The Flooring Expert

Q: I love your column. My husband and I are looking to re-floor our home. Neither of us are "Do It Yourself" people. We had two professional installers come to give us estimates. Man, they both had different suggestions for the transitions? How can that be? Here is what I'm working with: A large Living Room with a fire place, there is a little over a 4ft opening to the Dinning Room. There are French Doors going out to the patio. An open door way to the kitchen. Three bedroom doors and one guest bath from the hall.(the bath will not have wood), all of the other rooms will have wood. Also, what about in the bedrooms to the closets. Each bedroom has large wall in closets 5'x10'. All the baths, the kitchen and laundry room will have ceramic tile. I'm undecided about the foyer and sitting area at this time.

Thanks,
Donna and Dan

A: When it comes to suggestions the only thing I can say is every person has a different opinion of what looks “right.” I know my own ideas of what floor will look best in my home will differ from that of some of my co-workers.

Let's get to your question for transitions. I honestly prefer using a solid wood transition when installing a solid wood floors. The big thing here is getting a trim that will coordinate with your project. For instance, if your installing Oak flooring, pick up some unfinished oak trims from a local store and have your installer stain them to match your floor or find trims made by your floors manufacturer to coordinate with the floor. For your trims along the wall, you can paint or get coordinating trims (I personally prefer the natural look of wood for my trims), so choose what will look best to you.

As far as what transitions guidelines to follow, do what looks best. Use t-molds in areas where your floors are very similar in height, square nose or end caps when transitioning to carpet, thresholds at doors, etc.. Your transition to tile will be heavily dependent on the height difference of the tile to the wood. The reasoning behind this is to make the transitions from area to area look smooth and flowing. Depending on the look you want, you can also try to get a floor that flows from room to room with as little transition work as possible. For instance, for your closets have the floor flow smoothly from the room into the closet without a transition between the two areas.

An extra bit of info on trims comes from a member of iFLOOR.com's Sales team, Tammi. After reading this post she mentioned this to me:

The best trim to use is the trim suggested by the manufacturer - if they have it. If they don't - then I (like you) would get unfinished trim locally and stain to match.

• For flat to flat - T-molding
• Going down to another height - Reducer
• End cap/threshold for "butting up" to something like carpet, fireplace, sliding glass door

Q: We installed laminate flooring over old vinyl flooring in our kitchen and have run into a problem when trying to install the transition pieces (laminated wood transitions, no pre-drilled holes) between the laminate flooring in the kitchen to the carpet in the living room and reducers in front of the doorways. As our house is on a concrete slab the nails we bought bend when nailed in to the transition pieces. Our local hardware store suggested construction glue along the bottom tongue part of the transition piece - however that part does not sit low enough in the gap between laminate flooring and carpet to touch the bottom of the vinyl to allow to be glued down to anything. Can you glue or nail the transition strips to the laminate flooring or do you need to stay in the gap between flooring and carpet? We just want the easiest way to attain secure transition pieces without ugly nail heads showing. PLEASE help us!

Jamie H.

A: The first thing I would suggest is to check if your trim is one that is meant to be used in a track system. Most laminate trims nowadays are made so that you nail or glue (also called liquid nail) the track in place and then snap in trim into the track. Its somewhat common to get a track based trim without knowing you need the track as well when the tracks aren't included with the trim (few manufacturers include tracking with their trims).

This being said, you could glue the trim to the floor, but keep in mind these trims are meant to cover necessary expansion gaps and gluing something in place can effect this (although I don't think you would run into any issues as long as you keep your home well regulated throughout the year).

Make sure the glue you are using has a moisture seal built into it (most construction glues referred to as liquid nail will). Should the trim use a track, just pick up a track, glue it to your vinyl (you may need to rough the vinyl up slightly to help the glue form a good bond, then snap the trim in.

I would avoid nails in this case because of the concrete subfloor.

