But aesthetics matter and that means you should stagger the joints while laying out your flooring.
How to lay wood flooring staggered seams.
Some wood flooring comes with several lengths in the same package to help you stagger the seams.
Most hardwood floors consist of many individual planks or boards measuring differing lengths but having the same width.
This will stagger the seams between the adjacent rows in a random way.
For row two score and snap the first plank in half.
The national wood flooring association recommends maintaining randomness when staggering floor planks.
The rule of thumb that professional flooring installers follow is to stagger the end joint of adjacent rows by a distance equal to 2 or 3 times the width of the plank.
How you arrange these planks in size is up to you and the result has little effect on the functionality of the floor.
Separate them by length so you can grab different lengths each time.
To start row 3 cut a full width plank to the length of the trimmed ripped piece at the end of row 1.
That makes 6 inches the most common minimum spacing for 2 and 3 inch hardwood boards but laminate planks are typically wider than this.
Even with proper connections.
Its end should be at least 6 to 8 inches apart from the closest seam in row one.
Here s how to install click lock engineered hardwood flooring.
Use 1 2 inch spacers to assist in maintaining the 1 2 inch expansion gap between the first row of flooring planks and the wall.
That s what you re after.
Lay out your wood planks by size.
How to install laminate flooring like a boss laminate floor blog.
As a rule you never want the seams of adjacent boards to be less than 8 inches apart i.
Put the first board up against the mason s line with the groove side facing away from the walls.
Today s wood flooring products have tongue and groove construction or click lock fasteners that hold the planks of wood together.
One way to do this is to maintain a minimum distance between adjacent end joints of at least 6 inches.
Another way is to avoid regular stagger patterns such as steps or lightning and h patterns.