Just completed (or almost completed) putting down 400 sq ft of 3/4" hardwood
floors.

The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the wood
under the threshold. On the back door I could raise the threshold to
accommodate this but on the side facing out it will just be 3/4" above
everything else and leave a gap!!!

On the front door I can't figure out how to raise the threshold at all.
Even if I could I would need a shorter door and that's hard to do with a
firewall type of door.

I handled this installation pretty well up until this point. Any
suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

"Larry" wrote in message

The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the
wood
under the threshold.

On the front door I can't figure out how to raise the threshold at all.
Even if I could I would need a shorter door and that's hard to do with a
firewall type of door.

Know anyone that does woodwork? You can either make a new threshold or
possibly rout out the existing one so the flooring goes under it. Or leave
the 1/2" gap and use a trim pieces to go over the flooring to allow
movement. Hard to say what to do not seeing your setup, but any good
woodworker can make or modify something to fit.

In article .net, "Larry" writes:
The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the wood

Why do they call for this 1/2" gap everywhere? The baseboard I used didn't
cover it, so I had to then add corner molding around the baseboard to hide
the gaps. And nothing has ever moved. It's nailed down. WHere is it going to
go?

Afterwards the carpenters that did most of the work building our house told
me I should have gone right up to the edge of everything, with virtually no
gaps.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD"
To reply, remove the TRABoD!
Kaplow Klips & Baffle: http://nira-rocketry.org/LeadingEdge/Phantom4000.pdf
www.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/ www.nira-rocketry.org www.nar.org

26-October, 2001: A day that will live in infamy
Support Freedom: http://www.indefenseoffreedom.org/

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. --
Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania. 1759

I assume your external doors open inward; I've not seen an outward
opening door in a home. Your first step is to measure the distance
between the top of your new floor and the bottom of your opened door.
If this is less than a quarter inch (preferably a half inch) you are
going to have to cut the door.

Assuming you have enough space, or after you have shortened the door,
you will need to fabricate a new threshold that incorporates a lip at
the inside edge that will cover the gap and reach over the new floor.
You will probably want to fit the threshold on top of the old one, and
taper it to minimize the tripping hazard.
............
. .
. ............
. .
................

Something like that, viewed from the side. Sorry about the artwork; I'd
go for a longer, less steep ramp, myself. I had to do this for our
bathroom; I had a woodworker fabricate it, as it takes some tools to cut
the angles that I don't have. If you get a good piece of wood and put a
nice finish on it, it looks really nice.

Larry wrote:

Just completed (or almost completed) putting down 400 sq ft of 3/4" hardwood
floors.

The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the wood
under the threshold. On the back door I could raise the threshold to
accommodate this but on the side facing out it will just be 3/4" above
everything else and leave a gap!!!

On the front door I can't figure out how to raise the threshold at all.
Even if I could I would need a shorter door and that's hard to do with a
firewall type of door.

I handled this installation pretty well up until this point. Any
suggestions?? Thanks in advance.



--
SPAMBLOCK NOTICE! To reply to me, delete the h from apkh.net, if it is
there.

Don't know exactly what the affected area looks like....but I wouldn't
touch the thresholds unless absolutely necessary! I recently finished
a similar job...approx. 400 sq ft of 3/4" hardwood.

However, the front door has a small enclosed
mud-room/foyer/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-in-your-region. Due to
the grit that comes in, we decided to do that section in ceramic tile.
It has worked very well....

For the back door, we were going to run hardwood all the way up to the
door. After careful consideration, we decided instead to place a
small ceramic floor in that area (a 2' x 3' rectangle). This section
was 'picture framed' by 3 pieces of hardwood....I must say, it looks
very sharp.

As a bonus, anyone entering from the back door doesn't need to step on
the hardwood with dirty/gritty shoes. We are very happy with the end
result. Originally, I thought we couldn't install tile due to the
lack of rigidity in our subfloor (5/8" ply directly over joists).
However, I found a product that (when installed correctly) is
warranted to prevent any tiles from cracking. It's called
Schluter-Ditra, and it's expensive ($2 sq ft in my area). But it will
result in a floor that's slightly lower than your hardwood (I'd guess
1/4"). In my situation, vertical clearance was not an issue, so we
adjusted the ceramic to be flush with the hardwood.

Alternately, just don't run your hardwood all the way up to the
threshold...and use some (small) molding to cover the gap. You may
have to cut/scribe it to fit under the lip of the threshold. After
all, the 1/2" gap is a minimum requirement, so it's ok to have a 3/4"
gap between hardwood and threshold.

BTW....if you have 1/2" sheetrock walls, you should be able to install
your hardwood with virtually no gap between the hardwood and the plane
of the wall. The sheetrock should not go all the way down to the
floor, which should automatically leave 1/2" gap between the hardwood
and the bottom plate. If the sheetrock is low, just cut back (up)
until you've got 3/4" of vertical space. When you place baseboards
back on the wall, there should be very few places where a gap is
showing.

Where gaps *do* show, I would use a little 'trick'. Take a small
piece of cardboard (from the hardwood flooring box, naturally) and
placed it behind the lower part of the baseboard. This will likely
push the bottom of the molding out far enough to cover any remaining
gap. I dislike the idea of adding an extra quarter-round or scotia
molding on top of the baseboard.....I think it detracts from the
overall look.

Have fun!
Dave



"Larry" wrote in message hlink.net...
Just completed (or almost completed) putting down 400 sq ft of 3/4" hardwood
floors.

The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the wood
under the threshold. On the back door I could raise the threshold to
accommodate this but on the side facing out it will just be 3/4" above
everything else and leave a gap!!!

On the front door I can't figure out how to raise the threshold at all.
Even if I could I would need a shorter door and that's hard to do with a
firewall type of door.

I handled this installation pretty well up until this point. Any
suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

Larry ) wrote:
: Just completed (or almost completed) putting down 400 sq ft of 3/4" hardwood
: floors.

: The problem is around the front and rear door. In order to leave the 1/2"
: for expansion that the manuf recommends, I need to be able to run the wood
: under the threshold. On the back door I could raise the threshold to
: accommodate this but on the side facing out it will just be 3/4" above
: everything else and leave a gap!!!

: On the front door I can't figure out how to raise the threshold at all.
: Even if I could I would need a shorter door and that's hard to do with a
: firewall type of door.

: I handled this installation pretty well up until this point. Any
: suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

Some places have thresholds that might work. For my deck door I found a
1x4x6 of red oak and literally planed down and sanded one corner, long
edgewise. When I
put it in the board looked like it had a bullnose edge. Works great. This
simply butts up to the bottom casing of the sliding deck door. You might
to do two sides for a true threshold.

Eric