Which way should I lay my realwood floorboards?

Nomad44

I'm in a bit of a quandary about which direction my floor should be laid. Its going down in the hallway and living room which run into each other via an architrave. The hallway is narrow, obviously, and the living room is a rectangle shape. I'll try and illustrate below:

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The window is illustrated by the vertical lines at the east side of the living room and the current floor is laid pretty much as it looks in the illustration.

The subfloor is an older wooden floor which also runs in the same direction. I've been told that I should lay the floor perpendicular to the subfloor(something which the last installer didn't do), but this would mean the living room would have floorboards running width ways, contrary to what the experts say about laying in the direction that the sunlight enters the room. I'm thinking this might make the living room look narrower aswell.

Ideally I would like to lay the boards lengthways in the hallway (bowling alley effect) and have them running parrallel to the longest wall in the living room (this would mean running them in the same direction as the subfloor) Would this look odd, to change direction?

boliston

i think the main thing is to have them all running the same way

Mr.Generous

it doesn't matter which way you run them, if its well fitted it will look great.

dirty_magic

OH says they're meant to go in the direction of the light, not sure why. We changed ours when we replaced the old laminate so that it went with the light and the boards ran vertically down the hall instead of horizontally.

I think they look a lot better going lenthways down the hall so I think I'd do that in your situation regardless of light. I think it would be better to have them going in the same direction, but it would probably still look ok if you put a door bar between the hall and living room.

ritesh

Generally they are laid in the line of light entering a window and in the same direction. I can see your dilemma, but with a well laid floor you will really appreciate the beauty.

Wassa123

It's meant to be towards the light/prettiest window (ie towards the green garden) so to draw your eyes out to give it a more spacious feel.

thescouselander

According to guy who fitted our kitchen floor the traditional way is to lay the boards going from the front to the back of the house.

Doozergirl

Based on the above answers, there isn't a right answer. &#55357;&#56842;

You get to please yourself and stop procrastinating.

robatwork

When I did a similar layout to yours I did it the other way to your diagram - lengthways down the hall. And kept it the same in the living room.

That hall had 6 doorways and a staircase, which was a real pig to lay!

Nowadays I would sit and smoke a cigar while watching someone else do it.

BTW top marks for seeing some ASCII art in here.

patman99

If you don't mind a lot of sawing (or, if like me, you have invested in a circular cross-cut saw) you could lay it at 45 degrees to the wall.

tonyh66

I tend to like mine laid perpendicular to the joists.