Best Direction To Lay A Wood Floor

Lay out a box of hardwood boards ahead of the installation to visualize lengths wood grain and colors of the boards.

Best direction to lay a wood floor.

The best hardwood flooring direction for you is always the direction that matches your home and your design aesthetic. The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation. While personal preference is a factor the direction in which you run hardwood flooring boards is governed by visual and structural guidelines. When you lay a hardwood floor in your home some of the first things that come to mind are color choices and the type of wood.

Last but not least the direction that you lay your hardwood flooring should match your personal preferences. Before going with a standard vertical pattern consider the shape and size of your room. Hallways should aim to have planks running in the same direction. A way to avoid transitions or to create a nice impactful visual statement consider laying your wood floors in a diagonal or herringbone pattern throughout your house.

It may not occur to you at first but the right direction can add a lot to the overall look of the floor. Take the time to visit a showroom and see how different hardwood flooring directions change the way that a room flows. Interior designers often agree it is preferred to run your hardwood flooring straight in from the front entry. Here s how to install click lock engineered hardwood flooring.

Put the first board up against the mason s line with the groove side facing away from the walls. When laying out the boards keep in mind to never have the ends of boards in adjacent rows line up with each other. Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically. 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.

This gives visitors a sense of openness flowing into your home. The direction in which the flooring runs may not be a top consideration but it is essential to plan this aspect carefully. Here are a few things to consider before you lay your floorboards so you can achieve your perfect design. But as a general rule laying the boards in the manner i ve shown below is a good go by.

The best way to show off those visually stunning planks may not be so clear cut. Use 1 2 inch spacers to assist in maintaining the 1 2 inch expansion gap between the first row of flooring planks and the wall. Sightlines running your hardwood planks from your main entrance toward the opposite wall will help simplify the sightline and makes the room appear less busy.