The Flooring Expert

Q: I'm going to install Mannington Caspian 5" LocNgo and I have a problem with the hallway. One side of the hall is wall, the other meets the molding to the railing overlooking stairs. The easiest solution would be to lay a board flush with the molding and the milled straight edge should look fine against the molding. By doing so however, a 1 inch strip of floor will be required on the wall end. I think 1 inch is too small. I don't want to rip the plank that hits the stair molding because I don't think the cut will be straight enough. The floor and banister molding are the same height. Do you have any ideas? Is there some molding that I could put between the railing molding and the floor that isn't as wide as a T-molding or end cap?

Thank you for any advice.
KC

I did some quick follow-up in order to get a couple of photos of the hallway and stair. Here's what KC sent along:

Attached are 2 pictures. The width of the wood where the balusters are inserted is 6 inches.

I've thought of another idea which would mean replacing that piece of wood with 5.25 landing tread that would go all the way across. That would take care of the step down to the stair as well, but entail a lot of work with the railing. I should also mention that the hallway width at the newel is 37 inches and at the wall end of the rail is 36 inches.

Here you can see the hallway and the board KC mentions.

Here you can see the Newel and the stair.

A: Assuming you are willing to put in the work, replacing the board below the posts will be the most professional appearance. Now as far as a molding solution, even baby thresholds or end caps are still going to be about 2" wide.

A way to get some extra room would be to under cut the base mold and dry wall area along the walls for your expansion gaps. This will allow the flooring itself to slide underneath, look professional and give you a few extra inches of room so you can rip a wider plank than 1". If you were to use a baby threshold or end cap before the board under your posts, leaving a small expansion gap under the trim if its overlapping, then you would have about a 3" or slightly wider board to rip to go against your wall, which would be more than enough. I do agree with your suspicions that a 1" wide plank is not a good idea, simply put, its not stable.

End result here, if you are willing to put in the word to use a tread, that will be your best result. Undercut your base molding and drywall to get just a bit more expansion room and you should be set. Otherwise, keep with the undercutting and use an appropriate trim along the board under the posts and up to the newel.

Q: I am expanding my kitchen and some part of the expansion will be over an open area underneath; therefore, I want to put in a heated floor, preferably electrical. I like the look of cork or bamboo floating floors. Can I put a heated system under these products?Gloria, Silver Springs, MD
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Q: I have 2 dogs 10,13,yrs. So i have to plan for accidents.my mother had gym finish on her floor, does any hardwood come with a protective finish or should i go for another type flooring? I've been told tile is out because the urine would stain the grout. I 'm on s.s. so cost is a major consideration. Thanks, Jan
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Q: My contractor wants to use tongue and groove pine flooring on the deck. The deck doesn't have a slope. Will there be enough space for the wood to move in the South African weather conditions. ( Winter -5 degrees Celsius and summer 35 degrees Celsius and a fair amount of rain in summer.) Shouldn't he rather be using deck wood made of pine or Rhodesian Teak? Please help? Kind regards. Elma
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Q: Can you use wood flooring in the bathroom, which get very wet with children? Thank you - Nancy
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Q: We have laminate over the majority of our upstairs and in some rooms it connects to ceramic tile and the laminate piece in between the two types of floors will not stay glued down. It's very unattractive when it comes up and it traps lots of dirt and other junk under it from being unglued. What type of glue would you suggest we use to glue this piece down so it will stay? Thank you.

Robin

A: Your best bet here would be to replace the current molding with a track-based mold. This way, the track is anchored to the subfloor using liquid nails, then the molding itself simply snaps into the tracking. This means there will be less need for the adhesive itself to adhere the molding to the two floor surfaces, but rather it is firmly anchored to the subfloor and the trim should sit nicely into the track, allowing just enough room for the tile and laminate to slide underneath.

Depending on who makes your floor, part of your problem may be that the trim you have is meant for a track, but a track was not included with your trim when you purchased it. Its more common than you might think as so many trims are never specific as to whether they are built for a track system or not, and those that are so rarely come packaged with the track, but rather have it separately packaged.

