I need some pointers on dealing with doorways.

I'm laying a floating "engineered wood floor", which is 7"-wide planks that
are designed to "click" together. They have an interlocking tongue and
groove design that locks together without glue.

I'd like the floor to be a continuous surface from room to room through the
doorways -- no raised "transition strip" if possible. The doorways that
are parallel to the plank direction seem to be especially problematic.

I don't have a good way to cut a perfect joining edge, so I want to join
with only the factory edges. I want all _my_ cuts to be under molding
(or a transition strip where necessary). So it seems I need to lay things
out so I have factory-cut edges in the doorways. And it seems like
there's no way to guarantee this with doorways on opposite sides of a
random-width room. The other problem is that in doorways, the planks have
to be slid together sideways under the jamb and door moldings, rather than
the preferred way of bringing adjoining planks together with one raised at
an angle.

All the instructions I've seen are pretty vague about doorways. They
suggest you sometimes need to chisel off the raised ridge that locks the
other plank and glue instead.

I hope this is all clear. I'd sure appreciate any specific suggestions --
or web sites -- you can give me to make this work.

TIA.

-- Joel

"default" wrote
I need some pointers on dealing with doorways.

I'm laying a floating "engineered wood floor", which is 7"-wide planks
that
are designed to "click" together. They have an interlocking tongue and
groove design that locks together without glue.

I'd like the floor to be a continuous surface from room to room through
the
doorways -- no raised "transition strip" if possible. The doorways that
are parallel to the plank direction seem to be especially problematic.

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.

"Earl Kurtz" wrote in message
...

"default" wrote
I need some pointers on dealing with doorways.

I'm laying a floating "engineered wood floor", which is 7"-wide planks
that
are designed to "click" together. They have an interlocking tongue and
groove design that locks together without glue.

I'd like the floor to be a continuous surface from room to room through
the
doorways -- no raised "transition strip" if possible. The doorways that
are parallel to the plank direction seem to be especially problematic.

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

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