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tongue and groove wood ceiling and direction of wood floor

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

We are building a house and have put tongue and groove birch on the ceiling going the direction of the vault in our great room/dining room and then in our attached sunroom. The vault goes in different directions in each room. There is a separation of a french door between the rooms, but it is likely we will have it open all the time. My question now is the laying of the wood floor. It seems as if it should go the same direction as the ceiling, however, will it look strange for the floor to go a different direction in the sunroom, and how would we separate that?

The area is very open concept.

Featured Answer

PRO

Virgil Carter Fine Art

6 years ago

No, I don't think it matters, unless you are the sort of person who stands in the middle of the room repeatedly looking at the floor and then the ceiling...and then the floor...and then the ceiling.

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Comments (9)

palimpsest
6 years ago
I don't think it matters.
Sandy thanked palimpsest
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I think it depends, actually. In our living room the tongue and groove ceiling and the floor will run the same direction (floor not yet installed). Big room. On our original porch on older part of the house, as in most porches, the tongue and groove runs longways, the floor runs shortway, typical for an older home (though not always). Looking at your drawings, I would run them to the fireplace and I'm assuming that your ceiling is running the same direction. I can feel the movement/energy from top to bottom (fireplace to range), the other direction would feel static to me.
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worthy
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
If it bothers you, switch to parquet and it won't matter.
Parquet flooring to take your mind off everything else. (Including the nature of reality.)
PRO
Anglophilia
6 years ago
I thought the direction of the floor joists decided the direction in which a floor is laid. Is this no longer so?
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
6 years ago
"...I thought the direction of the floor joists decided the direction in which a floor is laid. Is this no longer so?..."

I guess it depends on the type of floor sheathing and thickness between the joist and the finish flooring. And whether the flooring is the type which is glued, attached or floating above the sheathing and membrane.
Ron Natalie
6 years ago
Traditional strip wood floors want to be laid PERPENDICULAR to the joints traditionally. If you want to lay them parallel, you're advised to beef up the subfloor with another sheet of plywood. With other finishes (engineered planks, laminate, etc...) it's less of an issue.

Actually, we have an inch and a half of lightweight concrete (gypcrete) poured over our subfloors to accommodate the radiant heating so the truss direction (no joints) is really entirely spurious.
PRO
Linda
6 years ago
I don't think that running the floor a different direction in the sunroom would look strange at all, especially given that you have a natural transition point in the french doors. The hardwood in my house changes direction between the living room and the rest of the house and the transition gives definition to the space. I would do the transition with a single board the width of the door jamb with the turned boards slotting into the groove in the threshold piece.

I happen to like the look of a turned board underneath a door where the two rooms aren't a continuing space, such as a bathroom door. My house also has a wood floor continuing from the living room into the sunroom (no door) and over 80+ years, the house has settled slightly and there is a slight slant to one board over the transition between basement and crawl space

If the subfloor construction is sufficient that direction isn't an issue, I would think the hardwood would go across the width of the room, perpendicular to the ceiling. But, that's just my opinion and worth what you paid for it!
Sandy
Original Author
6 years ago
I like that idea but my flooring guy thinks it should go the same direction as the great room floor even if the boards in the ceiling are different
Milly Rey
6 years ago
Not continuing the floor would look weird and make the sunroom look like a cheap addition.

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