I'm planning on fitting an engineered wood floor to my living room and hall but have some questions. The living room is 3.1m wide (and 7.3m long) and the 180-190mm wide boards look like they would suit it well.
However, the hall has varying width, between 0.85m and 1.22m wide and 4.9m long. Would that board width be aesthetically too wide? I know it is down to opinion, but just after a view from the experts (and non-experts) here. I don't mind different widths in each.
Are thresholds typically in the same place as with a carpet i.e centred under where the door sits when closed. Seems the obvious place, especially between the hall and living room when both are the same height. What about in the case of a ramp between the lounge and kitchen (latter having vinyl) where the door opens out into the living room?
The diagram below gives a rough idea of the shape of the living room. It seems to me the best place to start is the bottom right corner. The indentation shown marked with a D juts into the room by 340mm.
[code:1]
---------
| |
| --|
| |
| |
D |
| |
| |
| |
-----------
[/code:1]
If starting at the bottom right, lengths would be added until reaching the top of the room, then the next row to the left is done in the same way, and so on. Essentially all boards need to be slotted 'down and to the right' for the T&G to mate with already-laid boards.
I've seen lots of posts and websites about undercutting the door frames. Maybe I cannot quite get my head around it, but there is a door at the very top on the right hand side. If following the method above, the board going under the right hand side of the door frame can be slid to the right to fit under the frame.
But how is the other side done, when it needs an up and to the left direction to go under the frame? Is it just a case of carefully pushing into the expansion gap under the frame first, since the gap should be bigger than the tongues?
One the features I'm after for the board is T&G instead of a click system. A few places have made a point of the boards being end matched, which I understand to mean having the T&G on the short edge as well. This would seem an obvious thing to have, so that the offcut from the last row can be used to start the next. Does it mean there are boards around with no tongue or groove on some ends? This seems very wasteful, meaning particular boards cannot be used in the middle and end offcuts have to be thrown away?
Last question! Is a plywood back that much better than the block formation I have seen on cheaper and not-so-cheap boards? It looks it to me as the ply is continuous while many block boards seem to have gaps.
Thanks!
However, the hall has varying width, between 0.85m and 1.22m wide and 4.9m long. Would that board width be aesthetically too wide? I know it is down to opinion, but just after a view from the experts (and non-experts) here. I don't mind different widths in each.
Are thresholds typically in the same place as with a carpet i.e centred under where the door sits when closed. Seems the obvious place, especially between the hall and living room when both are the same height. What about in the case of a ramp between the lounge and kitchen (latter having vinyl) where the door opens out into the living room?
The diagram below gives a rough idea of the shape of the living room. It seems to me the best place to start is the bottom right corner. The indentation shown marked with a D juts into the room by 340mm.
[code:1]
---------
| |
| --|
| |
| |
D |
| |
| |
| |
-----------
[/code:1]
If starting at the bottom right, lengths would be added until reaching the top of the room, then the next row to the left is done in the same way, and so on. Essentially all boards need to be slotted 'down and to the right' for the T&G to mate with already-laid boards.
I've seen lots of posts and websites about undercutting the door frames. Maybe I cannot quite get my head around it, but there is a door at the very top on the right hand side. If following the method above, the board going under the right hand side of the door frame can be slid to the right to fit under the frame.
But how is the other side done, when it needs an up and to the left direction to go under the frame? Is it just a case of carefully pushing into the expansion gap under the frame first, since the gap should be bigger than the tongues?
One the features I'm after for the board is T&G instead of a click system. A few places have made a point of the boards being end matched, which I understand to mean having the T&G on the short edge as well. This would seem an obvious thing to have, so that the offcut from the last row can be used to start the next. Does it mean there are boards around with no tongue or groove on some ends? This seems very wasteful, meaning particular boards cannot be used in the middle and end offcuts have to be thrown away?
Last question! Is a plywood back that much better than the block formation I have seen on cheaper and not-so-cheap boards? It looks it to me as the ply is continuous while many block boards seem to have gaps.
Thanks!