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On Mar 23, 10:33 pm, "MiamiCuse" wrote:

How can I do random length if it is tongue and groove? If I cut one
end
that end has to be against the wall and no way it will lock into the
next
plank, right? or is there a trick?

It is not a simple question. I believe there is no way one can take a
72" long floor plank and cut it into random lengths and use them if thse
planks are tongue and groove on all four edges. Someone suggested
cutting them but I cannot visualize how this could work.

MC

I went to the LL website to look at the floor, and I am not sure you
were clear until asking about the tongue and groove question as to
what you were after. I am not sure the other guys are either. If I
am reading your question right, it has as much to do with installing
the long planks correctly as it does maintaining a pattern of a nice
looking floor.

I THINK this material has T&G all four sides, and at only 5/8" thick,
I
sure hope so. I am basing this reply on that. You may need to dummy
up a couple of model pieces to help you see the tongue and groove on
the ends of our "pieces" to see how this would work. Here goes:

Imagine your 12' wide room. We are only concerned with the edges,
here for purposes of orientation. Put your piece of flooring (a full
plank) in the middle of the floor with the tongue on the left, and the
groove on the right. You should now have 3' on each side to the
walls.

If you get this part, order the material - you got it.

Take another piece of your 6' flooring material, and cut it in half.
With the same orientation of tongue on the left and groove on the
right, hold the pieces in your left and right hands, separately.

Walk up to the full plank on the floor, and put the piece in your left
hand on the right side, which should mate up by putting the tongue on
the piece in the groove on the full plank. Now you are closed with
floor to the wall on the right hand side, and you have a proper edge
joint.

Take the other piece still in your right hand, and mate up the tongue
on the full plank into the groove on your piece. This will close you
to the wall.

You now have one run, with a full piece in the middle, with proper T&G
joints made up on both sides to hold the joints closed in times of
movement. You can use any combination of short pieces using the drop
off by switching the side, but you will ALWAYS have a 6' piece
somewhere in there if you want to maintain the T&G joints.

You could cut 12" off your full plank, start with that piece, then put
your full plank, then put the remaining 60" piece in. The concept is
always the same. But I am with you, unless you were shootnig for some
kind of stairstep pattern, it could look funky.

The solution? To make it random, you could buy a box of the 36"
pieces to mix in, and then you wouldn't have to worry about having to
mate up to a 72" piece to maintain the T&G joints.

I wouldn't butt joint the ends of flooring on a dare. I live in a
really high humidity environment, and the heat causes floors to walk
all over the place here. Joints open, joints close, wood literally
buckles up and pops off the screeds or concrete sometimes.

Make sure you leave the suggested expansion margins around this
flooring. Pop off the shoe mold/quarter round - its cheap to replace
and hold the floor back from the wall.

Clear anything up?

Robert



Robert, yes you hit the nail on my head...I am sorry to have confused
everyone in my first post. The low priced 72" planks are T&G on all four
sides, and thus I cannot see how I can cut a piece down and not use the cut
pieces with the cut end against the wall. Therefore I cannot see how I can
say make ten 72" planks into 20 36" planks and use them that way. It seems
I have to get a full 72" plank into each row, and if I want random or
staggered patterns, it would be a real challenge and I will end up wasting a
lot of pieces that would make it NOT a good deal anymore and better off to
get the 36" planks. Unless I cut them all off at the end and make them a
nail down application instead of glue down,

That was what I was trying to ask, and I did a terrible job asking and
caused a lot of confusion.

MC