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HELP! What direction to lay hardwood flooring?

15 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
15 years ago
Without shoring up the substrate, the wood flooring must run across the joists.
susanlynn2012
15 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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Just use common sense here. Look at the condition of the subfloor boards. What are they made of and are they still mostly stiff and flat? If they haven't sagged between the joists in 80 years or so, they're not going to do that now. Although the book says install finish flooring perpendicular to the joists, I would not worry much about that, especially where the subfloor material condition is as I described. Simply make sure that the subfloor is well-attached and sqeak-free.
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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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Laying the new floor in the same direction as the old floor is not the normal way to go about this. In the building industry, it is more common to see layers that are staggered or "bricked". In other words if layer #1 is laid in a North-South direction, then layer #2 (the top layer) is laid perpendicular to it in an East-West presentation. If you want to run the new flooring in the same direction as the old, you will want to use some underlayment (plywood) over top of the old floor so that you can maintain the "staggered" or "bricked" layering system. That is one way to maintain the North-South presentation. Please work with hardwood flooring professionals who have some experience renovating these old gems. They will have seen what worked....and what didn't. Their experience will be invaluable on a project like yours.
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You need to run the floors opposite the direction of the joists. If you are on a concrete slab and using engineered wood then you can go either direction and posting photos of the plan will get your question answered.
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mrs-mjt
Original Author
15 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
15 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
15 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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