Engineered Wood flooring - Expansion Query

[Sarah29]

Hi,

 

Could anyone please offer a thought on the following as I'm getting conflicting advice here.

 

 - Room is a reception room 10m x 6m with one door coming in (picture below)
 - Engineered wood herringbone layout flooring is going down
 - No underfloor heating
 - Skirting is coming off and will be put on after therefore the flooring will have around 10-15mm expansion on all sides

 

The problem is at the door. The next room is tiled and will have a flush edge tile profile threshold like the picture below.

 

I want the wooden floor to come up and meet this tile threshold neatly. 

 

Surely this would be fine since the wooden flooring has expansion in all other directions? I have some people telling me I must use cover threshold here to cater for expansion.

 

Separately, would gluedown be recommended given the size of the room?

 

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks, Sarah

 
 

[Oz07]

No i think you'd still need expansion here. Cant you get a t bar in the same finish as floor will only protrude 7mm or so

[JohnMo]

+1 as @Oz07 says, that is how ours was done. You definitely need expansion gaps. T bar just straddles the gaps and makes it look pretty.

[Sparrowhawk]

If you can float the floor then do it rather than glue it down, for the sake of whoever has to lift it next.

 

I've lifted a 3x2m engineered wood floor that was nailed every 10cm and the 40cm nearest each wall glued down. Absolute nightmare, and I've another 5x3m room to do that's the same.

[joe90]

49 minutes ago, Sparrowhawk said:

If you can float the floor then do it rather than glue it down, for the sake of whoever has to lift it next.

I question why you would lay a floor so it can be lifted again?. I laid an engineering oak floor in my build and glued it down, I hate floating floors as they often sound hollow. The threshold to tiles (I made from Oak) had a 10mm expansion gap.

[Sparrowhawk]

24 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I question why you would lay a floor so it can be lifted again?

 

Getting to pipes underneath and replacing it would be my top reasons. Perhaps different if you have solid floors rather than suspended, as easy access for emergencies should be less needed.

[ProDave]

Our engineered woof floor runs continuously through kitchen / dining, hallway, and living room with expansion gaps all the way round under skirting as one continuous run.

 

In the hall it abuts the tiled entrance area with a flush tight fit with no problems.

 

 

[Susie]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Our engineered woof floor runs continuously through kitchen / dining, hallway, and living room with expansion gaps all the way round under skirting as one continuous run.

 

In the hall it abuts the tiled entrance area with a flush tight fit with no problems.

 

 

The OP is laying herringbone are yours also herringbone or if not what’s the longest continuous length you have as I have similar to plan out.  

[saveasteading]

I have engineered flooring that has generally stayed flat but one are has developed a small bulge 10 years later.  So, yes it needs allowance for expansion.

 

I had a 'disaster' with non-engineered glued down parquet. I laid it with a 12mm cork surround and it expanded, and made a foot high bulge in the middle.

Re-laid with 24mm cork surround....and it shrank leaving gaps all over the place.

 

In any case, the edge of the wood needs protection at the edge into the doorway, especially if cut, so a simple T insert threshold is advisable.

 

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, Susie said:

The OP is laying herringbone are yours also herringbone or if not what’s the longest continuous length you have as I have similar to plan out.  

11 metres end to end of the house, but not herringone, just wide planks.

[MikeSharp01]

25 minutes ago, ProDave said:

11 metres end to end of the house, but not herringone, just wide planks.

 

5 hours ago, ProDave said:

In the hall it abuts the tiled entrance area with a flush tight fit with no problems.

Not fixed down by the door though so all the expansion is away from the door, is your floating on a membrane?

[Susie]

It will be floated on a membrane, actually considering diagonal across the room into the hall.  The room is roughly 7m x 6m but the hall lines up in the middle of the 7m side we either have short lengths width ways in hall or long lengths hall is 19m so difficult for expansion ie 6m + 19m through door way wall to wall.  Haven’t seen it done often but diagonal gives a nice dimension in room and breaks hall up.  longest length would be just over 9m in room and 6m room through door into hall. A bit tricky to start but once a few down can’t see too many problems as very square room. Hope that makes sense.