Where to start laying hardwood floor in "T" shaped room

Question

I'm getting ready to put down hardwood in a newly constructed room. The room is "T" shaped as such:

I understand that I should start on the longest continuous wall and work across. However, in this case, if I start on "A" for example, and then fill-in between D and A, it seems likely I'll end up with a partial piece in the middle of the floor.

Should I start at D instead, and have the possibility of a partial piece all the way down the A wall? Is there some other way that I should approach this?

Thank you for your help.

Edit: Some additional info:

The room is about 22' the long dimension and 14' on the short. Planks are 3" wide. D is the top of a stairwell, and C is a closet.

Answer 1

Say you start with your piece running parallel to A. You take it from the bottom left corner all the way up to the F wall. Solid piece, all the way up.

Now you backfill to the left of the piece, working towards D. When you reach D, you will probably need to do a rip cut for the last piece to go in D.

You'll cross the room from A to B also putting in full pieces until you hit B at which point you'll probably need to do some kind of rip there as well.

Here's the only really tricky bit - where B meets the wall that links to C you'll have to do a partial rip cut. Your rip should let you fit the piece in at B but where the space to C is, you want the full piece.

Answer 2

When laying wood floors or tile you always start in the middle of the room and lay out to the edges. Measure the width of the flooring you are going to use and try to start so there is a half width board or more on either side. This is easy to do. The starting board will either be directly in the middle or the edge of the board will be directly in the middle.You can lay the boards out if it is too difficult to calculate it. The other advantage is that starting from the middle effectively cuts the error from the creep or gaps in the boards in half giving to a much better looking job. Sorry cuts are the name of the game in flooring but it is better to have a two equal+/- half width cuts than two skinny cut because the skinny cut will magnify any errors or irregularities in the walls.

Answer 3

Here's an option, that will only work with real tongue and groove. (That is, that you can T two pieces and have the t&g match) I'd lay out a few pieces and see if it will work for you or not, but it's probably the easiest install.

At D, I've got one piece which is the stair nose (assuming we're at the top of the stairs.) If it's the bottom, then don't worry so much. You can simply rip the end piece and proceed according to The Evil Greebo's answer

Answer 4

Snap a line from E - F and start in the middle. You can do do measurements from each wall A and B to find the center. Take the width of half a board and move the center line off center that much. Use a starter block and work toward either A wall or B wall. Put the grooves back to back in the center and use a spline. With some measurement you should be able to

Answer 5

I would run them off wall F. There's no rule that says you need to run them along the longest wall. Visually, vertical lines will make the room look longer but narrower. And horizontal Lions will make the room look wider but shorter. If you prefer the room to look wider in respect to the orientation of the picture posted run them like this. Measure off this line to wall F and rip your first cut to have a seamless finish throughout the entire floor.

This method will make for a grander entrance from the stairwell, if that's what your looking for.