hey guys, I've done this job a few times, but never in this application, and I'm a little stumped.......when installing 3/4 inch tongue and groove, I've always started on one wall and worked toward the other wall........'cause the nail or staple has to go through the tongue so you work in one direction. But what if you are going to start down a long hall, and then it opens up in both directions.......how do you handle that? You see, cause when you open out in both directions, then you're going to lose the "tongue edge" on one side...........am I explaining this right? Thoughts?
GET A HOLD OF JGRANDE IN THE CANADA SECTION HES THE BEST WHEN IT COMES TO THIS AND HAS HELPED ME AND OTHERS HERE OVER THE YEARS.. BRUCE
Personally I would rack the entire job before installing a single nail. Racking is the process of laying out the entire floor, even the end cuts prior to nailing In most rooms people run the floor 90 degrees to the hallway because of the problem you are describing. Very simply lay out you hallway w/o nailing it, then layout the rooms w/o nailing them. Then nail one room, including the pieces extending into the hallway, then the other room and finish with the hallway. You are making an "H" where the hallway serves as the horizontal line and the vertical lines need to be though of as the rooms. It seems like you want all the boards grain to run in the same direction, so you need to make the first room define the hallway, not the other way around. Let's see if I can quasi draw it: Room A -----------Hallway----------Room B XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX----------------------------XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX----------------------------XXXXXXXX XXXXXX----------------------------XXXXXXXX So do Room A and let the pieces fall past the borderline and into the hallway. Once the hallway is defined, rack the hallway w/o nailing it to set your measurements in Room B. Nail Room B and let it fall over the line into the hallway, if you did not screw up the hallway will fall right into place. A piece of string makes the perfect straight line, use some to confirm you are staying on course. I had to add the dashes since the picture did not work otherwise, your boards are represented by the Xs only, ignore the dashes.
I'm commenting from ignorance; but from a purely hypothetical viewpoint wouldn't the problem be solved if the flooring mfr provided a "double-tongue" plank or if you purchased a "tongue-width" x2 hardwood strip of the right dimensions to fit into the groove and have a new tongue stick out on the opposite side? This would allow you to reverse the direction of the tongue & groove if you needed to. Why wouldn't the mfr support some method like that?
Some guys make their own double tongue using a thin slice of wood. Ideally you'd want to have access to a table saw so you could cut yourself a 8ft long, 5/32" thick by about 1/2" wide shim. If you go this route you'll have to nail the groove side on one of the two boards, I'd pre-drill and use serrated nails. Do not nail through the face of the board, nail in at a 45 degree angle so you are just catching the bottom lip of the groove. Someone mentioned the use of glue for that one board that is reversed, and that can be done as well, but you need to remember to glue wood on wood, not wood on rosin paper.
Heres a related question I have a hardwood floor that has buckled & there is a hump in it about 6" tall & over 10 ft long. How the HLL do I fix that ? Can I just fix that or do I have to replace the whole floor ? Thanks
Either the floor was exposed to water damage or you did not allow a 1/4" perimeter around the outer edge for expansion. You do not floor wall to wall, you leave a gap that you hide with your base board molding for expansion. Even though the floor is nailed into place, wood expands and contracts w/ humidity. For boards to lift 6" requires the nails to pulled out of the subfloor. I would cut out the bad section using a circular saw set to the proper depth to not injure the sub-floor. I'd cut about 1/8" off of the line between boards as to not touch the the keeper boards. You will be forced to glue the repaired section in, so get rid of the rosin paper between wood layers. If you have spare wood from the original project and spare finish, you can do a patch job that can be invisible. If have to purchase wood and finish, sand the entire floor and start with a consistant layer of finish over the entire floor to create a color match.
