I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.

On 10/14/2011 5:42 PM, Bowsider wrote:
I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the
top of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs
lands roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each
end of the landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and
around 1m wide. What do people think is the best orientation for the
boards? Thanks in advance.

Lengthwise down the halls; not sure the exact geometry of the landing
area in comparison. Nothing says can't have a turning if needed but if
the landing is parallel to that same direction it would seem the logical
way it ought to run.

--

"Bowsider" wrote in message
news:16923383.625.1318632133438.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbay19...
I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of the
stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in the
middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90 degrees,
these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people think is the best
orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.

------------------------

Lengthwise in all 3 sections. Join the corners in either a herringbone
or 45 miter.
Art

In article , "Artemus"
wrote:

"Bowsider" wrote in message
news:16923383.625.1318632133438.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbay19...
I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of
the
stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in
the
middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90
degrees,
these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people think is the
best
orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.

------------------------

Lengthwise in all 3 sections. Join the corners in either a herringbone
or 45 miter.
Art

My choice would depend on the length of the flooring. If it were say 1
meter wide and a single board would cover the hallway, I would go
against the convention and run it across the two sides of the "C" and
then run it the long dimension in front of the stairs. It would be
boring, but it would have fewer joints and be fairly quick to install.

I know this goes against the wood worker in me who did all the hallways
long dimension and did an edge in contrasting materials, that caused me
about an extra week of evening time.

On Oct 16, 12:45*pm, Doug Houseman wrote:
"Artemus" wrote:
"Bowsider" wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of
the
stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in
the
middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90
degrees,
these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people think is the
best orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.


My choice would depend on the length of the flooring. If it were say 1
meter wide and a single board would cover the hallway, I would go
against the convention and run it across the two sides of the "C" and
then run it the long dimension in front of the stairs. It would be
boring, but it would have fewer joints and be fairly quick to install.

That's ignoring wood movement. Doing it that way you're guaranteed to
get more and larger gaps between boards as the wood moves with the
season.

I'm also not sure that cutting every board and running the boards
across the width of the hallway would work for other reasons. When
you buy wood strip flooring the bundles are of assorted lengths.
They're not all 40"+ long. You could specify that when you order them
(or make them), but you'd be paying out the nose (or sucking down way
more time then any potential time savings in laying them AND paying
out the nose).

If someone is going to go to all of that effort, they certainly should
dress up the hallway with feature strips, etc. Not sure if that's
what the OP has in mind for his time and money.

R

Run them all on a 45 degree angle. The pieces will all be shorter and
it always looks classy!

-----------------

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...

That's ignoring wood movement. Doing it that way you're guaranteed to
get more and larger gaps between boards as the wood moves with the
season.

I'm also not sure that cutting every board and running the boards
across the width of the hallway would work for other reasons. When
you buy wood strip flooring the bundles are of assorted lengths.
They're not all 40"+ long. You could specify that when you order them
(or make them), but you'd be paying out the nose (or sucking down way
more time then any potential time savings in laying them AND paying
out the nose).

If someone is going to go to all of that effort, they certainly should
dress up the hallway with feature strips, etc. Not sure if that's
what the OP has in mind for his time and money.

R

On Oct 14, 6:42*pm, Bowsider wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of the
stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in the
middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90
degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people
think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.

If your subfloor is suitably robust - such as 3/4" plywood or the
equivalent, you could either do a herringbone throughout (takes a
_lot_ more time, but the hallway flooring wouldn't seem to have a
directional change), or run the boards the long way and either use a
herringbone (not really the right term here) to make the transition,
or box out the corners and do a design at the hallway transitions.
Any of those could look good, your opinion being the final arbiter,
and time, money and effort will come into play.

http://www.woodfloorschool.com/photo..._school_05.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/lookoutranch/image/111809017.jpg

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/g...-jan-09008.jpg

R

Bowsider wrote:
I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the
top of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs
lands roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each
end of the landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and
around 1m wide. What do people think is the best orientation for the
boards? Thanks in advance.

The conventional standard is lenghwise with the longer dimension.

On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:42:13 -0700 (PDT), Bowsider
wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide. What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in advance.

Horizontal, not vertical. Nexxxxxxxxxxxxt!

--
Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are
based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that
I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as
I have received and am still receiving.
-- Albert Einstein

"Bowsider" wrote in message
news:16923383.625.1318632133438.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbay19...
I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top
of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands
roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the
landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide.
What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in
advance.

