I had a chance to get together with a floor finishing friend this past week up in the Smoky Mountains. The job entailed staining a new solid hardwood floor in the Maple species but what always catches my eye are the way the floors are installed. Seems the original crew was fired from the job. The installation itself wasn't horrible mind you, but it's those little things that really get to me.
Communication With The Tile Guys
Transition areas are always important. In high end homes like this it's rare you see actual trim moldings placed in areas that connect to other floor coverings including tile. Instead the floor gets butted or fits snug to the tile. For some installers, I know what you're thinking...
"Maple? Tight fit? Definitely problems waiting to happen."
Regardless of what is right and wrong, I've seen floors like this do well for years without problems. On the other hand I've seen some with well maintained expansion areas that buckled. Go figure.
Okay to the story. I don't know many of the details in the job, keeping a distance as the owner was present along with the builder. Besides they must have been aware of what I saw.
Tiles Higher Than The Hardwood Floor
It would have made sense that someone would have stressed the importance of keeping the tile the same height as the finished hardwood floor. Pretty easy to do too. As the tile was installed prior to the hardwood all the tile guys had to do was check the height with a scrap of material being used. Instead this is how it came out.
If the tile guys had problems keeping the floor from being too high (concrete backer board underneath) the hardwood guys could have stepped in and shimmed the area so a smooth uninterrupted flow was the final result.
And another area that connects to ceramic tile. This is very common with tile installations and not as severe as the one above. Okay the tile guys did a half decent job and I think the hardwood guys could have made this work providing they installed the butt ends straight to this area and filling with a flexible material.
Next. My first thought was maybe they wanted the sleek contemporary look and said no to common bull nosing. What do you think? What could we put there?
