I would like some advice on how to go about installing a border in hardwood flooring.
I’ll be using 5/8″ flooring, border is same size as floor strips, and will make a rectangle around the perimeter. Room is 12x 12.
Floor will be a glue down installation.
I’ve done a few hardwood installations, but never have done a border.
I’m not sure if the border is laid out first or as you go along. The glue down installation makes this a little tricky for me, as I have never done a glue down install, but am looking forward to adding this to my accomplishments 🙂
I imagine the flooring laid inside the border will have to be grooved on one end in order to make the toungue and groove connection, correct?
Should the outer flooring (outside the border) run the same as the rest of the flooring?
I did some searching but could not find any quality info on this.
I’ll wait to he from some of you floor experts.
Mick
Replies
Mick 182
There have been a number of ways to install borders in hardwood flooring.. Inlays, edge installs, etc.. I'd check back issues of fine homebuilding and select a method that you like..
The gluedown makes it tricky for me too!
;)
Here is how we do it -
Mark the border lines on the paper underlay with chalk as a general guidline. Let's say 18" in from wall as an example.
Make a line bisecting the room in the center. Start from that line and lay the main flooring in center of the room, working out both ways. Don't pay a heck of a lot of attention to the ends except to be sure to lay them a bit past where the perpendicular border runs at left and right. ( say east and west)
When you get to the border fore and aft,( north and south) this is where you stop. Measure to the wall
Then cut in place the random long ends ( east and west) of the flooring you have laid so far, with a guide and saw depth set. You want this cut to be pretty close to the same distance in from wall as the last piece laid ( as I mentioned in the last paragraph) Once this is cut off straight, I use the biscuit cutter or a router to cut a slot in those ends. Then I make a new tongue to glue in that slot all the way.
OK, now you have a bare space around the room the same distance in from the walls and a tongue facing each of those four walls.
We use a log cabin pattern going on the rest of the way - ends overlap butts instead of mitered butts at corners.
The tricky part thinking how do this with glue is snapping those chaulk lines and keeping sawdust out of the glue when you make that endgrain cut
I suppose you could screw down a sacrificial bumper board at the end layouts to bump set the pieces, and take the time to cut more accurately for the first and last piece in each course. Then take up the bumper boards, make the slot and glue in the new tongue.
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Great info Piffin,
My problem.........I'm on a slab!
How would I handle the end cuts (east and west) ?
set depth of cut very carefully?Did I pass the test?;)You can still screw a bumper ledger to the slab - just harder to do - but be sure there is no radiant PEX tubing in there.
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If you have a fireplace with a raised hearth do you handle this the same way if the field is laid perpendiculer to the hearth? Also if you have an exterior French door that is on the wall parallel to the field would you start here or still lay the boards from the center line?
Thank You
I'd probably have to see all the rooms peculiatrities to scratch my head over before deciding.for a hearth projection I usually do a mitred one width surrond.
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I'll get a picture. I've been scratching my head too. Checking books and mag articles.
In an existing finished room where carpet is being replaced by hardwood is it worth the time and effort to remove the baseboard so the hardwood would look 'original' or just go with a shoe molding?
Matter of taste. Personally, I hate shoe molding. I think we have used it in only one or two rooms in twenty years now
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Thanks for advice on laying out a border, it worked out great. Much appreciated.
Mick
JIMMIEM
I tend to agree with Piffin on this one.. I personally like the elegent look of nice tall original molding (even in reproduction) but some feel that it can make a 8 foot ceiling look too close.. No such an issue with ceilings over 9 feet though..
I agree the shoe is not the prettiest, but it is practical if Craftsman style trim (3/4"ish x 4" or more) is used and your floor has any humps. Craftsman trim does not flex like modern small trim does.
Brad
If he's putting down only 5/8" how are you going to rout a groove, there's too much stuff, bearing & nut, below the cutter to clear the concrete. I like the idea of cut in place but was never able to find a bit that would work ... Have filed the excess threads and half the nut off to make a go of it on 3/4, but wouldn't recomend it ..
Don't need a bearing on bottom, use top bearing, or use a guide bushing or a guide bar, or make a shooting board, or use the EZ
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