Q: There is lots of info on installing engineered floors, but how do I install the thresholds. I am installing br-111 and 3 in 1 underlayment over concrete that meets up with carpeting .What type of threshold do I use? How do I affix the threshold to the concrete sub-floor, glue or masonry screws??

Thanks!

Roy S.

A: When a wood floor meets up to carpet one of the best transitions to use is a square nose or end cap. In the case where you can't get a square nose or end cap that matches your floor, you can use a threshold. I know BR-111 has thresholds for their floors, but I am unsure if there is an end cap built for your specific floor.

To install the trim I would use a construction glue, such as Liquid Nails, to glue the transition to the subfloor. Just ensure your subfloor is clean and give the transition's glue time to cure.

Q: I am planning on installing laminate floors in my kitchen and have been doing a lot of research on how to perform the installation and the products involved. I want to say thank you to your web site as it has provided me with the most valuable information thus far.

Albert

A: As you might have seen in the installation videos Westhollow has put out, typically what you will do is use a pry bar to remove the molding along your walls (be careful if you wish to reuse them) then install the floor and reinstall them. So simply put - yes you can.

If you have a base molding of some form, then quarter round installed beyond that, I would suggest getting all the way to the wall where possible, but as long as you leave a proper expansion gap, cover it in anyway which looks best to you. Look at the molding currently on your wall and if it can be removed so you get all the way to the wall and do not have any molding in the way. In the end if you have a proper expansion gap from the molding, then cover with quarter round, you should be fine.

Q: We recently ordered an engineered hardwood floor (Appalachian) for our kitchen, living room, and hallway. Most of the installation should be straightforward; however, the kitchen is raised and will require stair nosing on both sides of the room. We are planning to do a floating installation ourselves. My concern is two-fold: first, I am sure the width of the room will not exactly match the width of two stair noses and an even number of planks, so where is the best place to adjust for that... a random row, a stair nose? Second, since we are doing a floating installation, the planks will be glued together in the tongue and groove. I'm not sure how to attach the second stair nose to the adjacent plank, as it will be groove facing groove, or possibly ripped edge facing groove (if that's how to shorten the width). I'm so confused! Thanks for the help.

-Katie

A: Appalachian's stair nosing comes in 6' 6" lengths so more than likely you will need to use multiple nosing on each side. As far as adjusting for it, it becomes a matter of opinion of what looks best to you. If it looks best to have the split between the two noses toward the middle of the room, try for that or align it in a way that looks best to you. Keep in mind that the nosings themselves are meant to be glued down to the subfloor, so account for this when you are preparing for your install. This may require you to shim the nosing up some to meet the floor's height accounting for your underlayment.

For the side of the floor where you will have groove to groove, this is actually pretty simple. All you will need is a spline (also called a slip tongue). This acts as a tongue which you will glue into place in both grooves to anchor the floor to the nosing. Just make sure you give the adhesive plenty of time to cure before putting any weight on the floor.

Q: I'm having laminate installed in my kitchen. Since there are several different transition areas, I want to order the transitional 4-in-one molding that will service all areas uniformly. Which of your moldings would be appropriate if you offer these, and can I choose a color?

Thank you.

A: Depending on who makes the laminate you installed, several manufacturers have matching trim for their floors. Most of the big manufacturers like Quick Step make a 4-in-1 mold for their floors, but keep in mind most of the time they will have one mold that matches 3-4 floors that are all very close to each other in color.

Now in the case where there is not a molding made specifically for your floor, you can try to shop around to find floors very similar in color and test out their 4-in-1 moldings. For instance, if you have a Red Oak laminate made by brand X, find a red oak from Quick Step that is very similar in color and shade and try using the transition made for that floor.

Otherwise you can look into generic trims made by folks like IF Moldings to coordinate with your floor.

Q: I've bought the material to install 3/4" Bruce pre-finished hardwood. I'll install it against the front door, looks like the door threshold will be level with the hardwood How can I install the hardwood floor at this location? Also the hardwood will be in the hallways, what is the best way to transition into the bedrooms since I need to cut the door casing and jambs and the bedrooms for they now will have carpet?

