Direction Of Laminate Wood Flooring

The correct direction for laying hardwood floors.

Direction of laminate wood flooring. The wood planks that make up your new wood flooring should be laid out in a manner that leads to the center or focus of the room. The direction that your wood flooring will run is not just a matter of personal taste. Installing in a certain direction can help bring out textures and colors. Today we have options such as laminate flooring and engineered wood floors which don t expand dominantly in any one direction so there really is no need to stick with any one direction.

Vertical flooring is the most common orientation for wood floors. So there is no right or wrong way to lay your wood flooring. As solid wood flooring was the only wood floor type available up until the 1970 s almost every wood floor plank laid would have run with the length of a room. Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically.

It also is governed by several design principles. We have mostly slab foundations in this area and with engineered floors you have more flexibility. While personal preference is a factor the direction in which you run hardwood flooring boards is governed by visual and structural guidelines. Just remember to visualize and take into consideration all aspects of your laminate flooring and space.

This will make the floors structurally sound and will help prevent the planks from separating sagging or buckling. Yet another exception if you have solid wood floors not engineered on a pier and beam foundation then you don t have a lot of choice as far as which direction to run the flooring it would best be run perpendicular to the joists. Wood floors should always be laid perpendicular to floor joists across rather that in between them. The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation.

Be mindful of the wood grain pattern and design of your floor. If the room is wider than it is long laying the flooring on the vertical will help create the illusion of length in the room and balance it out. Laying down laminate for hallway to bedroom transition.