Flooring design question

[Doubler]

I have installed laminate wood floors throughout our house. Running the floors all the same direction makes the house seem like one big space. Running the Living Room North/South and the surrounding rooms East/West gives each room definition and from a design point of view the best way to go. Giving into your wife's point of view is the SMART way to go because when Momma's happy everybody is happy.

 

[herman]

This one is easy....which ever way momma wants them laid, otherwise you will have to listen to how much better it would have looked the other way until either you or the floor is gone.....The voice of experience speaking.


Ohh yea, have her "help" by laying the first couple of rows on both floors, this is for self defense later when "you were not listening". Then have her go shopping or 30 minutes into the work you will hear "you know... it would look better the other way"..... and no it's not justifiable homicide unless I am on the jury..........more experience.

 

[Doubler]

Herman you are SOOOOOO right, " Ya know it might have looked better the other way, is it to late to change it?"

 

[BTravlin]

I hope you have better luck with your laminated flooring than I have had with mine. Last July I had it installed in our great room, dining room and kitchen. Two months ago I noticed some of the boards looked odd. Looked like small areas of raised grain. Now I have dozens of boards scattered throughout the house where the boards are checking and cupping. The whole thing will have to be ripped out and done over. Independent inspector came by just the other day to look it over and report back to manufacturer. He would not say anything one way or the other but I could tell from watching him and by the questions he asked that he was thinking it was a moisture problem. I'm going to have it redone with real hardwood flooring this time.

 

[fstbttms]

II could tell from watching him and by the questions he asked that he was thinking it was a moisture problem. I'm going to have it redone with real hardwood flooring this time.

But if you really do have a moisture issue, hardwood flooring will be every bit the problem laminate was, no?

 

[BTravlin]

It's not moisture per se, but the fact that the wood wasn't dried properly from the factory. Over the winter, the heat pump puts out dry air and the wood flooring then gave off the excess moisture. The underlying core of wood gives off moisture at a different rate than the face veneer species and thereby causes the checking or cracking. I'm not saying all laminate flooring is bad, just that I've had a bad experience and because of it, I will be going solid hardwood flooring now.

 

[oldschool]

When we built our home 4 yrs ago, we had laminate installed in the kitchen, living room, foyer, and dining room. At the time it was put in, the installer advised that we run it parallel to the direction the sunlight enters the room. It seems that the seams are much more noticeable when the sunlight shines across them. At first, I thought this was a bunch of bull but later I was at a friend's house who had laminate running perpendicular to the sunlight and I saw it first hand.