Thank you,
Guillermo

A: We'll start with your threshold question. What you will most likely have to do here is raise the threshold up some. If the floor sits too level with the threshold, the door opening and closing will wear on your floor's finish. As you get closer to the door, you will want to have a header of some form (a board running parallel to the threshold) which is primarily under the threshold. Remove the current threshold and block up a new one if you can't reuse the current one. You will need to then undercut your door (this cut should be done at a 12 degree angle). You will want to raise the threshold up so you have a small gap between it and the floor (most likely you will need to raise it about 1/4" depending on how flush it sits with the current threshold). Just shim the area of the door up and then install the threshold and install your floor. Remember, measure twice, cut once.

For your hallways, typically you will use an end cap or threshold when transitioning to carpet (unless you are transitioning to the really flat commercial carpet found in most office buildings, then you would use a reducer). You will still need to undercut the jambs of the door to ensure the wood floor has a proper expansion gap. Typically you will have the end of the transition roughly at the center of the door, though adjust it to fit your personal preference. Again, measure twice, cut once and you should have a project to be proud of.

Q: When installing laminate flooring across rooms, are transitions necessary? For instance, if both a bedroom and the hallway will be the same laminate floor, is a transition at the bedroom doorway required or can the flooring flow smoothly together from bedroom to hallway?

Thanks.

A: The quick answer here is "no." Transitions are not required when running the same flooring smoothly through multiple rooms. Keep in mind that if you choose not to use transitions you must still leave proper expansion gaps along the entire edge of the floor, which includes door ways. If you do not leave a full expansion gap in the door ways it is very likely that you will encountering bowing around the doors as the floor expands and lifts without a gap to move through.

The easy way to incorporate this gap while maintaining a professional look would be to undercut the door jambs so that the gaps are underneath the jamb and moldings for the walls.

Q: We have just installed 3/4” Capella engineered pecan plank flooring and now we are doing the trim and molding. We have a couple of open doorways where the hardwood floor meets a tile floor about 1/4” lower. How can we transition the base molding and base shoe between the two floors over what amounts to a 6” wall? Angling the base molding across the transition seems like it will make the area look like a poor finish, and there still will be the problem of the base shoe not meeting up.

Thank you,
Gary

I followed up with Gary to get a few photos to get a better idea of the precise trim and situations he is working with here.

Follow-Up: Thank you for getting back to me. I moved ahead on two of the problems and I think the issues turned out reasonably well. At least my wife seems satisfied. [flooring 71.jpg] shows the final T molding transition from ¾” flooring to the tile which was about 3/16” low on one end and 1/16” on the other. [flooring 069.jpg] shows more detail on the “high” side. I ripped down a long wedge piece of scrap flooring to match the 1/16” to 3/16” gap over a 30” span. A little nerve wracking cutting a long thin piece. I also had to make a one time use angle jig for my table saw to get the shim taper correct. Finally, I sanded down the shim to the ½” width to fit under the T molding. This photo only shows the high end of the T molding transition at the greatest height in the photo. The photo actually brings out all the imnperfections, you don’t really notice the joint as easily from a normal position.

Here is the [flooring 71.jpg] photo Greg refers to above.


Here we have [flooring 069.jpg] where you can see the base shoe and the other side of the t-mold.

The photo above also shows my solution to the base and base shoe trim problem. I realize now I should have given more detail on the base and base shoe. The base is 3” x ½” standard pine primed base, and the base shoe is ¾” by ½” primed base shoe. I used a Dremel drum sander bit to knock off the edges and match the “high side” base to the “lower side” base. I am hoping once I fill the nail holes, fill the shim line and paint, the drop will hardly be noticeable. From a standing position it does not seem to draw the eye to any flaws. Nevertheless, I would very much appreciate your suggestions.

