What direction should wood floor go

[llaran]

All the floors i have seen are laid from front of the house to back. Seems to me that gives a tunnel effect. Has anyone had the flooring laid from side to side??

[notsoonenough]

I am an architect and have designed homes for about 30 years and the standard is to lay the wood the long way. That is to say the longest run of planks. If it is laid the shortest distance then the room looks sort of chopped up.

[KathieI]

I had all my floors in my Lantana changed to wood because it easier to keep clean and my allergies like wood better.

The bedrooms were easy to plan out as far as the direction of the wood, but the large living room and dining room were the problem. I didn't want the first impression upon walking into the house to look like a dance floor, so I designed the wood in the living room area to be in the short way so that they would feed correctly into the master bedroom entry. Then in the dining room, I outlined it in a 3 plank outline and within that area, the planks are laid diagonally, distinguishing it from the living room.

I had to do a lot of convincing to the installer to do it for me and it was quite a challenge, but I must admit, I am extremely pleased with the outcome. Just a thought because I had the same concern as you do, llaran....

[dfn8tly]

In my last two houses I had my hardwood floors set at an angle. This is particularly effective if you already have a diagonal such as a step down or an island bar. It costs a little more because their is slightly more waste material. The installer will try to tell you it's more time consuming. It's really not - - - if he can snap a straight line and put the first board down properly everything else works off of that. I found this diagonal pattern very attractive and unexpected when people come to visit.

[zcaveman]

I know we are talking laminate or wood over concrete, but I always thought the wood floor went opposite the joists under the flooring. In NJ, my joists went from the front to the back of the house so my wood flooring went from side to side. Which is the way LLaran wants to go. Or am I missing something?

[TrudyM]

If you are not on slab you go 90 degrees to the stringers. The floor guys will tell you it doesn't matter, but IMHO it does. We have found in our many moves that older houses laid in the same direction as the stringers tend to squeek with age more than those laid at right angles.

The bonus of diagional is all cuts at the wall are along the width of the goods no ripping long strips to get that 1" bit at the last wall. If the installer only had a 90 degree chop saw instead of one that does 45 degree cuts he's not very good anyway.

Another that works and looks great but you will have a hard time finding an installer to do it is log cabin. I had a dining room with a step down to the living room in a house I owned in the 90's. The room was really out of square. We did a large square in one color in the middle set like a diamond and then went around it with log cabin pattern (some call it pinwheel). That is the tounges facing out. First row starts at the right edge of side A of the square and runs to the wall and must be secured really well. It is started with just the tounge sticking out past the corner . Second row is against the next side of the square going counter clockwise with the end tounge fitting nicely into the groove of the first row. Then next side counterclockwise and when you get to the 4th side the groove will slide into the tounges of the first side.
This requires no extra cutting as only one cut at each wall. I found the added work comes in sorting through the piles of flooring (in radom length flooring) to find a piece that is aboout the length of what you need for the last piece at the walls. You can't use the piece you cut off from the end of one row to start the next as all the start pieces need a tounge on the end. So if same length flooring more waste especially.

[Pturner]

I had all my floors in my Lantana changed to wood because it easier to keep clean and my allergies like wood better.

The bedrooms were easy to plan out as far as the direction of the wood, but the large living room and dining room were the problem. I didn't want the first impression upon walking into the house to look like a dance floor, so I designed the wood in the living room area to be in the short way so that they would feed correctly into the master bedroom entry. Then in the dining room, I outlined it in a 3 plank outline and within that area, the planks are laid diagonally, distinguishing it from the living room.

I had to do a lot of convincing to the installer to do it for me and it was quite a challenge, but I must admit, I am extremely pleased with the outcome. Just a thought because I had the same concern as you do, llaran....


I'm shocked, KathieI. I thought you considered every room a dance floor!

:wave:

[Ooper]

I would go with a herring bone pattern... get the best of both worlds!

[swrinfla]

Strange! It never occurred to me to have my hardwood laid any other way than perpendicular to where you enter the front door. I so specified when ordering what I wanted done and not a soul tried to persuade me otherwise.

Maybe it's because in my house in St. Louis (where I lived some 42 years) that's the way the wood was laid down.

Whatever, I am mightily pleased with my floors, and guests usually comment favorably!

SWR
:beer3:

[golf2140]

Smooth side up:a040: