They have some bamboo floors that are onsale for $1.99 / SF which is a very good price. I remember installing my bamboo floor in the bedroom six years ago and it was $14.00 / SF installed.
The onky thing is that these are special "closeouts" that are 72" long. The
36" long ones are $3.99 and they look the same.
I am wondering does 72" long plank really work on a room that is only say
12'x12'? The planks are T&G, so if you place at the edge two 6' planks, what do you do for the next row? If you want it staggered say 12", you may cut the 72" length plank into a 60" piece and a 12" piece. Then after the
60" piece, you put in a full 72" piece, then the 12" you cut off on one end will now be placed at the other end? So for each row you use two planks cut in different lengths?
Somehow I think this will not look good with planks this long. Something about it bothers me.
1st Row .... 2 lengths
2nd row ..... 1/2 length, full length, half length Continue till finished
if you want a more random look cut a length at any length you like ... dont even have to measure, then lay full length, then off cut of first length. repeat till finished
either wat you go the end joins should not be all that obvious as to jump out and grab you anyway.
How can I do random length if it is tongue and groove? If I cut one end that end has to be against the wall and no way it will lock into the next plank, right? or is there a trick?
It is not a simple question. I believe there is no way one can take a 72" long floor plank and cut it into random lengths and use them if thse planks are tongue and groove on all four edges. Someone suggested cutting them but I cannot visualize how this could work.
long floor plank and cut it into random lengths and use them if thse >planks are tongue and groove on all four edges. Someone >suggested cutting them but I cannot visualize how this could work.
I went to the LL website to look at the floor, and I am not sure you were clear until asking about the tongue and groove question as to what you were after. I am not sure the other guys are either. If I am reading your question right, it has as much to do with installing the long planks correctly as it does maintaining a pattern of a nice looking floor.
I THINK this material has T&G all four sides, and at only 5/8" thick, I sure hope so. I am basing this reply on that. You may need to dummy up a couple of model pieces to help you see the tongue and groove on the ends of our "pieces" to see how this would work. Here goes:
Imagine your 12' wide room. We are only concerned with the edges, here for purposes of orientation. Put your piece of flooring (a full plank) in the middle of the floor with the tongue on the left, and the groove on the right. You should now have 3' on each side to the walls.
If you get this part, order the material - you got it.
Take another piece of your 6' flooring material, and cut it in half. With the same orientation of tongue on the left and groove on the right, hold the pieces in your left and right hands, separately.
Walk up to the full plank on the floor, and put the piece in your left hand on the right side, which should mate up by putting the tongue on the piece in the groove on the full plank. Now you are closed with floor to the wall on the right hand side, and you have a proper edge joint.
Take the other piece still in your right hand, and mate up the tongue on the full plank into the groove on your piece. This will close you to the wall.
You now have one run, with a full piece in the middle, with proper T&G joints made up on both sides to hold the joints closed in times of movement. You can use any combination of short pieces using the drop off by switching the side, but you will ALWAYS have a 6' piece somewhere in there if you want to maintain the T&G joints.
You could cut 12" off your full plank, start with that piece, then put your full plank, then put the remaining 60" piece in. The concept is always the same. But I am with you, unless you were shootnig for some kind of stairstep pattern, it could look funky.
The solution? To make it random, you could buy a box of the 36" pieces to mix in, and then you wouldn't have to worry about having to mate up to a 72" piece to maintain the T&G joints.
I wouldn't butt joint the ends of flooring on a dare. I live in a really high humidity environment, and the heat causes floors to walk all over the place here. Joints open, joints close, wood literally buckles up and pops off the screeds or concrete sometimes.
Make sure you leave the suggested expansion margins around this flooring. Pop off the shoe mold/quarter round - its cheap to replace and hold the floor back from the wall.
I am sorry. I think the problem as nailshooter41 stated, is I did a poor job of communicating in my first post. I have read the links and they dont specifically address my questions. I have done floor installations in the past, my question has to do with 36" pieces versus 72" pieces. Sorry to have confused everyone.
Robert, yes you hit the nail on my head...I am sorry to have confused everyone in my first post. The low priced 72" planks are T&G on all four sides, and thus I cannot see how I can cut a piece down and not use the cut pieces with the cut end against the wall. Therefore I cannot see how I can say make ten 72" planks into 20 36" planks and use them that way. It seems I have to get a full 72" plank into each row, and if I want random or staggered patterns, it would be a real challenge and I will end up wasting a lot of pieces that would make it NOT a good deal anymore and better off to get the 36" planks. Unless I cut them all off at the end and make them a nail down application instead of glue down,
That was what I was trying to ask, and I did a terrible job asking and caused a lot of confusion.
