I would like to lay a dining room floor in a combo of hardwood and marble. I’ve seen lots of examples with marble under the table and the room bordered in oak.
But for the look I’m going for, I would like to lay the middle of the room in oak and border it with marble or granite tile. Obviously, I can’t leave an expansion gap between the wood and marble.
Anyone done this? The room is not too large (16’x12′).
Replies
Lay the entire wood floor first, sand, stain and poly. THEN come back and cut out the stripes for the stone boarder. Install the stone boarder.
but what about expansion gap? if the hardwood is completely surrounded by marble on all four sides, will this work?
This sounds like you're talking about a wood area the size of something like 10 feet by 12 feet, all surrounded by marble, with no gap.
That sounds like a recipe for disaster, IMO. The wood will want to expand and contract ... maybe not a lot ... but when it does the gap will be bigger than desired or the floor will buckle.
You *might* be able to get by with some sort of plywood floor, with hardwood on the top layer, so that the plywood wasn't expanding and contracting as much as pure hardwood. Perhaps you could rip some flooring to 1/16th of an inch and glue it to some MDF? You wouldn't be able to refinish the floor, though, and I'm really nervous about something that requires lots of extra work and may have to be totally replaced to fix a "minor problem".
If you're looking for "elegant" and somewhat different, how about a different approach which uses all hardwood? I had an elegant quarter sawn oak floor in an old victorian I owned, where the middle of the floor was laid one direction up to about a foor from the four walls. At that point a walnut strip was laid which was about an inch (maybe .75 inches, didn't measure) wide. Where the walnut met in the corners, the walnut extended out and made a small square with a piece of oak inside. Outside the walnut the oak ran parallel to the outside walls and when it met in the corners the joints were staggered butt joints. Extremely nice looking.
John
Sounds like the walnut border is my best bet. I suppose the entire oak floor is lain first and the channel for the walnut cut in afterwards? Face nail the walnut?
what about instead of a solid 3/4 t&g floor you use engineered flooring. Its more stable. I'm not talking pergo, I don't know the name of the product but my parents had a similar situation in their last house.
Marble entry way and hardwood in the adjacent dining room. They used some engineered flooring, basically looks like plywood, the top layer was maybe an 1/8-3/16 thick so you cant refinish it.
A strip was laid running along the marble right up too it no gap, and the rest of the flooring was run perpendicular to that.
Never had a problem
There is no problem when you run your strips perpendicular to the marble, the movement of wood in this direction is small compared to parallel. This guy is surrounding the wood with marble, it is the movement in the other direction that I worry about.
Tom
To me the walnut would be cut just like the flooring, just narrower. I don't know if flooring companies carry such an item but it'd be a piece of cake to have some made up.
In my case, the walnut went past the corner (past the meeting edge of the piece of walnut on that side) to the edge of the first oak strip, went right 90 degrees for a short distance, right another 90 degrees, and then right yet again to meet up with the extension of the walnut strip it bypassed. The small pieces of walnut surrounded a piece of oak about 1 inch square. All of this depends on how wide the oak flooring is. I'd have to work out exact dimensions and the width of the walnut would be fairly critical here.
If my oak was 2.25 inches wide, the walnut square would surround an oak square of, say, 1 inch. That would leave 1.25 inches for two stripsi of walnut, so each would be .625 inches wide. I think mine were wider, so perhaps the oak was .75 inches square and the walnut wider. I'd lay it out full size on paper, color it, and see what looks best.
Clearly, other designs are also reasonable. The wood flooring guys back in the old days must have their own particular designs they liked to use and I'm sure they were all lovely.
John
Couldn't figure out how to edit my prior post to add an attachment so here it is. This is a crude attempt to show the walnut border.
John
Marble could have a groove cut to match the wood floor and use a wide base to hold down the marble along the wall . use a sping board or metal spring to push the marble tight to the wood through the seasonal change . some laminated hardwood flooring has a 3/8 wear layer so it can be refinnished at least once.Don
I thought the whole point of narrow strip flooring is that you don't have to worry about the shrinking and swelling of a 10 foot width of hardwood, just the one or two strips next to the wall, or next to the marble in this case. What am I missing?
you could lay the floor with a transition strip that would allow the expasion gap or you could lay the floor and plough out a slot in the wood ( once laid and finished ) for the tile to slip into but this would give you a elevaiton change of anywhere between 1/8 to 1/4 depending on where you put the groove.
just a thought
james
Done it many times.
Lay and finish the wood as suggested. Clean up the edges. Lay Shulter metal around the edges, ( it's various extruded metal pieces, limited colors ). You want a 90 degree angle piece to match the height of the marble, typically 3/8 ", allow for the thinset usually 1/4 ". You'll need to build up the subfloor with backer board to match the tile to the wood height. Set the backer board back a bit from the wood. Set the marble as usual, back it off the Metal at the the Wood at least 1/8".
Now the trick:
Marble is finished with unsanded grout, make sure the grout you choose has a matching tile caulk, again, unsanded. Grout all but the edge at the metal. Caulk the edge at the metal.
There's your expansion flexibility.
Do you fasten the metal strip to the wood flooring, the subfloor, or just let it float?
Tom
Metal strip? Wouldn't that look cheesy? Just my opinion.
The visible part is very narrow, perhaps 1/8".
There are some colors available, but they're kinda hard to find. Gold and silver are the most common, but I've also used black and white.
Tom,
It is set into the thinset. When you look at a piece it's obvious which side is down.
Skipj
The only wood/stone mix floor I have seen was rows of tiles alternating with narrow wood strips set diagonally, very comtemporary, very elegant. I don't know if that would suit your setting though. Of course in that case movement of the wood posed no problem. In your case may be you want to stay with a wood border as someone had already suggested or if you still want to do what you said in the first post, I would take a chance to do the floor in June or July where the summer humidity stablizes knowing that I would still have to use caulking instead of grout for the wood/stone joint and would have to accept the opening of the joint in the winter months. Worse comes to worse, you may have to take the stone border out and replace it with wood. If it works, you look like a genius. If not don't say I didn't warn you. :)
Tom
I've got to agree with you that laying the floor in the humid summer months is the safest way to go with this. You could also do it the way we used to do the old gym floors and put a thin cork border in between the wood and stone.
carpenter in transition
For the walnut, consider buying a piece of walnut veneer plywood from a good plywood supplier, and rip into into strips as needed.
Depends on where this guy lives. In some climates you won't get much seasonal movement...others can be severe. The cork idea sounds great, but if that doesn't sound workable leave 1/16 +-" and fill it with a matching slicone caulk. You could also create some type of mild overlap on the inset material around the stone or marble. With that piece, cutting the bottom side of the materail like a rabbit joint would allow for plenty of expansion area. Hard to describe but...Have I made any sense?
Regards,
Ken Fisher
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com
If you decide to go with the marble surround and presuming that the boards will run the 16' way, you'll need about 1/2" expansion joint which I would fill with flexible caulk over a foam plastic backer. The caulk color should match the marble or the timber and be careful when you sand not to hit the marble with the sander!!
Here's a couple of suggestions for the layout of a contrasting timber border.
IanDG