the uneveness of the subfloor, rather than from the floor direction.

Ruthie51, thanks for sharing. Good luck on your floor!

Generally speaking floors that run the direction of your primary line sight are ascetically more pleasing. That is from entrances or main walkways.

Woodfloorpro, thank you!

It is generally a good idea to have flooring run the long way because then the longer pieces of flooring will not be cut off short in hallways. We've actually had customers who've installed their flooring diagonally and it turned out great. In the end it is what your comfortable with. Sunlight will hit most spots on your floor evenly once it is installed so that shouldn't be of major concern.