Triming modular flooring against brick
My son and I have just finished installing a “snap together” modular wood flooring in his family room. In one corner, he has a brick fireplace that is set at a 45 degree angle in the corner of the room. We’re not sure how to trim out the 1/8″ to 1/4″ gap where the flooring meets the brick. The brick has gently rounded edges (not regular red bricks) so it is a pretty wavy and something like a quarter round molding piece just doesn’t look that good against the bricks although it does cover the gap from the flooring.
Any suggestions on what/how we might fill the gap against the bricks? One idea we had was colored grout but we’re not sure how that might work out long term. We figured we could at least find a color of grout that blended with both the brick and the flooring.
Replies
If its too wavy for moulding and you don't want to scribe the flooring to the brick, you could use color matched caulk.
Thank you .... After I read your reply I got busy on the internet and found a lot more color caulk options than I knew existed. I'd just been looking in our local "big box". Our plan now is to try some colored caulk first and if we don't like how it turns out we'll try an overlay by custom fitting some molding AND colored caulk (where our custom fitting might not be perfect)
My son and I have just finished installing......
So why did you wait until now to ask questions?
The answer is that you should fit each piece into place by using a small compass to scribe the cut line onto the piece. That's basic trim carpentry, nothing fancy.
For what it is worth, when you install modular "snap together" flooring you have to snap the long edge into the side of the previous row. As you do this, you have to position the end of the new piece just clear of the end of the previous piece. You then tap the new piece back into the end of the previous piece ... when you do that up against a fixed wall, you end up with a gap equal to the depth of the interlock. There is no way you can butt up the end of the last piece of flooring directly to the wall.
There is no way you can butt up the end of the last piece of flooring directly to the wall.
That's why you make it the first piece. Begin at the end of the run/room that needs scribing and fitting.
Edited 10/24/2008 2:43 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Scribing the floorboards to the hearth won't leave an expansion gap like the manufacturers want. I don't know how critical that is since there's probably minimal expansion/contraction, but it still might not be a good idea.
So leave the scribed ends a sixteenth open, but cut them to fit so that there's continuity.
Hud--it's not real flooring. It's laminate/composite/engineered/floating whatever...
You're talking about carpentry techniques used by people who really care what the finished job looks like; that standard is not appropriate for this situation (if the HO really cared what it looked like, he wouldn't have used printed sawdust).
Low end product; low end trim techniques. In this case, caulk is a piece of trim.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
oh come on now T.H.! You're implying that ANYTHING other than standard full hardwood flooring is not worthy of trying to do proper finish/trim techniques for?
jeepers.
the OP would do well to go look at http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com website - and see that one of his options was to undercut the hearth; or picture frame it with trim as another poster here has mentioned, etc.
"Be yourself...everyone else is already taken." — Unknown author
I'm saying that dressing a sow's ear in a silk purse does not a Homecoming Queen make.
;o)
I did not suggest he deliberately do a lousy job of caulking; nor did I imply that caulking is somehow 'inferior'. But it is much faster and requires a much lower skill level to produce a decent job than does scribing, especially given that laminates tend to chip easily and are difficult to cut by hand.
Furthermore, scribing that joint is not going to make the flooring look any better, just as caulking it isn't going to make it look any worse.
I repeat: caulking the joint is more commensurate with the level of finish that flooring product provides than is scribing it to match the bricks.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
So what you're saying is that I'm beating a dead horse or trying to get blood out of a turnip...one or the other. :-)
Or, as you said, trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
Granted, I've never installed any of this stuff but I used to do a lot of cheap paneling jobs in vacation homes. I still used good techniques to achieve tight fits, scribbing the inside corners as an example.
Once I figured out a good set-up for marking and cutting everything, it wasn't any more difficult to make it fit nice than it was to just cut it for width. Made me feel good about the job, even when the paneling was cheap junk.
Edited 10/24/2008 2:44 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter
No, no, no: You're beating a turnip to death with a silk purse....
(Okaaaay, I think we better stop there before the metaphor police lock us up for asphalt and battersby....)
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
The way I do it is picture frame a moulding around the fireplace. Scribe a thin hardwood 2" X 1/4" strip to the brick and stain to match the floor.
The floor will expand and contract so make sure there is enough space cut around the edges for movement. Had my own buckle up on me in a couple of places.
Thank you for your reply ... After the first reply I got, I went and looked on the internet and found a lot more colored caulks than I knew existed ... so we now have a two part plan, first we're going to try the caulk but if that doesn't look too good, then we're going to try your suggestion for scoring a piece of framing AND using some colored caulk in those places where our custom shaping might not be perfect. Biggest concern I have about the molding is just how to get the color right without spending a small fortune on different colors of finish.
Thanks again for your comments ...
You could scribe a piece of T-molding to the brick, but you might need a larger gap than you have there now. Also, since the wood grain pattern is very thin, you would need to cut it very carefully so as not to damage it.
And don't forget, the floor has to float so you can't lock it in place with caulk.
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