If this is not a route you want to go, then you can try to track down some D-815 adhesive, typically used for carpet tack strips and rubber moldings, then clean out the current area for your trim, apply the new adhesive and trim and give it time to cure before walking over it. D-815 can be somewhat tricky to track down, but its one of your better bets.

Q: We currently have a raised wood deck off our living space, and we are wanting to have stone laid on top of the wood. I have heard about floating tiles that can be placed over a deck. Are we able to put tile on top of our existing deck, and if so, do you know what product we should be looking for? Thanks so much for your assistance!

Michelle

A: The short answer is "yes," but lets go over some details about what tile to use and certain precautions to take. First off, make sure that your deck will be able to support the additional weight from all the tile, while still being able to handle foot traffic and potential furniture. Second, when looking at tile, make sure you are looking into a tile that is approved for outdoors. It may also be necessary to create a plywood substrate over your deck if you have gaps which are too great for the product you intend to install, check with your tile's manufacturer to make sure.

There are lots of outdoor tile and patterned concrete which can give you many great looks while being built for the great outdoors. When doing your installation, make sure you leave proper grout lines as suggested by the manufacturers. Many outdoor tiles for patios and such suggest 3/8" grout lines between tiles to help give the stone more room and move as the weather changes.

Q: I am interested in purchasing some engineered flooring. I have installed engineered flooring before that could be glued or stapled down. I chose to staple the flooring down. I see on the website some of the engineered floors must be glued down and cannot be stapled. What is the reason for this?

Thanks,
Jon

A: A majority of engineered floors can be both stapled and glued down, but in some cases manufacturers will not approve a floor for stapling and its only suitable installation method is to glue. The primary reason tends to be floor thickness. You'll notice most flooring which is only suited for glue-down installation is 5/16" and this tends to be a risky floor for staples as they are too likely to blow through the tongue.

This also tends to be the case with parquet floors, where they are only approved for a glue down installation. If you would prefer to staple-down your engineered floor, look for one that is a bit thicker. You can also look into some of the click-together floating engineered hardwood floors out there rather than looking into a glue down floor.

Q: I had Bruce hardwood floors installed in my retirement home. Weeks later, holes and cracks and everything else started happening to my floor. Called in licensed floor inspector that says it must come up, poor quality and poor installation. Since I can't afford to have this taken up and more wood put down, could I use another type floor (like the floating floor) on top of this just to make it look better and if so, would that last a while? Thanks.

A: If your floor is in as bad a shape as your are describing you should not install anything over this floor and expect it to succeed. This type of damage makes a completely unsuitable substrate for a floor.

Based on your inspector's report, you should pursue your installer and have him remove and replace the floor. This is due to installer fault, which means the warranty would also be voided. The installer should, at the very least, remove the floor and prepare your subfloor for new flooring; however, the installer should also replace the flooring, because its condition is due to installer error according to the inspector.

Q: Hi good morning, we have a concrete floor in our walkout basement we are putting in an apartment I would love to have hardwood flooring we have radiant heat under the concrete please advise what wood and also at a reasonable price. Sq FT is 850.

Thanks,
Marie

A: Your best bet here is to look into an engineered hardwood floor which is suitable for radiant heat, which most are. Your best bet is to look into some of the higher quality ones which have better built substrates, as this will be far better suited to radiant heat. Good choices here are Saso, Bellefloor, Sun Paratech, Westhollow and Kahrs. If you can float the floor, Saso or Kahrs being great here, this will be your best option, but ensure it is installed over a dense underlayment such as cork or sound 6. You can do glue-down, but many floors have very strict requirements for doing a glue-down floor over radiant heat, but not impossible.

Another good option here would be to look into laminate or cork. Both are suitable for radiant heat and in the case of cork, I would suggest using the floating cork floors over glue-down.

If you want to go for the best bang for your buck, look into Saso for engineered hardwood, Westhollow for Cork, and for Laminate try Quick Step, Pergo or Westhollow.