"Wrapping" Hardwood to Meet on Other Side

10 years ago

I really need some help.

We hired a contractor to lay 3/4-inch solid hardwood across our entire first floor (~ 1250 square feet). After ~ 600 square feet, I realized he didn't know what he was doing & fired him...but not before he screwed everything up.

In addition to not allowing room for expansion of the floor, he did not chalk a 'control line' to help meet-up the hardwood on the other side of our centralized powder room. In other words, there are 2 thresholds that are separated by a powder room & he ran the hardwood indiscriminately through the first threshold without thinking about the fact that the hardwood would have to meet-up again on the other side of the powder room.

I laid down pieces today to see what I'm up against...it appears that they are at least a whole inch apart. What options do I have to fix this??

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Comments (4)

gregmills_gw
10 years ago
You will just have to rip that last row to fit. Its pretty common for this type of thing to happen. Rip it to fit. Bevel the square edge and add a little poly.
gregmills_gw
10 years ago
Sorry. I thought that last row was in place.

As far as i can see nothings wrong. If you thought that you were going to have a nice clean full board and not have to wrap around the wall then i dont know what to tell you. Hardly EVER does that happen.

What you will need to do is when you get to that point you will just rip the row to wrap around the corner or you can not rip it and leave the gap and fill in later.
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User
10 years ago
How much is laid in the far room we can't see in the picture? Is it laid square? Can that last row be taken up and swung just a bit? It might not make up the whole inch but may take 1/2". Besides not using a control line, your installer may have relied on the squareness of walls that may not be square.
If you can swing that row you can then use a table saw to rip about 1/8" or less off the necessary number of rows to get you lined up. Depending on how much you rip off each row, you might need to use a dado blade to regroove the boards.
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
Your expectation that it would end with a full board at each threshold is not realistic. Flooring almost never comes out "even" like that. And walls are seldom square.

The issue is going to be where to make the rip cuts to preserve the illusion of perfectly flowing hardwood, and how to deal with the loss of the tongue and/or groove and the beveling.

I handled it this way:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/oldhouse/msg0916193522706.html

Making the adjustments where it's least visible, or least likely to screw up, anyway.

================
ADDING: Not shown is my "glue-up" plank: I needed a slightly wider plank for one doorway - so I ripped two pieces and glued the cut edges together to make a wider T&G plank.

Could you do this to the planks at the far end of the hallway? Rip out the middle of the plank and glue it back together, preserving the tongue, the groove and the bevel?

Here is a link that might be useful: Laying hardwood floor around divider walls with unsquare rooms

This post was edited by lazygardens on Thu, Oct 3, 13 at 17:59