1

My living room used to have laminate flooring and I'm switching to 5/8" engineered hardwood. There is a transition from the tiles to this floor. The tile will be a little lower than the new floor. How to handle such transitions? I am told there is no elegant transition available for this.

Tile is at 3/8th from the ground (Already existing) the new wooden flooring chosen is 5/8th thick.

The scenario is the reverse of what is shown in this link. Tile at more height than wooden floor https://www.homedepot.com/p/CALI-BAMBOO-Natural-5-8-in-T-x-2-3-8-in-W-x-72-in-L-Solid-Bamboo-Overlap-Reducer-7104002013/313897106

I am a novice in this field so I don't know many of the terminologies.

I'm requesting your valued advice. Thanks in advance

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    Look up "Floor transition strips" using your favorite search engine. There are many types and styles available.
    – SteveSh
    Feb 7, 2023 at 1:56
  • 1
    There are 100% absolutely transition strips available to transition between different floor heights. "Elegant" is in the eye of the beholder. If your wife has determined that nothing you've looked at is "elegant", then you'll just have to keep looking. Worst case scenario, you contact a local woodworker to make a transition strip for you that meets your definition of "elegant".
    – FreeMan
    Feb 7, 2023 at 13:19
  • What's "a little" lower? The dimension matters to good answers. Will your flooring be floating or fastened? Please revise to add details.
    – isherwood
    Feb 7, 2023 at 19:29

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

There are many "transition strips" that you can purchase that will give you an acceptable transition. I happen to like this type as shown below. The best working solution I found for installation was to leave about a 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch gap between the two mismatched floor surfaces. I then laid down a bead of good quality construction adhesive and embedded the aluminum strip into the adhesive. I weight down the strip with some heavy blocks to keep it firmly in place until the adhesive hardens.

Note that I discard the plastic channel that comes with the aluminum extrusion. I never found that the stickum strip on the bottom of the plastic channel would ever stay stuck down and the transition strip ends up loose. My method has held up for years.

These can be had with a variety of anodized surface finishes.

enter image description here

Picture Source

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you!! Is this same as Tmolding? I am looking for a wood option here. The one ordered seems to be 5/8" T Molding. The scenario is just the reverse of what is shown with this link - Tile below and Wood above - homedepot.com/p/…
    – Zinger_usa20_21
    Feb 7, 2023 at 22:47
  • I showed a picture of the type I like. You can compare with others you have researched so we don't have to play the label game. I like the aluminum type of transition strip because it is rugged and as well offers much lower profile height than an equivalent wood type strips.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Feb 7, 2023 at 23:31
1

Depending on whether the new floorboards are parallel with the tile edge or at 90 degrees to it, then the following becomes more challenging:

When the boards are parallel, the boards can have a chamfer for the length of the board or at least the length in contact with the tile. So if the floor board is 4" wide then the chamfer can be over 3.5" which gives a smoother transition. This works better especially if things have to be rolled from one floor to the other.

If the boards are at 90 degrees then the chamfer has to be applied to the ends of several boards...

One issue is the existing treatment to the surface of the boards which can make this more of a challenge.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you. They are not parallel. They would be at an angle I would say 45 degree.
    – Zinger_usa20_21
    Feb 7, 2023 at 22:51
  • @Zinger_usa20_21 still possible, just even more challenging.
    – Solar Mike
    Feb 8, 2023 at 5:07

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.