The third problem concerning the >1” difference between floors is stickier and I have not figured out anything at this point. The lack of three dimensions make the photo a bit hard to interpret. The gap between the rooms was intentionally left fairly wide because I felt reasonable sure I was not going to end with a sharp drop off solution. [FR transition 2.jpg] and [Family Rm floor transition 1.jpg] show one case where the floor drops through the doorway to a Pergo floor. [FR transition 2.jpg] is an attempt to show a little better the 3D character of the problem from one side. The arrangement is concrete, vapor barrier (blue), floating sub floor consisting of 2 layers of 3/8” staggered plywood sheets, glued and screwed together, rosin paper, and finally the ¾” flooring. The engineered floor is nailed with 1 ½” T nails and 1 3/16” T nails for face nailing. [FR Bath Transition 1.jpg] is a second case where the hardwood floor drops off to vinyl flooring, but the problem is pretty much the same.

Here you can see the transition for [Family Rm floor transition 1.jpg]. Notice that the doorway's frame is already undercut in anticipation of an angular transition.

Here is [FR transition 2.jpg] that Gary mentions. You can see a fairly big drop off to the pergo and the corner of a door, which can be a major problem when planning such a change in floor heights.

Here we see [FR Bath Transition 1.jpg] where the Capella floor is dropping down to vinyl. Again notice the frame of the doorway has been cut in preparation, but we will have to deal with a door for the bathroom.

I would greatly appreciate any solutions and advice you can offer on dealing with these transitions problems. I suppose you might be wondering why I would create such a large drop in the first place. I preferred to not have to deal with power nailing into concrete and I was concerned about the mess with gluing the floor directly to the concrete. Pneumatic nailing was the more straightforward approach, even though I did realize that I was going to have to deal with a high to low floor problem.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

A: Thanks for the photos, as they say a picture says 1000 words. Your shim work on the t-mold looks good and I agree that unless someone goes down to floor level to inspect, it should be practically invisible to the eye. I also agree with the approach you have taken for your base mold. When it comes to corners, it can be difficult to get a good look, but with a bit of patience and some paint your base mold should look good.

Let’s dig into your problem with the big drop in floor heights. The problematic areas will be where you have doors. Typically for a dip like this I would suggest using a stair nosing. Think of this similar to the lip of a sunk in living room or raised kitchen areas. To cover the short hop, treat it much like a stair and install the proper nosing (stair or bull nose). This is your best molding solution for this type of drop. Luckily Capella makes flush stair nosings to match their floors.

Now there are two potential problems here. First off, although this is the best molding solution it is not necessarily a smooth transition as you will have the rounded portion of the nosing which will have an appearance similar to the lip of stair. This is less of a problem, but more of a matter of taste. The second issue is in areas with doors. Depending on how the nosing would sit and how the door swings, you may run into an issue of fitting the nosing in. Based on the pictures you have sent, it appears any doors will swing into the rooms that are previously floored, which means they will swing away from the nosing – which is a huge help to the case here. I whipped up a quick sketch to illustrate how the nosing should sit and how it will cover as a transition. You will notice in the sketch that there is a lip to these nosings which will drop down to cover a portion of your plywood substrate. Now assuming the door comes up to the end of the nosing (give a small gap just to be save) you should be able to keep a very good looking transition as the doorway itself will help to break up the appearance.

If this is not an aesthetically pleasing solution, the you will have to look into a custom molding solution, either via building a piece with some careful work on your own behalf or by finding a local molding house that creates custom moldings. In the end, the easy solution here will be using a stair nose. Doors can be an issue, and you will need to decide whether the door comes up flush to the nosing if it swings away from the molding, or to undercut or raise the door in order to account for the difference in height. Luckily from what I can see, it appears your doors should swing away from the nosing, so this project can be completed with a simple nosing install allowing room for the door’s movement.

