Which way should we run the flooring???

Michael Goss

6 years ago

Here is our plan. What is the best direction to lay wood flooring and long tiles in the bathrooms and mud room?

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Comments (3)

SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
First things first. Is this a wood joist construction or is this over a concrete slab? Believe it or not, this is a VERY important bit of info.
Michael Goss
Original Author
6 years ago
Oh! Good to know. Wood joist
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Thanks. I know that was a little confusing. I'd post a photo of the layout but the photos are on a computer that is inaccessible right now. Anyway, it sounds like you are both recommending laying the floors in the same direction as existing ones(was my instinct, too) despite the thresholds - the opposite of what the builder wants to do. My Q about the island was really whether or not it's preferable to have wood planks go parallel to the island. The fireplace is opposite the kitchen (hood and fireplace face each other at end of a "great room". and the island is between the two. Wood can either be parallel to the island or to the length of the room leading to fireplace, but not both. Doing the latter also runs the floors the same way as existing. Hope that clarifies somewhat! The thresholds are to adjust for a 3/4" or so difference in floor height. busybme, Good question as to what material we are using. Existing floors are prefinished hardwood, but addition needs to be an engineered product, since it's on a slab. Complicating things are that my existing floors(Mirage) are an unusual width and set of lengths and I really want to match the look. The existing floors also have a microbevel, something i'm not sure I want in a kitchen. I hear it's hard to match old prefinished to new, since the colors will be off after a few years. The answer seems to be to put in site finished engineered floors and stain both floors to match. Still not sure what to do about matching the planks for size and bevel, though.
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Thank you for all the input, everyone! I am a bit nervous about using Marmoleum; I think I ended up choosing it as my default after ruling out nearly everything else. (tile=too hard; sheet vinyl=I'm sick of it and want something new; wood=will make the adjacent wood flooring look in even more need of refinishing, haha, and given the two entrances from garage and deck right into kitchen, we are hard on flooring; and click-type flooring=me being worried about spills and drips from my messy bearded dog.) Thanks so much to those of you who posted pictures, and it looks like the Marmoleum was installed prior to, and runs under, the cabinetry for those folks getting new cabinets. It does sound like the seam will end up running lengthwise and that way, we will just have one seam rather than several. No matter where the seams end up, they will see/feel traffic so I will mention that concern to the flooring store. Senator, how does your Caribbean color "read" to you? Is your overall impression a warm tannish, do you really notice the blue/gray? Thanks!
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The only time to violate the unwritten rule of running wood flooring with the length of a room might be if a majority of doors and windows were located on the long walls. Although the book says to run flooring perpendicular to the underlying joists, I have violated that rule many times with no adverse effects. Run it the way it looks best to you with the foreknowledge that you may be running it with the joist direction and possibly creating an unorthodox and potentially troublesome install.
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We began to lay the flooring in our upstairs master bedroom but we are thinking we may have laid it in the wrong direction. We are struggling because we have a hallway at the top of the stairs so we were trying to align it with that but the vertical direction only seems to make sense in the hallway. For our bedroom it is going againest the longest wall if we have it go this way. We plan on doing all of the floor upstairs. Which way should we run the floors? Our hallway is fairly wide (4 and a half ft). If we ran the flooring the parrell with the longest wall in all the bedrooms would it look odd to have the flooring run horizontal in the hallway?
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SJ McCarthy
6 years ago
Excellent. You MUST run the wood floor perpendicular to the JOISTS. You have NO CHOICE. Perpendicular simply means the wood plank will run across the joist.

And now you have to have someone assess the DEFLECTION RATING of the wood/joist system and it's ability to accept tile. Tile deflection ratings are VERY specific. If your subfloor is too thin or the joists too far apart then tile installs become complicated. You need a STIFF subfloor to accept tile. Tile is SUPER heavy and it does NOT like "movement" from a flimsy construction subfloor.

That being said and we ASSUME you have a STIFF enough subfloor, it is no big deal to throw down tile. The wood install can be altered IF you add MORE thickness to the subfloor. If you add another 3/4" of plywood to what is already there, you can go in any direction you choose. That's expensive but it is how we get around the "joist" direction problem.

The *other way around the joist direction problem is a DIAGONAL installation of the wood. That gets very expensive for two reasons:
1. You need MUCH MORE wood floor waste (15% - 25% waste for diagonal install; compare that to 5% waste for a traditional install)
2. Labor costs are MUCH more to lay diagonally. There are a tremendous amount of cuts which means the installer could need DOUBLE the time.

And time is money. Some of these guys charge $50/hour. If you DOUBLE the TIME you DOUBLE the labor costs.

Personally I believe laying another layer of plywood is a better/cheaper/faster option if you MUST change the direction of the wood.

Again...the traditional/required install is perpendicular to the joists. Everything else becomes a personal choice...with personal financing required.

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Which way should we run the flooring???

Comments (3)

SJ McCarthy

Michael Goss
Original Author

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Which way should we run the flooring???

Comments (3)

SJ McCarthy

Michael GossOriginal Author

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SJ McCarthy

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Michael Goss
Original Author