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HELP! What direction to lay hardwood flooring?

14 years ago

We've added on a family room to our home and plan to install hardwood in that room and the adjacent Great room. The floor joists run NS in the family room (new addition) and EW in the Great room so laying floor in either direction has pros and cons. It would look best not to do a direction change since the rooms are connected by a 6' opening and it would look choppy.

Wish I could post a picture of floor plan (perhaps hubby can help me later) so will try to explain. When you walk through the front door (EAST) or Garage entrance (EAST), you immediately enter the great room and can see right into the 6' opening that connects it with the new Family room which has a focal point wall (WEST wall) with beautiful windows and a fireplace. ALL the windows in both rooms are on the WEST wall.

Both the family room and the great room are narrow rectangular rooms and the length runs N-S. The Great room is 35' L x 19' W while the family room is 26' L X 14.5'W. If I measure from the WEST wall of Family room, where fireplace is located, through the opening and into the Great room, the length from EAST-WEST is 33.5' L.

A 12.5' hallway runs N-S to connect the Great room to the bedrooms and it will have hardwood.

So far, I have heard these tips on how to decide which way to lay the floors:

1. Parallel to the direction that sunlight comes into the windows. (would favor E-W run since all windows on W)

2. Running away from you (instead of side to side) when you come in the main entry (favors E-W run)

3. Running the long way in the longest room (favors N-S)

4. Running the long way in a hall (favors N-S)

I'm leaning towards running floor E-W because visually I think it would make the narrow rooms appear wider plus it draws your eye from the front door straight into the family room and the Fireplace wall.

Do you agree or disagree? Please help! I have to decide ASAP!

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Comments (5)

floorguy
14 years ago
Without shoring up the substrate, the wood flooring must run across the joists.
susanlynn2012
14 years ago
floorguy, I was hoping you would answer for Mrs-Mjt since you have so much knowledge. But I do have a question since all my knowledge is only from reading and learning and not from actual experience except for testing wood samples. What does shoring the substrate mean and what are joists?
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Sorry no one else got back to you and you probably already have started...but thought I'd just express another opinion. I really wouldn't switch directions. I've had hardwoods running into both a sunken living room and end butting into a french door and it worked/looked great for both. If you had a floor that was more even in color, it might work okay, but yours is so busy even without changing directions....I think even with a transition board it is too busy and jumbled looking. I think you will be happier with the floors flowing all one direction. :-(
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Thank you all so much for your input. In all my research, and talking with some general contractors in Chicago, they told me absolute no-no and that it is incredibly unprofessional - they have never seen it done especially in mid and high rise cement construction buildings in downtown Chicago that have concrete floors. They explained that the red oak 2 1/4" solid wood floor is not secured to the concrete and that there is expansion/contraction/movement making it an unsuitable subfloor/ surface to directly lay tile down on top of because tile requires a stable surface. I can literally hear squeaking sounds like the floor is moving, because I hear squeaks when I walk on my own red oak original developer installed floor. My neighbor doesn't understand any of this or what the potential issues/implications are for us both and asked me to try and explain it to him. How would you explain this situation to them? Won't their tiles/grout crack and break and they will lose their floor? Should we both be worried about any structural/weight/load issues? @glennsfc, can you please help me understand using Schluter Ditra over securely fastened hardwood and why you suspect this was not done? Thanks and so appreciative!
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Thanks all. I appreciate the comments. I know about the joists, but for some reason since we have steel I-beams I thought it did not matter. However, I will go opposite of them. I also get the Hickory can be super busy....But know that the rest of our home that has been finished (cabinets, granite counter, paint) is all very muted as we had the obnoxious parquet floor to contend with that I never thought we would replace. But thank you all so much.....Pictures coming in January when this huge project is completed. Thank GOD for Pods!!!
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The main living space will dictate the direction of the flooring. Think of the living room/great room as the 'public' space that visitors will see. You will want to impress your visitors. That means you want the MAIN great room to be set up properly. Figure out the direction in the great room and then move on from there. Although a single direction is ideal, it doesn't always work. It is possible to run the hallway in one direction and then have decorative transitions to allow the main rooms to have the hardwood to run the other way. This can be more expensive and take a bit more time for the installer, but it can be VERY handsome. Bedrooms are allowed to change direction at the threshold of each door. Again, an attractive transition is a nice touch and adds value to the floor and to the home.
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mrs-mjt
Original Author
14 years ago
Floorguy, My flooring guy assures me that the floor will be strong and I'm not sure what he's doing to make that a reality but he's installed many floors and I trust him.

Any thoughts on which way to run the floor aesthetically?
jerry_t
14 years ago
What you are asking mrs-mjt involves several technical issues such as the joist sizing & spacing along with the subfloor thickness and what the subfloor is actually made of. There are guidelines for hardwood installers to go by.

That said, running the wood on a diagonal makes all this a moot point.

Lynn2006, shoring up the substrate can mean either installing an underlayment over the subfloor, or install blocking every 2 ft. between the existing floor joist or trusses.
susanlynn2012
14 years ago
jerry_t, thanks for letting me know. I have a concrete sub-floor so there will be no plywood to nail or glue the floor down to. I am thinking of making the floor long ways when one walks in the door so when the cabinets are put back on the floor and the little bit of walk way between the cabinets and my desk will have long boards and not many horizontal busy looking boards.

This has been such a tough decision for me since I actually fell in love with the Bruce Park Avenue Pradoo Laminate, the BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Triangulo Engineered and the BR-111 Amendoim Triangulo Engineered and could not make up my mind. I hope I am not making a mistake since I know Brazilian Cherry darkens dramatically but I love the coloring of the red tones.

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