This is one of those cases where I'd do something crazy like curving the
flooring to match the C shape... Obviously it's completely custom work but
I'm not always good about controlling my woodworking urges. For example, I'm
building new pressure treated exterior stairs down to my dog run and I'm
using riser boards mitered to fit mitered stringers and I radiused the end
cuts of the treads on the shaper. If it ever stops raining and dries out I
might actually be able to install them!

John

On Oct 14, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"Bowsider" wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the top
of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands
roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of the
landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide.
What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in
advance.

This is one of those cases where I'd do something crazy like curving the
flooring to match the C shape... Obviously it's completely custom work but
I'm not always good about controlling my woodworking urges.

Are you suggesting he steam bends the wood strips to curve around the
corners...? That I'd like to see!

R

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Oct 14, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"Bowsider" wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the
top
of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands
roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of
the
landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide.
What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in
advance.

This is one of those cases where I'd do something crazy like curving the
flooring to match the C shape... Obviously it's completely custom work
but
I'm not always good about controlling my woodworking urges.

Are you suggesting he steam bends the wood strips to curve around the
corners...? That I'd like to see!

R

That would be interesting... maybe reduce the width to 1 1/8" to facilitate
smooth bends? The grain would flow better that what I was thinking.

What I had in mind was milling curved strip flooring on the shaper where the
curve matches the shape of the C. Relatively short pieces would be used so
there isn't too much grain running out of the sides. A pattern could be used
to get the curved shape and then mill the tongue and groove afterwards. I'm
making an assumption here that the C has a continuous, circular, curve
rather than being a true C shape which is more oblong. If it's oblong the
radius changes which would be really tricky to mill but might make for an
interesting challenge. ;~)

John

On Oct 15, 8:41*am, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message
On Oct 14, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"Bowsider" wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the
top
of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs lands
roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end of
the
landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m wide.
What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks in
advance.

This is one of those cases where I'd do something crazy like curving the
flooring to match the C shape... Obviously it's completely custom work
but
I'm not always good about controlling my woodworking urges.

Are you suggesting he steam bends the wood strips to curve around the
corners...? * That I'd like to see! *

That would be interesting... maybe reduce the width to 1 1/8" to facilitate
smooth bends? The grain would flow better that what I was thinking.

What I had in mind was milling curved strip flooring on the shaper where the
curve matches the shape of the C. Relatively short pieces would be used so
there isn't too much grain running out of the sides. A pattern could be used
to get the curved shape and then mill the tongue and groove afterwards. I'm
making an assumption here that the C has a continuous, circular, curve
rather than being a true C shape which is more oblong. *If it's oblong the
radius changes which would be really tricky to mill but might make for an
interesting challenge. ;~)

I think the OP's C-shaped corridor is probably rectilinear with two 90
degree corners. That would be much more typical.

R

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Oct 15, 8:41 am, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message
On Oct 14, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:
"Bowsider" wrote:

I am putting down a floor in a C shaped corridor. The landing off the
top
of the stairs is approximately 1.5m wide and 5m long - the stairs
lands
roughly in the middle. There are two corridors running off each end
of
the
landing at 90 degrees, these are also about 4m long and around 1m
wide.
What do people think is the best orientation for the boards? Thanks
in
advance.

This is one of those cases where I'd do something crazy like curving
the
flooring to match the C shape... Obviously it's completely custom work
but
I'm not always good about controlling my woodworking urges.

Are you suggesting he steam bends the wood strips to curve around the
corners...? That I'd like to see!

That would be interesting... maybe reduce the width to 1 1/8" to
facilitate
smooth bends? The grain would flow better that what I was thinking.

What I had in mind was milling curved strip flooring on the shaper where
the
curve matches the shape of the C. Relatively short pieces would be used so
there isn't too much grain running out of the sides. A pattern could be
used
to get the curved shape and then mill the tongue and groove afterwards.
I'm
making an assumption here that the C has a continuous, circular, curve
rather than being a true C shape which is more oblong. If it's oblong the
radius changes which would be really tricky to mill but might make for an
interesting challenge. ;~)

I think the OP's C-shaped corridor is probably rectilinear with two 90
degree corners. That would be much more typical.

R

Could be... a case where a graphic would help...

John