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Do I need a transition strip Tile/carpet??

10 years ago

Do i need a transition strip between the kitchen tile and carpet in the entry ways? The transition is smooth, which my tender feet like. I have often stepped wrong on transitions leaving discomfort on my feet for several days. Is the reason to have a strip aesthetic? Does it simply look unfinished? Is the reason to have it for cleaning purposes? Is it to prevent damage to your carpet when cleaning the floor? I don't really like the look of the metal strips. Thanks in advance for any help.

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Comments (3)

GauchoGordo1993
10 years ago
No need for transition strip between tile & carpet. In fact it generally looks more finished without a transition. The only reason to add a transition strip would be to smooth out the transition if there there was a significant height difference between the two. For example, if the tile was taller than the carpet, then you might want a transition strip/ramp to minimize the obstacle and thereby minimize the risk of hitting your feet as you describe. Best case is same level without transition strip.
User
10 years ago
Best case scenario if you don't want a traditional metal transition piece, is to have the carpet edge bound there to keep it from fraying and be careful about how you vaccuum. And finish the edge of the tile off with a Schluter strip so it doesn't chip. Transition strips aren't just cosmetic transitions between materials. They actually serve a purpose: to protect the edges of those materials.
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I'm the OP. Those marble strips are nice but they only come in white. Since our floor is dark they wouldn't work for us. We ended up going with wood. There was no molding of the right shape or height, especially since we were trying to bridge a height transition: the tile being higher. We bought ranch molding that was designed for window and door frames. If you are not familiar with ranch molding, in profile it has a slope: one side is high and the other side is lower. The installers has to shave some wood off the back to make it fit (to reduce the height), but that was their problem since they had promised they would come up with something nice for us and had not. We had them bring the wood right before the weekend and then we stained and varnished it to match our other moldings. On Monday they came back and installed it. The carpeting is a berber, and the edge is tucked lightly under the lowest edge. The high side butts against the tile/durock and a small caulk line is in between.
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Set the tile so that they end a bit higher than the height of the tacks on a tackless strip. Then you install tackless strips around the tiled area with the correct spacing and attach the carpet like you would at a wall. If you are worried about the corners of your tile not being strong enough, they do make some metal transitions that only have about and 1/8" or less showing on top so they are barely noticable. You would still set the carpet as I described.
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"I don't understand what you want to do. Currently you have a carpet bar covering the carpet/tile transition. The bar is on top of the ceramic tile and covering the carpet. Do you want to remove this brass item and replace it with something else? Why would you need to remove the tile?" Hi, ron6519 -- sorry - I must not have explained very clearly. We don't have any ceramic tile. We pulled up linoleum and put slate tile down to replace it. But the metal piece is not on top of any ceramic tile at all. It's not on top of anything other than the subfloor. It butts up against the tile, with a slight gap. I don't think I have to pull the tile up (it is something that someone at Lowe's recommended we do... I was more looking for confirmation that we DON'T need to). Thanks, Sierraeast, I will try to find the flooring forum. There are so many forums here, that I think I have the right one but I guess I don't. Thanks though. :)
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Sure...so long as BOTH are permanent floors (tiles mortared/thinset into place and the hardwood glued/nailed/stapled/cleated into place). A HIGH END professional will be able to get this done. The tile setter will need to get together with the hardwood flooring installer to figure out the best form of transition (low-profile schluter, etc). It takes a bit of effort, plenty of coordination and +++SKILL (which you pay for by using the highest trained/priced profis you can find). It is do able. The price of the house will dictate how HARD you try to make this "transitionless".
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GauchoGordo1993
10 years ago
I've always seen the carpet tucked into the tile/carpet transition using the same scraping/tucking tool that's used at the baseboards. I guess it's possible to do this poorly and end up with fraying at the carpet edge, but I've had many like this in my homes over the years and none have frayed. This doesn't typically work at vinyl/carpet transitions because there's not enough height on the vinyl side of the transition to tuck the carpet edge in, which is why transition pieces are almost always indicated at vinyl/carpet boundaries. But carpet/tile boundaries can be finished looking and durable without transition pieces or binding the carpet edge.

This post was edited by GauchoGordo1993 on Wed, Dec 4, 13 at 19:48

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