Wood floor orientation

I would like to put a wood floor into a square bedroom with one door and one window, located on adjacent walls. Sould the boards run parallel to the door or the window? Thanks.

JAR8832 said:

I would like to put a wood floor into a square bedroom with one door and one window, located on adjacent walls. Sould the boards run parallel to the door or the window? Thanks.

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To a certain extent that have to run across the joists, and not parallel to them, so you may have a quandary.

You can place them on a diagonal, which will avoid any problems with support, but it may not be your cup of tea.

If the joists are properly sized, and you have at least 3/4" plywood underlayment, you probably could run parallel to the joists.

If you have strip underlayment, that precludes going parallel unless you glue and screw at minimum 1/2" plywood to the existing underlayment prior to the flooring.

I know that you you're asking a 'visual preference' question, but mechanics count heavily.

That said, if you place the flooring so that it goes side-to-side across the doorway, it will make the room look wider that way, despite its being square to begin with.

Run them the other way and the room will appear longer, front to back, as you walk in.

Hope that helped somehow.

HE

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to specify that its a wood laminate, floating floor, the cheap 99 cent/sqft stuff. I'm not too concerned with the structural issues, the floor is very stiff. I have no desire to make it diagonal. Thanks again.

As with many such issues, I suggest that the correct answer is to run it the way the lady of the house wants!

Now, visually, it does look different depending on which way you put it.
Why not take out a box of planks and lay them out, take a look, then shift the orientation.

I agree with the comment about let the lady of the house decide.

If you don't care about the structural integrity then the general rule is that hardwood flooring or floating floor should run parallel to the largest window in the room. In your case the only window.

Tom