On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:06:06 -0500, Don Young wrote:

Hi Joel,

I'm a certified installer of engineered floating floors, certified by 2
different major manufacturers.

Although you may want your floor to be a continuous surface, this is a bad
idea.

First, on any basic instructions, it will tell you to acclimate the
flooring x amount of hours, to the room it will used in. This is because
each room in your home, has different levels of humidity. Installing one
continuous surface will cause the flooring to expand/contract at different
rates. Which will cause severe problems including separation or buckling.

Most if not all of the engineered floating products prohibit running a
continous flooring from a large area to an opening under 4 feet wide
without a "T-molding" because of the expansion/contraction. Also, most if
not all manufacturers require a T-molding if the area is longer than 66
feet.

For awhile, I had worked inspecting claims for "faulty" flooring. Needless
to say, almost all "faulty" floors were because of not following
manufacturing instructions on the installation procedures.

Do yourself a favor, and don't try to re-invent the wheel on this
installation. I believe you will be very unhappy with the outcome.


In addition to Earl's good advice, you likely couldn't do what you want to
because the tolerances on your house are not accurate enough and the
dimensions change with temperature and humidity. Note that the
manufacturer's instructions will not even let you fit the flooring tightly
to the wall.

Don Young

Thanks Earl and Don.

What you say makes sense, so I'll use the T-molding as you recommend. I'm
very grateful for the advise and the explanation.

-- Joel