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.

There are several things that must be considered. I like to use the concept of MOST amount of flooring that follows the general rule. If you have a single room (lets say 10' x 10' = 100sf) and then the REST of the space is much, much larger (say 600sf), you would want to try to keep the MAJORITY of the flooring (600sf) sticking to the rule of "longest length = long run of the room". The other question with hardwood becomes wooden subfloors. Sigh. Wooden subfloors over joists change the equation. Hardwood floors must be run perpendicular to the joists - no matter how big/small the rooms are. So...without knowing your set-up, without knowing your subfloor, without knowing the direction of sunlight, without knowing very much of anything about your situation...the majority of the home should follow the rule of thumb. Unless other factors contribute to changing this. Which I can't tell because there isn't enough information. And just for fun...diagonal is always an option = 15% waste and a more expensive labour bill.

By the sound of it you personally are installing said floor... ever done it before? At least do a practice run and DO decide on the optimal length of the boards. It’s essential to the process to plan ahead and have a VERY good mitre saw. I jumped in to the deep and and I did my first floor ever in HB. Needles to say it did involve taking a crowbar to a few duds before getting it right. ...And know the centre of your room. I decided on a “carpet” of HB with straight run planks bordering the perimeter. But do listen to SW... doing it all in this method will be overkill, especially in what appears to be a very small apartment or house based on the floor plan. And which way do your joists run? Never lay flooring parallel to a joist unless you’ve added an extra layer of ply as an additional subfloor (its code my friend). So lay the floor across the joist as much as possible. AND get a moisture meter. If the floor is not properly acclimated you will have “shrinkage”. Not a good thing.

We mostly have slabs here so joists aren’t a consideration. My instinct is to run left to right in the Pic, so you’re gping parallel to the longest wall in each room. The entry then doesn’t flow the rules, but if especially If you’re going to have a rug there, it won’t really matter too much. Then I was thinking about yoir layout and realized my sister has a similar plan, with open plan Kitchen/family room at the back of the house and had run the flooring side to side as well. And Im finding image after image that does the same.