Is There a Right Way to Lay Flooring?

In my years as a flooring installer, I learned the job is more complicated than I originally expected. So if you’re going to lay your own flooring — even if it’s click-together laminate or luxury vinyl, which you’ll repeatedly hear is effortlessly easy to install (don’t believe it) — take heed. You need to know that the right way to lay flooring involves:

• Planning;
• careful measurements;
• skillful cutting;
• bending over a lot (ouch!) and spending way too much time on your knees (pro tip: get knee pads);
• techniques to compensate for irregularities in the room in which you’re working (walls that aren’t straight, uneven subfloors and extremely humid conditions).

If you’re contemplating doing a DIY flooring job, I’m not trying to discourage you. Unlike some construction trades, flooring installation is very DIYable, so there’s no reason not to save a bundle of cash by doing the job yourself. You just don’t want to mess it up, because mistakes are hard to correct. In this short primer, which I’ve prepared with construction and design experts, you’ll find some key tips on the right way to lay flooring that will help you get great, long-lasting results.

Is There a Right Way to Lay Flooring?

Yes, and you’ll know the difference between a floor that has been laid the right way and one that hasn’t very soon after installation. One that hasn’t been installed correctly could develop a number of defects, including gaps, buckling or lifting. None of these are easy to fix and may require a do-over.

Even if that doesn’t happen, the layout could detract from the room design rather than enhance it. That’s usually because the installer didn’t pay attention to the right way to lay flooring in this particular situation. The direction you lay any flooring material — especially rectangular boards — matters.

What Direction Should You Lay Flooring?

The question of directionality is nuanced and involves several considerations, but the two main ones are structural stability (which helps prevent defects like gapping) and aesthetics. “Structurally speaking,” observes tiny home builder Jonathan Palley, “it’s better to lay flooring perpendicular to the underlying joists, but that’s not necessarily an issue with smaller homes. Aesthetically, you usually want flooring to go the long way in rectangular rooms.”

Luxury real estate advisor Corinne Smith adds, “In terms of looks, flooring looks best when it’s parallel to the longest wall or in the direction of natural light. In hallways, boards should run lengthwise.”

The location of the door can also have a bearing on the flooring direction. From a feng shui point of view, allowing the flooring to run into a room from the door (perpendicular to the door opening) creates a visual flow that feels inviting. To do this, you might have to lay the flooring parallel to the shorter walls, and that’s usually OK in a small room. In a long room, however, it’s best to ignore feng shui and do as Palley and Smith say: Go parallel to the long walls, even if it means cutting across the doorway.

Directionality also depends on the type of flooring you’re installing:

Hardwood and engineered wood boards

Follow the guidelines above.

Laminate and luxury vinyl planks

Rectangular planks have seams between them that create a longitudinal pattern, so the same aesthetic considerations apply as for hardwood boards. Structurally, however, laminates and luxury planks are thinner and less stable than hardwood boards, and they need more support, so the default direction is perpendicular to the floor joists.

Square tiles

Tiles with a directional geometric or wood-grain pattern usually look better if the pattern runs parallel to the long walls, so go ahead and start laying them against one of them. However, if there’s no pattern, or the pattern is non-directional or complex (such as wood parquet), tiles look best if you start laying them at the center of the room and splay them out toward the walls.

Best Ways to Lay Flooring

“Best practices always come down to prep, prep, prep,” says remodeler Ben Kuhl. “First and foremost, make sure you have a clean, level subfloor. Then, bring in the new flooring, so it can acclimate to the environment.” Giving the flooring a few days to acclimate to the room conditions helps avoid nasty surprises like:

• Shrinking and gapping, which happens when the material loses moisture in low-humidity conditions after you install it;
• curling and cupping, which happens when it absorbs moisture in high-humidity conditions and swells.

When it comes to fastening the flooring to the subfloor, the method depends on the material, and here are Smith’s (and my) recommendations:

• Solid hardwood: Nail-down or staple using a flooring nailer or stapler;
• Engineered wood: Nail-down, glue-down or floating (no fasteners), depending on the product;
• Laminate flooring: No fasteners are needed for a floating floor system with click-lock edges;
• Luxury vinyl planks: Floating click-lock or glue-down, depending on type;
• Ceramic tile: Thinset mortar and grout;
• Wood tile and parquet: Glue;
• Carpet tiles: Peel-and-stick, glue or carpet tape.

Mistakes People Make When Laying Flooring

You can make all kinds of mistakes when laying flooring for the first time. Hopefully, this list will help you avoid some of the most common ones:

• Not preparing the subfloor: You have to make the subfloor flat. Bumps and depressions will cause the boards to separate.
• Not leaving expansion gaps: Many DIYers forget to leave a 1/4-inch expansion gap between the edges of the flooring and the walls. This is a major boo-boo, according to Kuhl. “The most common mistakes I’ve seen—and I’ve had to fix my fair share of poor jobs—are ignoring expansion gaps and not prepping the subfloor properly. I’ve seen hardwood floors buckle and even “explode” under the pressure of wood movement because the expansion gaps weren’t left in place.”
• Skipping the underlayment: Moisture seeping through the subfloor can ruin a wood floor in a matter or months. You should omit underlayment only if you’re gluing the flooring to the subfloor.
• Not staggering joints: If the ends of the boards line up, they create a joint pattern that competes with the pattern created by the longitudinal joints. This layout is visually unappealing, and it’s structurally unsound. The best stagger pattern is random, with ends of boards no closer to each other than six inches.
• Failing to give new flooring time to acclimate to the room conditions: (see above).

FAQ

Does lighting impact the direction you should lay flooring?

Yes. When flooring runs in the same direction as the main natural light source, such as sunlight through a window, the light minimizes the visual impact of the seams and enhances the flooring’s natural colors and grain pattern.

How do you find a room’s center to lay tile?

This is easy in a rectangular room. Measure the length of one of the long walls, divide by two and make a mark at that point on the wall. Do the same for the opposite wall, then snap a chalk line between these points. Repeat the measurements for the short walls and snap another line. The point at which the lines cross is the midpoint of the room.

In an irregularly shaped room, your best bet is to scribe out a rectangle that encompasses as much of the floor area as possible, then find the midpoint of the rectangle using the method above.

About the Experts

• Jonathan Palley is the CEO of Clever Tiny Homes, a company that uses the highest levels of design, construction, technology and manufacturing to deliver homes at highly affordable prices.
• Corinne Smith is a Washington State real estate advisor who has as in-house team of contractors and a remodeling crew that often works on large scale remodels. Her personal website is Legacy Homes.
• Ben Kuhl is a remodeler and the CEO and founder of Shelf Expression, a high-end, custom shelf manufacturer.

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