“How to Transition Between Two Different Wood Floors?”
Once installed, replacing the wooden flooring are a big headache and a hectic task. Replacements or repairs could cost you a lot of money and results could be different from what you desired.
Due to some mishap, your hardwood floor could get a part of it damaged and needs to be replaced.
In that scenario, you need to do deep thinking to make it look the same as it was before. Another condition is you may want to install the wood flooring in one room only.
Next time you may be thinking about a different design. In that case, you may wonder how to do a proper transition between two different floors. To ease you with this issue, here we will guide you on how to transition properly and error-free.
How Can You Put Two Different Wood Floors Next to Each Other?
You can put two different wood floors next to each other but for that, you need to do proper calculations and design selections before proceeding further.
For example, if you install two floors adjacent to each other having different designs and colours that may look disastrous and will represent to the visitors you cannot afford to replace the whole flooring in one time.
To do that properly, if you are planning to install a differently designed wood floor next to each other, you may need to dig deep and select the matching designs to make your transition look natural and real.
Little difference in transition and you whole struggle will go in vain as the floor will look disastrous.
Another important thing to take care of is try to do the transition against the doorways or entryways. Don’t do that in the middle of the floor. You may ruin the ambience of your home interior. While transitioning at the doorways, try using borders to eliminate offset chances.
Is it Necessary to Match All the Wood Floors in a House?
Well, No that is not necessary but you must match all the wood floors inside the house to make the transition look real.
If possible, try installing the hardwood floor all around the inside of house at once. That would be expensive but will also eliminate any chances of offset differences. The whole house interior will look beautiful and streamlined.
On the other hand, if you have the budget, you can install different pattern hardwood floors for each of the living rooms.
That will look marvelous and beautiful. But don’t forget to cover up the transition differences by proper matching designs and borders or carpet patches to hide the transition joints.
How to Transition Between Two Different Wood Floors?
While doing transitioning between two different wood floors, there are several ways and techniques. You can use these transition techniques below depending upon your requirement.
Whether you are installing new wood floors or want to place a new wood floor adjacent to the existing floor, you may need to adopt one or two or all of the below-mentioned techniques to make your transition look natural and real.
1). T Molding:
Probably one of the easiest techniques for floor transitioning, the proper application of T Molding makes your flooring look natural and properly blended.
In general, a T Molding is a T-shaped moulding material thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top.
At the bottom, the moulding has a thick stem piece that is attached to the subfloor. At the top, the thin rounded piece is intended to cover up the transition difference between two connecting floorings.
T Molding is best suitable for transitioning two different floors having the same height. The transition created looks real, natural and gently done.
One of the basics for floor transition, the T Molding needs you to just lay down the floors keeping a 1-Inch gap and placing the moulding in that 1-inch gap. That is it. You are done.
Usually, the people buying new wood floors also opt to buy the matching T Molding at the same time for transition purposes afterwards.
2). Transition Strip or Seam Binder:
One of the simplest and easiest ways to transit two different floors is to use a Transition Strip also called the Seam Binder.
The Transition Strip actually relates to the T Molding. It is like using only the top thin rounded piece of T Molding.
To do the transition using the Transition strip, you have to nail down the strip across the flooring seam to bind and blend both the floors together.
It is probably not the best practice to use Seam Binder for transition, as it looks tacked-on sometimes. Still, it is good enough to hide the floor joint between two floors.
3). Transition through Thin Metal
As the wood transitioning techniques have become old-fashioned and odd, the transition through a thin metal is now the trending way to bind two floors together.
The metal transition has become the most popular way to transit between two different floors.
A thin metal strip is used to cover up the gap in the natural joint. In most of cases, it has been observed that a thin metal about 1/8 inches in size is normally applied to fill the gap.
Most of people have opted for to go for a narrow-sized metal transition method that looks quite attractive due to the metal’s straight lines and shiny properties.
Use of thin metal for transition gives modern look to your floor is easy to step on. For the best possible appearance, make sure the colours of both your floors match the colour of the metal. That will give the marvellous and modernized appearance to your surroundings.
Just like the transition using wood techniques, this one is also easy to apply.
You just have to leave a tinny gap between the floors and adjust the metal strip in that gap using some adhesive. That is it. Now you have a modern, stylish and error-free transition.
4). Transition through a Threshold Piece:
Another easy and simplest way of covering the transition offset between your floors is the use of a threshold piece.
A threshold piece is usually a rectangle-shaped flat block having almost the same height and thickness as the hardwood floor.
Mostly made of marble or stone, the piece is good enough to cover the transition especially at the door or entryways.
Using a threshold piece is probably the most effective technique due to its large-sized surface and easy installation.