Q: I have recently had laminate flooring installed on my stairs but I must say I think something is wrong. The stair nose is not flush with the tread and it is extremely uncomfortable to walk on not to mention it looks terrible. The nose piece overlaps the tread and stands much higher than the tread. Is this standard procedure for stairs or has the installer done something wrong?

A: With laminate floors an overlapping stair nose is very common as very few flooring manufacturer’s build a flush stair nose for laminate. Although these noses overlap the difference in height is very little (usually 1/16” or so). If the difference is height is much more than this, it could be improperly installed or perhaps the wrong nosing for your particular floor.

The difference in height between the nosing and the tread is pretty important here. Most overlaps have a very slight difference which should not be overly noticed when walking over, but large differences could lead to potential trouble.

Q: My kitchen has 1940's tile that goes from the floor to 1/2 way up my walls. I have been searching for flooring options and was wondering about either laminate or engineered wood products. My concern is the 1/4 molding that needs to be installed around the perimeter of the room to allow for expansion of the floor product. I'm not sure if drilling holes in the tile would solve the problem or not. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I have been looking for something to match my kitchen for years and finally found two options on ifloor's website. One is a wood laminate and the other is engineered prefinished wood.

Thanks so much,
Cheryl R.

A: Your best bet here would be to glue your trim in place using a construction mastic adhesive. For the first 24 hours, use some tape to hold the trim to the wall while the adhesive cures just to ensure they remain in place and the adhesive is given proper time to cure.

Beyond your trim a quick tip I have for your installation would be to ensure your subfloor is as flat as possible, which will mean you most likely need to use a leveling compound to fill grout lines.

Q: I am installing a tile floor directly onto slab that is going to but up against a 3/4" hardwood floor. I don't want to incur the costs of adding a 1/4" backerboard just to build up the tile floor when it isn't necessary for the install. Without putting in an ugly reducer how can I make the transition level?

Thank you

A: The task you have here is somewhat difficult. Typically for such a large difference in height you should be using a reducer, coordinating to the previous wood floor, as this gives the cleanest look. With your dislike of the look of reducers and not wanting to add additional cost to your project with backer boards, you limit your options some.

My best suggestion would be to either custom make a transition from an unfinished product or to use a threshold. The threshold may be your best bet for simplicity as this will account for a difference in height and with some careful color coordination work it can look as if it were originally apart of the existing floor.

Q: What kind of transitions would you recommend between cork flooring and marble flooring (part of a fireplace)? How about cork flooring and tile flooring?

Many thanks - love the website,
Ed

A: Transition choice will be heavily dependent on the difference in height between your cork and the tile or marble surface. If these are very similar height, differences of about 1/8" or less, then your best bet would be a t-mold. If this difference is larger, then you can look into either a threshold, which will slightly slope down before squaring off or for something like going to cork to vinyl (large difference in height) look into using a reducer.

More than likely you will be using a t-mold as finished marble and tile ends up in similar heights to engineered floating cork flooring.

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: I have an area of transition from the hardwood I am installing over to a tile floor where the span is longer than 1 piece of T Molding.

What is the best way to make the cuts and join these 2 T Moldings together so that they won't shift from each other at the joining seam ?

Jeff

A: If you happen to be using a track based molding you should have little to no issue with movement in the t-mold itself. If you want to be extra careful with a track mold, cut your track some to build a track which area which will bridge between the two moldings to ensure they remain in place, but truly this should not be necessary if you install the trim well. If you will be gluing the molding into place without a track, then its just a matter of ensuring the adhesive is given plenty of time to cure so the trims will remain in place.

Q: We have a client using konecto and want to know what transition should we use going to a sealed concrete floor?

Eva

A: Since you will be going down to a lower height surface, your best bet here is to use a reducer strip. You might want to look into a rubber or metal reducer such as those made by Schluter or Johnsonite. If you want something with a wood grain, you can look into a unfinished wood mold and stain it to match the Konecto coloring.

I personally would prefer to go the route of a rubber transition, as this allows for some flexibility and no worries with moisture, much like Konecto's water proof benefits.