Orientation of wood floors.

[wing nut]

I'm putting wood floors in my house, is there a general rule of thumb on the orientation of the wood plants in relation to the dimensions of the room, like orientating to the long dimension of the room.
thanks

[AHill]

Usually, the boards are laid out so that they run parallel to the longest dimension of the room. Some may debate the aesthetics of that orientation, but I would maintain it's just practical because it requires fewer cuts and therefore takes less time to install. If you have a hallway that is perpendicular to the long dimension, then you make a threshold and run the boards along the length of the hallway.

[daveferg]

First off---don't let anyone tell you the planks have to run perpendicular to the floor joists. If you have a thick enough sub-floor already, there's no need for any added support from flooring--besides, when you open the flooring boxes, there are a lot of very short pieces which wouldn't even span the distance between joists.

Now as to the best orientation----entirely depends on the room. If the room is already long and narrow, you should consider having planks run along the narrow span. Or if the room is somewhat square, you can make it look larger if planks look like they run between any major light sources such as windows and doors. For hallways, generally planks run along the length----

[djwong]

I have a home with an open floor plan. We chose to orient the (engineered) hardwood floor boards all in the same direction - parallel to the long dimension of the largest room. One advantage is this eliminate all threshold transitions between rooms.

[jteneyck]

The floors in my approx. 30 x 60 ft ranch house run parallel with the floor joists, in the 30 ft dimension. That makes them run across the hallway, too. I never have thought that it looks odd in any way. I think you should orient them in whatever direction appeals to you.

John

[Gary G™]

Horizontal rather than vertical--'cause all the good answers were taken.

[Phil Thien]

Gary G™ said:

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Horizontal rather than vertical--'cause all the good answers were taken.

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Finished side up, too.

[daveferg]

Another aspect of orientation is where you place the tongue and groove. Where you will have transition strips such as to a tile floor, door threshold or like around a fireplace hearth----you need to plan ahead. Now, you can easily change the floor strips to a perpendicular run as long as that will be the starting point for the changed direction----I helped a neighbor do his floor and he wanted to change between living room and dining room----we ran the last strip for the living room which happened to be a groove---and then set the new direction tongue in----very careful to make sure it was exactly 90 degrees before being nailed.

[JR1]

A friend just completed a new house and has the wood floor in the dinning room (the only wood floor in the house) running diagonal to the walls. Looks nice.

[Steve N]

As mentioned you will have some shorts in any mix unless you have it milled to spec. If it comes from a box 6' is the longest to expect usually, and that is only 10% to 20% of the box, average length will be about 4'.

Lay it however you like it


Plenty of flooring pics at Houzz