You can get a precut length to fit to your floor gap. If the size is not according to what you need, you can easily cut it down and resize as per your requirement.
Installing a threshold piece also adds beauty to your floor due to its shiny properties. If fitted properly, the transition will look accurately real and natural.
How to Do Transition Between Floors of Different Heights?
As you already know how to transition between two different floors, the next thing you may come up with is the transition between floors having different heights.
Floors having the same height are easy to transit as discussed above. Doing that with two different heighted floors is a time taking task.
If the height difference between two transiting floors is just a few inches, you can simply use the transition strips or pieces that may look like a T Molding.
The process is the same like discussed above. The only addition is the use of a square and angled nose to eliminate bridging differences.
If the height difference is several inches, you may need to look up for the material that will serve as a proper bridge to cover up the height difference.
For instance, we would say you could use something like the stair nosepieces that are round-edged.
Apply those round-edged nosepieces vertically with the heightened wooden floor and create a smooth inclined transition with the floor having low height.
In this way, you can have a beautiful and blended transition between the floors having different heights. The transition you get will not pose any tripping hazard and will be smooth and intentional.
Apart from this, you can get a smooth transition in more ways. Find them below:
Install One Floor with a Border:
One most effective way of removing the height difference is by laying one floor with a border against the other floor. In that case, you do not need to buy the nosepieces to cover up the height difference.
To use this technique properly, simply lay down one or two planks of hardwood wide against the outside of the first wooden floor area.
Next, lay the other flooring inside that square (made by putting planks wide). Doing this will give you a natural and intentional looking transition while eliminating the balance differences.
The technique is only applicable to both floors having smooth edges. If you come up with one floor having rough edges (lets say the old hardwood floor), you may need to cut down the rough edges by 1-inch to create new smooth edges.
Once you have smooth edges on both sides, simply apply the above method for a properly blended transition.
The purpose of smoothening the edges is because you are connecting both the floors upright. Therefore, it is necessary to have smooth edges for a natural-looking transition.
Lay Down the Two Floors in Different Patterns:
Another best method to remove the imbalance between the floors is by laying both the floors in different patterns against each other.
For example, if the first flooring is being laid vertically or horizontally (parallel to the walls), you need to lay the second flooring in a different pattern.
Normally, the hardwood floors in the market offer the layouts like Diagonal, Parquet or Herringbone.
Each one of these layouts may look like they are having a totally different material but that’s not the scenario. Those are only the layout techniques. Flooring material remains the same in every layout.
To seed out the best results, we recommend you combine the border technique with this one. The result you get will be a treat to your eyes and your mind.
Some Essential Tips for Transition between Two Hardwood Floors
Now that you know the best techniques for covering up the transition offset, here are some essential tips while transitioning to make sure you get the results as desired.
1). Select The Contrasting Floor Colors:
Some people may find this tip to be useless but let us tell you that selecting contrasting colours is quite a wise step. That may look not normal to you but keeping the colour difference between the transitioning floors has a great and a different impression.
For example, if one of your floor has a light colour, you should go for the contrasting dark floor for the second floor. In terms of transitioning, if both of your floors have a light colour, that may end up with the people thinking you could not afford to match the whole house flooring at once.
Another case is that people may think that is a blunder or mistake. In both scenarios, the person getting humiliated is you. So make sure you select the contrasting colours to avoid getting humiliated.
If you are really curios about matching the floor colours, you should consult a flooring professional to match the color and stains of both of your floorings.
2). Consider Room Size Before Choosing the Color:
Before you opt to go for the desired, you should consider your room size first. Placing a dark-coloured flooring in a small room with dark walls will make your room look congested and closed-in.
Contrary to that, a small room with light-coloured flooring and walls look bigger and brightened up. However, that is not the case with bigger rooms. Whether you choose a light or a dark color for a bigger room, it will not affect the room’s ambience.
Before you decide the color for your room, remember to keep these queries in mind:
- Is your room big or small?
- How much natural light is in it?
- Could you choose a certain color or type of wood to enhance the room?
3). Opt for More Flooring Options:
If you think the described techniques and methods aren’t working well for you, you can opt to go for more flooring options like Vinyl, Laminated or Tile flooring.
In case of Vinyl, Laminated or Tile flooring, you don’t have to worry about the color or design pattern as they don’t have much impact on the ambience.
Installing the wood floors next to each other is quite a tricky task and may need a lot of hard work to remove the offset properly and seed out the real and natural-looking transition.
Final Thoughts
Now that we have guided you about every technique you can use to do transition between the floors accurately, do not forget to let us know if that helped in you in any aspect.
If you have any further suggestions or recommendations, tell us in the comments section below. Good Luck with transitioning your floors. Thanks!