Extending hardwood in open concept space
This is annoyingly difficult to Google--and equally annoying to describe, so bear with me as I try to explain:
We are moving into my father's home, which was built in 1995. The first floor is entirely open concept. The dining room, kitchen, and kitchenette area are 3/4 inch oak hardwood stained "natural". Then there's a weird angled transition between the kitchenette and the living areas, which are wall to wall carpet. See photos to make sense of this.
We contacted the company which originally installed the hardwood when we built this house 25 years ago, and they came today to give us an estimate. Their recommendation: keep the transition "line"--the piece of wood perpendicular to the flow of the hardwood--and then add the same hardwood in the living areas.
Again, see photos to make sense of this.
What I wanted was to have the existing floors sanded down, the new hardwood woven in, and all of it matching. Said company--a non-budget, totally reliable company--seems to think this will be too expensive but has agreed to give me a quote on both options. But the initial suggestion was to keep the transition.
My husband thinks this will look stupid, and I kind of agree with him. He's at a place of "fine, we will just get new, better carpet then because paying for hardwood if it does not all flow is stupid".
Has anyone extended hardwood in the way that is being suggested here--keeping the transition? Note that we can't change the direction of the hardwood because of how the space flows; that would make little sense.
Note: the existing floors are in AMAZING condition because my dad has lived there alone for 20 years. Also please note I'm renovating everything; I get that the house is stuck in the 90s.
Comments (16)
Danielle Frenette
4 years agoRelated Discussions
don't want to cover up open concept kitchen hardwood floor with island
Comments (7)Please post some pics, there are many ways to install a kitchen that virtually disappears when not in use but you need to be one of those people who IMO never cooks. Islands actually are a perfect way of visully marking spaces and do nothing to break up the sense of openess . If you do not want to damage the floors with an island get one that is not actually attached to the floor at all just like a 36” high table that can be moved.Keep in mind this will probably put dents in the floor just from the weight if it is not a table....See MoreTransitioning from hardwood to tile in an open floor plan
Comments (11)Thank you so much for all of the advice! I think the consensus is to go with all hardwood throughout, even into the kitchen. I agree that this is the best look for the floor plan. My husband was just afraid of the maintenance in the kitchen area. Last year (in all my pregnancy-brain glory), I left the freezer door slightly open overnight (it was closed enough to where you could barely tell and the open-door beep alarm didn’t go off but it was open enough that the door seal didn’t engage) and the ice from the door melted onto the surrounding hardwood in front of the fridge. So other than not repeating that mistake and just being more careful in general with wiping up water from spills and such, are there any tips for helping to care for the solid hardwood floor in the kitchen area? I have read to go with light or medium stains instead of darker stains. Will going with a more matte finish over a glossier sheen make a difference in making the wood last longer or look better in that area? Would it be better protection if the wood was installed then finished on site or would the pre-finished flooring have more moisture protection?...See MoreHelp! Hardwood flooring not aligning in open concept home.
Comments (11)Exactly. I agree . In my prior comment, the walls are actually pretty square. We measured it in front of him and he also measured. This should not result in a difference of inches on the other side of the room. In my last comment about the rows, I did not measure from wall. I measured from his first row to his last. Which like I sd, we all agreed the walls were fairly even and square. So it’s hard for me to understand how a fairly straight room became off by inches and why there are no expansion gaps on one side of the room to a 3/4in gap. Anyways, he finally admitted to not measuring anything when we asked to see and hear his process/explanation for laying down the floors. All he did was decided to start at the left corner of patio door and that was it. Why he choose the shortest wall in my house to start with patio doors and a fireplace in the center?? Idk. He didn’t have explanation. He blamed my walls for not being squared but how did he know if he never measured? He only measured when my husband and I did it in front of him. He did nothing to ensure his line was straight. No chalk line, no markings, laser, nothing. He said, he’s never had to measure his first row to make sure it’s straight. He also said open concept homes can’t have wood floors that align and flow into other rooms. That you’d have to make rip cuts and lay down transition strips between spaces. I’m sorry, I’m not an expert but I know that statement is untrue. You can flow flooring into other rooms regardless if it’s open space or not. Well an update is we let him go. Our issue still stands. The floors as they enter the other rooms do not match up. At this point, it looks like ripping up the floors the only option. This time, will start in our hallway since that’s our longest wall and it connects all the rooms. Will use splines to switch directions and should there be cuts, it’ll be by the walls and not dead smack in the middle of my floors like it would be now....See MoreNew build flooring dilemma - LVP vs engineered hardwood
Comments (6)@John Creek do you have any installation photo of the Regretta? I'm actually thinking of intalling the Hallmark Leeward Regretta in our kitchen and then the Hallmark Organic 567 in Gunpowder in the rest of the house. The colors and look are almost identical (I have sample boards of each), although the texture is a little different since the Organic 567 has more scrapes and texture. But the Regretta being waterproof, seemed a better fit in our kitchen. The living room is a step down, so the transition is not a big deal in there, but we do have to other rooms (dining and office) that I would like to keep the Oragancic 567 as well, but it flows into the kitchen via a doorway, so I might just keep it all the Regretta, even though I love the look of the Orangic 567. The 567 will go up the stairs as well (off the dining room). I'd love to see photos of the Regretta in a real house. There are very few photos out there. Post some if you have any. Any info would be helpful. Thanks!...See More
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4 years agolatifolia
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PROKermans Flooring
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4 years agoI'm reporting back with an after photo for anyone with this same question in the future. We chose wisely by spending the $1500 to have it woven in. It is better than I could have hoped for.
Apologies that these photos are from a different angle than the original photos--I can't walk on the floors yet so I was kind of hanging out of the dining room when snapping this photo. Also obviously the trim is not back yet.
latifolia
4 years agocalidesign
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