Transitions: From tiles to wooden floors.

How to use transitions between tile and wooden floors.

Wooden floors, whether natural hardwood, laminate or luxury vinyl have become very popular for many home owners in recent years. So what's the big issue with floor transitions? The answer is simple. Because modern glueless click systems are well engineered and reliable most DIY flooring projects normally turn out well except for one detail, the transitions between two floor types look terrible. Whether you’re installing solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, laminate, or tile the issue is the same. You need to plan the floor transitions before you start any flooring installation. Advise your customers on transitions and sell them the appropriate strips.

There are several basic issues that arise at floor transitions.

Elevation – The final floor elevation of each type of material is a major issue that needs proper attention in order for your new floor to look great and not become a maintenance issue. Elevation changes are fairly common in remodeling projects when sub-floors can’t easily be adjusted for different flooring thicknesses. Using a reducer is the easiest way to take care of this problem. This can occur if you install a hardwood or laminate floor over an existing floor adjacent to a flooring material that will not be changing.

Location of Transition - The actual location that you stop one flooring type and start another within a door opening, cased opening or room separation is a very important aesthetic consideration.

Special Transitions – Stairways can pose some interesting transitions that need special attention and transition pieces. We'll discuss staircases in more detail another time.

There are two main types of transitions pieces:

Reducer T-mould

Reducers also called overlap reducers are used to create a smooth transition between floors of different height. Typically the reducer is wood or MDF and is matched to the wooden floor. Reducers also protect the edge of the wood from foot traffic. An overlap squarenose is similar but with square ends rather than curves.

T-moulds are used to bridge two areas of flooring that are the exact same height. The T-moulding overlaps the exposed edges and is secured to the sub floor, often in an aluminium channel but never to the floor itself. Generally this piece is used as the transition between rooms or as an expansion gap in the same wooden floor.

Make yourself familiar with the various flooring accessories and their uses and advise customers accordingly, after all it's increasing your sales

Download our KREM and TESSCERA tile brochures here.
Download our LAMADEIRA laminate and vinyl brochures here.

For any other inquiries about tiles or laminate & vinyl flooring please send us an email.

Ciao,

The Link International team.