Another hardwood flooring question - size

fireant911 · 10-12-2012, 03:14 PM

We are in process of selecting hardwood to go into three rooms in our home. Our question is in regards to the size. In our earlier house, we installed 3-1/4" Canandian Maple and it looked great. This house will use Natural Maple yet we are undecided in the width (it will be 3/4" thick) - we are debating on whether to use the traditional 3-1/4" wide material or a 4" wide material. The rooms in question are the Master Bedroom (15'-3"x15'-9"), my wife's office (10'-9"x15'-2"), and my office (13'-6"x10'-6"). Does anyone have any experience with the 4" width? Does it require a larger room to look 'right'?

look 171 · 10-12-2012, 03:46 PM

Forget about looking "right". What's right to you may not be right for me or an interior designer. Keep this in mind, the wider the board, the more likely it is to warp. I say to keep it small. I like 1 1/2" wide traditional width. Do you see basketball court with the wide stuff? I am not sure if they use the wide boards, because I don't go to basketball games. Next time have a look at a wide floor. You are certain to see waves from a little of cupping on a wide plank floor compare to a 1 1/2" flooring.

Good thing about Maple is that it is a stable lumber.

john70t · 10-12-2012, 04:06 PM

From a design perspective: Smaller objects in a small room make it look "normal".
Alice in Wonderland effect.
Light colors also make a space/object/walls bigger. Darker walls shrink a room.

Get some paper, draw lines the width of first-choice flooring, and set it on the floor in a pattern.
Then do the same with different flooring widths.
Cross your eyes and look around, and walk back and forth into the space to notice the difference.

Or model it in sketchup.Trimble SketchUp

fireant911 · 10-13-2012, 01:40 PM

look 171,
The warpage factor was quite interesting. I did some additional searches after you mentioned that and saw that some builders will not install 'plank-style' flooring (anything 4" or greater is considered 'plank'). Further, if plank material is utilized it should be glued as well as nailed to the floor. I discussed this with my wife and we opted for the 3-1/4" material.

john70t,
I thought long and hard about the visual Impression of the room in regards to flooring width juxtaposed against the size of the room. We might be able to use the larger material in the Master Bedroom but I had serious concerns about the two offices because their footprint is not big enough to visually support the wider material. This, too, I discussed with the wife and she agreed to the 3-1/4" material.

We already have 3-1/2" hardwood through the Living Room, hallways, and Kitchen (not our idea but the previous owners had that done). We 'suspect' that this flooring is Kempos - it is truly beautiful with the various shades but could not find who manufactured that wood so we decided to go with something radically different. We will get our quote early next week and have the material installed just before Thanksgiving. Thanks for your insight!

look 171 · 10-13-2012, 03:29 PM

Acclimation is important. Most guys over look this little process due to time.

fireant911 · 11-08-2012, 03:00 PM

The installers did their job and finished last Wednesday. Below is a representation of their handiwork.

We had an interesting issue since part of our house already had hardwood installed. We suspect that the existing wood was Kempas and were unable to find a match so we went with a totally different wood. Below is a picture of that transition.

We have ordered Natural Maple vent covers that have not yet arrived. The most interesting part of this journey was 'who' we selected to install the flooring (it is solid 3/4" Natural Maple 3-1/4" wide by Somerset) - thanks look171 and john70t. We obtained four quotes and the installation cost varied ($2.75/sq ft, $3.50/sq ft, $2.50 sq ft, and $1.35/sq ft). The best service we received when selecting the material was at the place that gave us the $1.35/sq ft quote. Initially, I did not believe the last quote and made them repeat it to me three times!

I had already measured all the rooms and closets that were to receive hardwood ~ 600 sq ft. Three of the installer's quotes were very liberal with with their measurements whereas the fourth was right on target and adhered to their estimated overages. This store we went with was a small, family-owned business that, according to the owners, used "good, church-going people" as their installers. The installers were great and were very accommodating to all my questions.

look 171 · 11-09-2012, 12:20 AM

it looks fantastic Daryl. $ 1.35???? you got a smoking deal. good for the both of you. Normally, they are $2.50-3.00 and that's Ca pricing.