# floorboard layout help



## RogerS (21 May 2006)

I'd like some help, please, in deciding which way some floorboards should go.

The main passage has the floorboards running in the direction of the passage but at the end it goes into a triangular  shaped room as you can see here




. There will be a double-cantilever stair fitted from the white wood support and down the right hand wall of the room. This stair goes through a partial turn on the top tread before the remaining treads being parallel to this wall

I am clear in my own mind that there will be an end board that sits on top of the white wood support and in the same direction. But I can't decide whether the remaining boards should go at a right angle to this end board (with a small 1" wide transition strip between the angled edges of these boards and the main passageway floor....

OR...

the remaining boards go at right angles to the main passageway floor (with no requirement IMHO for any transition strip)






The second option means that the boards are in the same direction as the staircase into the room (but you can't see this until you get to the threshold so may be irrelevant).

So my gut feel is the first option as the 'flow' of the boards carry you around the corner and down the stairs.

Any advice gratefully received


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## JFC (21 May 2006)

If its a structual thing then i wouldn't worry about the floor boards id put the joists in so they take the best load . Astatically on a prefinished flooring i always run the boards with the flow of natural light . If you lay them across then the sun will point out all the joints .


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## CHJ (21 May 2006)

*Roger*, The aesthetic thing I suppose would be to fan them out pivoting on the right hand side so that they blend from the stair top to a 90deg abutment with the straight boards, but this would obviously entail the re cutting and machining of the edges and be prohibitive on time.

Other wise I would go with


> ...go at a right angle to this end board (with a small 1" wide transition strip between the angled edges of these boards and the main passageway floor....


 as anyone coming up the stairs will be looking down at them and looking 'along the grain' so to speak, the only caveat to that is the control of vertical movement between the two sets of boards and the transition strip (underlying solid strip across joints in place of bedding foam perhaps) not a good place for a trip hazard.

Laying them at an angle between the stair and the straight passage boards obviously results in elongated abutment edges due to the angle at the straight board end and would accentuate the mismatch almost as much as laying at 90deg.. 

All the above of course is just MO and no doubt there will be others that think otherwise, hope one of us helps you make a discission by the time the stair is fitted.




By the way thanks for the crick in the neck from first picture (until I turned it 90deg)


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## RogerS (21 May 2006)

> By the way thanks for the crick in the neck from first picture (until I turned it 90deg)



Sorry, Chas :lol: I'm using a PC at the moment so all my imaging s/w isn't available.

I hadn't thought about the fanning out idea.

Control of vertical movement isn't a problem as I'll use biscuits or a spline.

As you say, more opinions/thoughts are very welcome.


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## CHJ (8 Jun 2006)

*Roger,* Did you get a solution installed yet?


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## RogerS (8 Jun 2006)

Hi Chas

Although I liked your idea, the supporting infrastructure crept into the 'too-hard' category and I opted to have them at right angles to the top tread - as most suggested - but you should see the rest of the floor!

By taking the staircase down the other wall, logically the floorboards should run parallel to that staircase and wall..but...when you looked down on the room from the top of the stairs as you initially got there ...when I mocked it up it looked naff. So the floorboards follow the same line as the boards on the top and that flows....shame about the staircase :wink: 

Staircase due in from Italy end June. Bespoke jobbie..I'll post pictures when it's installed.


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