Hardwood Floor Transitions - Going From One Floor to Another
No matter what kind of floor The FloorMan installs, solid or engineered hardwood, laminate or tile, we must always consider transitioning from one kind of floor too another.
At right are some different kinds of transitions that can be used.
- Reducer allows a higher floor to transition to a lower, for example, if you are going from a hardwood floor to a room covered in linoleum.
- T-molding. If the new floor is on nearly the same level the floor it abuts, then a t-mold is a common choice. (see left) This fills the gaps between the floors and bridges any slight differences in height. Sometimes, if the floors are exactly the same height, one can run them right next to each other, as long as there are expansion gaps in other parts of the floor.
- Thresholds and quarter-round are useful for outside doorways. Quarter-round (or shoe-molding) are also used as transitions to walls to cover expansion gaps, as discussed earlier.
- Stair nose (sometimes known as bull nose) functions as the transition from a step, i.e., into a sunken living room.
- Endcap (sometimes called baby threshold) is a special kind of threshold that is designed to transition from a laminate floor to carpet.
There are many possible variations, and we can’t always know in advance exactly which piece will work best in each situation, but all these pieces function to protect the edges of flooring from splintering and wearing.
