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Transition strip question
I will begin laying floating engineering hardwood flooring later this month, about 1/4″ thick (technically 7 mm), in a bedroom, that will need a transition to a hallway with natural hardwood (I am assuming it is 3/4″ thick and nailed/glued–the townhome is in a different state than where I am now, so I can’t easily verify). Most of the reducer transition strips that I’ve seen are for floating floors on the “higher” level, not the lower level, as mine is. I found a few videos illustrating solutions–generally building up the “gap” between the floors (with wood, strips of flooring, metal strips), putting down a metal strip (e.g., Slim Track), and then pounding the molding into the metal strip so it grips. It seems as though I could buy 4-in-1’s like those they sell at Home Depot (Performance Accessories) or Lowes (Project Source) and try to make it work. I am thinking that I would like the reducer in hand so I know how wide of a gap to leave when I put down the flooring (and leave the installation of the strips for later). I would appreciate any similar experiences people have had. There seems a more common situation where the tile is the “higher” floor.
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14 Replies
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To clarify the thicknesses. the hardwood flooring is 3/4″, the engineered hardwood is 7 mm, and I am using the blue Quietwalk which is about 3.3 mm, so what I am putting down is about 10.3 mm or about 0.4 inches (13/32″), so the height difference is about 11/32″, just under 3/8″. My plan was to bring a sample of the floor I am using with a picture of the existing hardwood (and my wife) to Home Depot and finding the 4-in-1 that blends the best colorwise.
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That is a good plan!
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If I can tag another question….
I’m putting two small engineering hardwood plank (5″ wide) pieces between a floor vent (wood subfloor) and a slider door. The vent is ~10″ wide and the flooring is close to “lining up,” so the two pieces will be ~2″x5″, each attached to the other and a longer plank. I cut a rectangular hole (~4″x10″) for the vent in the blue Quietwalk underlayment I am using, so the two pieces will be on the underlayment “strip.” I have the clear Gorilla glue. The two pieces will eventually go under both an endcap I haven’t bought yet against the slider base and the lip of the vent cover. Shall I (A) glue these two pieces on both the tongue and grove sides? Or do I (B) figure they will be held in place by the lips of the vent cover and the end cap so just rely on the ~2″ tongue and grove connections? I can take a picture if you need one.
An answer of A or B would be sufficient. Thanks.
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share a pic
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Another question–this time with pictures. The big bedroom has two wide (but not walk-in deep) closets with mirror-sliders (as opposed to bi-folds). The mirror-slider doors are heavy, with most (90+%) of the weight supported on the base-rail-guide, not the top. This was all originally on top of uninterrupted carpet (the carpet was not cut around it). My challenge is how to keep the planks floating. The third picture has the base upside-down. Originally I was thinking of attaching the base to the subfloor with the big screws with a gap around them to allow the floor to float (the screws fixed, the base floats). Now I’m thinking that, with this approach, the base would pin the planks to the subfloor, keeping from floating. Thoughts?
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I understood the first way, with the oversized holes (saw it on a video, probably yours), and this was my plan all along and why I just kept the planks going into the closet. But I don’t think the floor will float with this method because of the weight of the mirror doors–I can’t imagine the railing moving with the planks due to expansion/contraction of the flooring (unless I lifted up on the mirror doors to relieve some of the weight). So I am strongly considering the second method. I will probably need to buy a (cheap) circular saw to do this–seems like this would take forever with my oscillating tool.
Just to lift the two mirror doors by myself is near the limit of my strength (and I work out every week).
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We had a lot of group discussion around the table with family about this, including replacing it by bi-folds. Current thought: remove the slider doors, take out the closet flooring I put it, install the track per your instructions (on wood/flooring, with a gap under the track on each side), and put the planks (appropriately trimmed) back in. I was having a lot of problems getting the gaps in the closets to close (on the long side of the planks)–I think because I didn’t realize I could take out the slider doors until I was done (the weight on the track was binding the planks). There are still a lot of gaps in the closet now and hopefully this would reduce them. Thanks for your comments and recommendations.
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good plan!!
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Regarding my most recent post with the mirror slider doors, the solution I chose was to attach the strip directly to the subfloor (I doubled the number of holes) but raised it a bit using washers. This allows the strip to support most of the weight of the heavy mirror slider door but I am confident the flooring will be able to float under the strip, if necessary.
But I have another questions regarding the basement floor–I will be using the same planks (engineered SPC) and padding (blue QuietWalk). Two rooms and a hallway have a painted concrete floor (the paint is peeling a few places) that I am convinced was painted after carpet was removed. Pictures are below. The first picture is my main concern–see the penny–it is painted in the gap and the depth of the gap is about 1/3 of the penny inserted into it. I think much of the gap was filled sloppily, leaving it rough, with some of it above the floor level and some below, all painted over (third picture, an area one or two feed over from the first picture, maybe the thickness of a penny below and above floor level). The second and fourth picture show pits from the carpet tack removal along the edge, painted over (I’m not too concerned about this). The hallway has some rough parts that are raised and painted over (about a penny thickness high, two at the worst, fifth picture). The sixth and seventh picture are also in the hallway). In storage there is a partially used bag of “LevelQuik RS Self-Leveling Underlayment” that may be responsible for this mess before it was painted. Do I need to fill the crack in the first picture? If so, do I need to get the paint out of there first before trying to fill it? Also, do I need to try to grind down the other raised areas? I can try to take more pics if needed. Thanks.
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