BR-111 5' wide 1/2' thick- Is 7% waste enough or do I need more?

susanlynn2012

14 years ago

I posted this on the flooring forum and I have decided to cross post it on the decorating forum and the kitchen forum to see if I get some responses since I have to let the online place know if I am making any changes to my order tomorrow morning but maybe if I get a few responses, I can ask if they can hold the order until the end of the day.

I ordered on Friday after 5:00 PM (via the telephone) BR-111 Triangulo Engineered Brazilian Cherry Floor in the 5" wide widths. I am going to float the floor using a professional installer. I was told the order will not go out until Monday so I can call Monday morning if I have any changes to make.

An installer calls me today that wants the job and says I should have ordered 21 boxes of the BR-111 floor and not 20 boxes since I have no closets that I am putting the wood in and there are cuts besides waste. But I have so many filing cabinets we can put the shorter boards under if I we have to so I do not understand why I need over 13% extra.

Various installers and me all seem to get 573 square feet or 567 sq. feet depending on fractions rounded. I thought 20 Boxes X 31.02 sq. feet per box would be enough since 7% on a rounded 575 sq. feet comes to 615 and 20 Boxes X 31.02 sq. feet comes to 620.40 sq. feet while 21 boxes comes to 651.42 sq. feet which is 13.29% extra.

Truehardwoods.com where I bought my flooring from had told me 7% extra for waste but some installers are telling me at least 10%.

How much extra should I order?

Also the installer that called me back told me to order 4 reducers and 1 T-molding. I ordered 3 reducers since I need 18 feet and 88" X 3 I thought was more than enough since it is 22 feet long but one of my floor separations is 7 feet 4 inches long and I will have to use part of another reducer.

None of my floors are the same level (tile in foyers that are 3/8th thick, Linoleum in kitchen, and flat commercial type of builder grade tile in closet while the wood is 4/8" thick and being floated on a pad) so I do not understand why I would need a T-Molding? Also if they feel I need a T-Molding for the tile areas, then I need two or we will be short. Should I order one more reducer only or one more reducer and one or two T-Moldings to be safe?

Hence, do I need three reducers at 88" long or 4 reducers. Should I order a T-molding just in case? Or maybe I need 2 T-Moldings if I use it for the tile since both areas add up to almost the 88" long?

I have narrowed it down to two installers but one of the two feels I have more than enough wood and the other feels I should order more.

I never want to go through this stress again and I do not know how anyone builds a house. I will not be doing my kitchen floor until all my extensions and deadlines are done next year no matter what sales are going on since I am finding out how time consuming making home improvements can be. The rug is now ripped in 6 places from moisture reading testings and is so dirty again so I have to replace it ASAP and I have to call in the morning to know what I am doing.

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Comments (7)

ccoombs1
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I only had 3% waste when I installed my floors, but I was very careful. I installed them myself and took the time to find boards closer to the length I needed. A contractor will not take that time...they will grab a board and whack it off to make it fit. I bet the longest scrap I had was 2". 7% might be cutting it a little close...most of the time it is suggested that you allow 10% for waste. But the installer CAN work with 7% if they are careful.
idrive65
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I agree that 7% might not be enough. With 5" wide flooring you don't want a lot of shorts, especially if you have a beveled edge (I don't know if you do). Therefore using every scrap becomes more difficult without closets to hide them in. The bigger issue is your lack of trust in your installer's expertise. He probably doesn't want to get almost done and need another run of flooring, another piece of reducer, whatever, and create a delay for you. Is an extra T-molding or reducer returnable if you don't use it? An extra half-box of flooring is good to keep in case you have a problem down the road.
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susanlynn2012
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you idrive65 for your reply. I just pulled up the carpet with a client who has begun a friend and we put a thin catalogue under the wood to be the floating material and it appears that there is only 1/8th difference in height of the two floors so I may need two T-Moldings and not one unless a reducer can be used there which is what I would prefer. I will call right now to see if I can order the 2 T-Moldings and the extra reducer and return them if I do not need them. I guess I need to know the length of the T-Molding. I will never order without a confirmed installer that I trust working with me again.

Thank you CCoombs for letting me know that a good installer can work with me if I only order 7%. Now I am wondering if I should have more.

I just stopped by my neighbor's home and she has reducers but her floors heights seem to be 1/4th inch difference. A few days ago her floors felt so hard to me since they were glued down. But today I took off my shoes and walked around barefeet on my tiles as I was measuring so when I was in socks on her floor, it no longer felt so hard and now I wonder if my idea of floating instead of gluing to be safe when my concrete floor was told to be dry, is a mistake and I should glue the floor? I don't want to seal the floor since it will add up the cost and time to get all the furniture out of all the rooms.
kcboom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have never installed a floor in my life until a few weeks ago I ordered the 10% extra and now have about 8% left over. When you get to the end you get a piece cut it in half and start with that piece coming back from the other wall so I pretty much had no waste. Towards the end I realized I would have a ton left over so I went through the boxes and took all the best looking pieces out and used them.
susanlynn2012
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
kcboom, thank you for your post which I do appreciate. I decided based on your posts and the posts above and the fact that the installer I am hiring says he is very good at minimizing waste to order only the 7% extra which due to having to order by the box makes the flooring a little more than 8% extra. I ordered on Friday but the order was placed on hold until my installer came by two days ago to let me know which transition pieces I needed (I was going to order 3 reducers so now I know I need only 2 reducers but I need 2 T-Moldings). Then the flooring was put on hold due to wanting to find out what wood glue was in my order. Today I told the flooring company to take out the wood glue and put the order through. I will buy the wood glue locally and this way if I need more, I can run out to get more for the installer. I decided to float the floor with the Floor Muffler with the Ultra Seal in order to have the floor have more insulation and be quieter. I am very excited about my new floor and will let everyone know when it arrives!
kcboom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The sad thing is when the floor gets there you will put the boxes in your house and have to look at the boxes for at least a week so the wood acclimates to your homes humidity so it expands and contracts with the home.
weissman
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I don't know about the place you're ordering from but when I had pre-finished wood in my house, the place I got it from would accept returns of whole boxes as well as unused transition pieces. I think my installer picked up a little extra just to avoid an unnecessary trip and then returned what we didn't need.

BR-111 5' wide 1/2' thick- Is 7% waste enough or do I need more?

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BR-111 5' wide 1/2' thick- Is 7% waste enough or do I need more?

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