Which way should I orient these tiles?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Oh, the agony.

I am redoing the flooring in a small basement room/hallway. These are ceramic tiles that look like wood, and are long and thin.

I was originally going to orient the tiles (boards) to go the length of the room,



but that makes the boards cross the hallway at 90 degrees.




I was thinking the hallway would look better if the boards went down it's length. Obviously I would stagger these:







(you enter from the hallway, leading the eye down the hallway, but that would mean the main room would have boards running across it's narrower width than length. I thinking that might be okay though, as it would make the narrower dimension of the room appear longer, and visually would make a slighty rectangular room look square.

The more I look at this, the less I like the boards running across the hallway. I think I want them to run down it, but I don't want that direction to mess up the main room.

Also- if I do a future addition to the house, the hallway will be abandoned as an entry way, and the boards would look better running the length of the room and perpendicular to the hall as in the first pic, however, I don't know if I will ever get to the addition as my wife hates the house.

Set me straight.

Thoughts? Does it even matter?

Random pics of boards running in both directions:

[Por_sha911]

Boards in the hallway need to run lengthwise and not across the hall so it makes sense to run the same direction in the room.

[Oracle]

Lengthwise as it gives more visual flow to your rooms.. (In some cases depending on the base floor like beams and wavy floors the orientation is driven rather than chosen)
Either way I would consider using a subloor to eliminate the cold (depending where you live) or at least the plastic then thin foam underlay to eliminate possible odours from the concrete and or humidity (depending on your area).

thats a cool project.. I actually got help from my 4yo at that time to hand me the tiles.. its was family fun project. And if it's not perfect.. pfftt. who cares..

[rwest]

I see two more options: first, you could go at 45 degrees; second is you could change direction between the room and hall- hall goes long and room goes long. You’ll have to see how it looks; fairly common practice to change direction usually under a door though.

[BeyGon]

Yes, or use 12/14" tile and it won't matter
Yes as in lengthwise down the hall
45 degree could make some rooms look pretty busy

[john70t]

Use lengthwise in the dominant hallway.
You see it most often=You notice the flaws most often.
Cover the other with a "big splash of color/pattern" area rugs with wall pictures to distract.

Or use complimentary tiles in the two areas (w/threshold to separate) and dramatically separate the spaces.

In smaller areas:
Always tend to use lighter colors small fixtures and intricate patterns.
They will seem more precise and valuable.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

Yes, or use 12/14" tile and it won't matter

LOL! Too late now!!! Live and learn I guess.

Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. I may post some more pics tomorrow for ideas, as I might tile the bathroom (seen in the first pic) and a walk in closet halfway down the hallway.

Orienting the tile down the hall into the room sure visually really does invite you in.

Walking back downstairs after posting this I saw the tiles from upstairs. Lengthwise rocks.



Also, projects like this make one realize how much of a craphole the rest of the house is. Now I need to redo the carpets on the steps. And paint the wall on the left. No wonder my wife hates the place!

[billybek]

Try laying out so that you change directions at the entrance of the hall.
I wouldn't go across the hall and would agree that running the length of the room would be more desirable. Otherwise go with the longest run direction.
You could always do a border tile around the outside of the room and that would give you a break to run a different direction in the hallway if you choose to.
The hardwood in our house follows the longest run from the end of the hall all the way across the living room.
The rest of the house follows this layout with no change of direction.
I did the same when I put down the laminate in the basement.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Also, I would like to give Kudos to the POS harbor freight oscillating tool I bought last week to get the glued in carpet underlayment/padding removed.

I assumed it would break before the room was even finished, yet it is still going strong.

Best $18 bucks I have spent recently. They get you with the attachments as none are included, however, the padding was glued to the floor with some nuclear fission based material and the tool removed it like shearing lamb's wool.

With the plunge cutter head, I should be able to plunge cut the door mouldings to allow the tile to fit underneath.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I think I will experiment with changing direction at the end of the hallway before commit. I may go down and arrange some tile.

[john70t]

It is a big project.

Take a moment more and be sure.

[drkshdw]

Lay rectangular tile the same as you would wood flooring. Lengthwise according to direction of traffic. If the traffic in the room is lengthwise then the tile goes that way. Same as in a hallway. Sometimes that means going in opposite directions in different rooms though.

Or you can do the 45* thing like rwest said. It seems to be a 'trend' nowadays to do that in rooms that don't necessarily need it. Although it does look nice when it's done.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Actually- that doesn't look half bad. ^^^^

Quicker than you can click on parf, I went and arranged the tiles to go lengthwise down the hall, and joined it into a lengthwise in the room as suggested.

Keeping the tiles running down the hallway into the room would certainly draw one into the room better, and rugs would hide the perpindicular to the room bit, but this gives the lengthwise to the room that would be nice too.

The joint doesn't look as egregious as I thought it would.

Thoughts?

[LEAKYSEALS951]

another view.

[john70t]

Put a wide threshold there, imo.
Even a quiet one.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^that's what I was thinking too with the direction change. Thanks.

[Baz]

My home is saltillo (Mexican) tile throughout and was put in diagonally - looks great!

[RKDinOKC]

Brother interweaved the hallway planks out into the room instead of having the planks just abruptly change directions.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^ That would be neat to see a pic of that. All I come up in google images is a herringbone type pattern, which I don't know how I would do unless I did the whole room like that.

[RKDinOKC]

Can't find and don't have any pictures. But you just have the hall planks start even at the door, then the hall planks on each side come out 1 plank wide longer until the center plank is the longest in stair steps.

In my house I just have all the planks align with hallway because the rooms have area rugs that kind of cover up the planks in the open spaces anyway. I think it looks more like one big house instead of a bunch of little rooms.