I wouldn't go overboard on the apologies. I'm, glad to help. I was thinking that was your predicament as years ago I put a lot of discount/closeout flooring in rent houses for a guy. We had all kinds of patterns in rooms trying to use the different lengths that the flooring outlet couldn't sell.
Thank Rico for my reply - I laughed my ass off at his missive:
I thought he was going to smack your ass and send you to your room to work on your coloring books with no TV or computer.
Love that sarcasm.
DON"T ARGUE WITH ME GDAMNIT - LOOK AT MY LINK! So what I tell you to do, I don't care if it answers your questions!
I had this great image in my head of MC looking at all the "pretty" pics, the ads, the animated GIFs, the pop ups and everything else... everything but what he needed.
Gotta laugh.
It's that kind of understanding and generosity that makes the internet fun.
This is a newsgroup. It's text-based. Even the clearest explanation won't have the clarity of a series of pictures. You have trouble visualizing things. Words won't help that.
I am not busting your chops (well, maybe a little), I'm trying to teach you how to find out some of this stuff for yourself. You know I've helped you with a _bunch_ of questions on various newsgroups, so it's not like I haven't exerted a little effort on your behalf. All of these questions have been asked and answered before and there are a plethora of web sites with the information. If you get stuck, of course, please _do_ ask your questions. But asking basic questions on some of this simple stuff makes it look like you want other people to do your research for you with little or not effort on your part.
The general technique for laying the field works like this: Cut a board so that the short side is about 9" or so. Use one of the cut pieces at either end of a row. It will only fit together one way, and only that one way will allow both cut ends to be hidden under the baseboard shoe. Fill in with longer planks as necessary. Cut the longer cut-end piece to finish the row to the right length. On the next row, cut the shorter end 6" longer; on the row after that another
6" longer. Repeat until you finish the room.
The length of the boards has little to do with it. Length only affects the amount of waste, and that has to do with your estimating and layout skills. From that Google search, a few links down, will help with the layout:
formatting link
a little further down (even prettier pictures and an _extremely_ detailed explanation) will help with everything:
Just for giggles, why not Google how many times I've posted answers to MC's questions?
You do understand the inverse relationship between generosity and patience, don't you? If not, send me a dollar. I'll be asking for another next week...
No need to. I know you post a lot of info helping folks on this group and on others. It was just funny, damnit, the way you fired out at him.
Everyone knows that level of frustration when dealing with others. Especially when you feel like you have laid out a road map, told someone where to start, and then you feel like they want you to drive, too.
Although this isn't the case here, I have a friend of mine that says 'well Hell, Robert, you've gotten it this far, would you mind helping me finish?" Meaning of course, would you do it for me. (Not pointing fingers at you MC).
Worse, when I take the time to email him detailed instructions on how to do something he will glance over them lightly and then call me anyway to have me explain over the phone how to do something.
don't you?
Absolutely. Look how many times I have posted
Try this: linklinklinklink. link link link
I just think it is better than the old famous "DAGS" without even a sig.
Hey, me too. More than once I felt like firing a response back like that, but in the end, I just go to another thread.
I just was thinking you might have missed something with MC this time.
So you singed his tailfeathers a bit... I say no harm, no foul.
You need to go look at some laid floors. Having a 72" piece in every row is not a problem at all - in fact it is quite normal. The objective is to have other random lengths such that the joints are staggered in a nearly, or seemingly non-repetitive manner. Simply apply what Robert instructed and you're good to go. Do yourself a favor and think about Robert's reply and go look at some floors. Don't jump to another question quickly or you won't be giving yourself enough time to think this through. It's obvious that you're just not getting it, and that happens sometimes. That's where looking at other floors will prove to be an immeasurable help.
RicodJour, yes you have helped me a great deal and I appreciate all the help you offered, and no offense taken here. I guess I don't use the usenet the same way. I assure you I do research and read online materials as well as various DIY sites, but I also come to the usenet groups and get expert second opinion as well. I found this has helped a great deal in some cases especially I get various angles to approach the same problem. Sometimes even if I am sure what to do about a particular situation, if I have a week or a few days to prepare for it, I will still post to the usenet and get some feedback if only to make sure I cover every angle. I found done a bunch of DIY projects and I have been so lucky that I will have the entire plan of attack in mind with all scenerios planned out and then when I do it, I run into situations I never considered. So a lot of times it's not that I don't do research, it's about getting more input to enforce my approach or possibly discover flawed thinking that I might have.
With something like laying out a floor, you can spend hours researching and asking questions or fifteen minutes laying out the floor (aka racking) in place. Slide the full length pieces of a few rows around until you get something that satisfies you and provides sufficient overlap between rows. Then insure that none of the cut end pieces are shorter than ~1', and you're good to go.
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