How to tie in to existing

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install4you

Active Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2023
Messages
25
Location
Alabama
Greetings to All.

I’ve got an “OH NO” situation & need a quick solution if anyone’s willing to educate me.

Seventeen years ago, I decided to install prefinished, all-the-same-length, nail down bamboo flooring in my home. I researched, asked around, bought a flooring stapler, & got started. I started each row with random cuts rather than just alternate end joints at the center of each adjacent board. The budget and time allowed doing LR, DR, Den, & hall, leaving 3 bedrooms. Family was happy with result, so I was happy too.

Now I'm starting bedroom 3, the last room in the house. I'm continuing bamboo into the bedroom & not sure how to proceed. Picture 1 shows how I ended a hall at the door. The arrow in pic 1 indicates the first row I ever put down. Pictures 2 & 3 show the same place from the bedroom side. I measured carefully, cut the hall boards to end together, fine tuned the ends with a sharp chisel, ripped the tongue off a terminating piece, & then just had to fix the carpet. I didn’t know if I’d ever put bamboo in the bedroom, so what I did made sense at the time. If I had it to do over, I’d have removed the small section of carpet (gone now) in the bedroom & continued the bamboo to the wall. If I ever put bamboo in the bedroom, my plan was to remove & replace the boards that stopped at the door & continue to the wall.

I had started this project with the bedroom you don’t see in Pic 1, behind me & on the right. Just as I was finishing that room, I saw the light from the window bouncing off the floor, causing a few scattered planks to light up like neon signs. Only then did I realize that the new batch of bamboo had a different sheen from the old batch. Of course, I had mixed several boxes & that included the last few pieces of the old flooring, scattered around the room, glaring at me with their higher gloss finish. This room was to have an area rug that would cover those pieces, so after I cried a bit, I went on.

Now I realized I didn’t have any more of the sheen that matched the hall. If I intermixed the new with the old at the end of the hall it would look awful and be seen all the time. Additionally, if I was going to remove & replace boards that stopped at the bedroom door, that room needed to be next for the sake of continuing into the MBR (on the left in pic 1). Circumstances required that the MBR was next, & since I had no matching boards, I just decided I wouldn’t replace the partial boards at the end of the hall.

Now I don’t know how to proceed. Do I remove the perpendicular piece in the doorway & try to line up new boards just butted up against the hall boards (or rout a groove across the ends of the boards in place)? Do I leave the perpendicular board (with groove) & butt up to it? If I insert the tongue into the perpendicular board, every board will end up the same length when I cut them at the wall. Otherwise, I’d have to cut random lengths & rout new grooves on the cut ends. Or do I need to try to cut a new tongue on the ends of boards so I can randomize lengths? No matter what I do, unless I’m able to cut some new grooves &/or tongues, I’ll have to butt ends together. Then I’d have to top-nail across the doorway.

I have a pretty good morticing jig I made for my table saw if I need to cut some tongues or grooves. If I want to groove the cut ends of the hall boards in place, I have a router with slotting bits, but I’d have to do some of it manually when the router bumped the trim on either end.

I hope someone can tell me the best options for this problem. I want this to look good for everyone else, but especially because I’ll be looking at it every time I walk down the hall to the MBR.

The real kicker is that I found enough of the old sheen boards (misplaced in the garage) that I could have removed the cut pieces & continued into the room as I should have in the first place. However I connect to the existing hall, I'll use these boards in the small area in the room at the end of the hall.

Thanks for any ideas,

Eddie
 

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Quick update. The powers that be have instructed me that the change-over point from old sheen to new sheen must be at the door. That eliminates a couple of options.
 
That cross board you have now is face nailed and secure with a groove facing out? It looks fine to me the way it is. That’s as good a way as any for the new (and different) boards to meet the old. Just cut the new boards up to the cross board you have in the threshold now…. If you wanted to cut a groove in the ends of the new boards and install a spline you could but I don’t think I’d bother.
 
EXACTLY JP!!!

The "header" needs to stay right where it is. Your situation is why that solution was invented...............many hundreds of years ago with all variations of flooring types.

Reality always wins over the wild pipe dreams of perfection.
 
It is always looks better when you install something completely different and separate them than to try to tie-in to wood that is not going to match.
 
Thanks JPfloor, Incognito, & Floorist for your thoughts. I now think leaving the cross board is the best plan. Even though I found some of the original material, removing some of the boards at the end of the hall & sliding in full replacements is risky, given my limited experience.

As I thought about what you guys said, I got down to look more closely. I had forgotten what I had to do originally. Seventeen years ago, installing plank flooring for the first time, I spent a looooong time deciding where to get my starting reference line. I found that the base plate of the hall wall was the best perpendicular or parallel to joists, other interior walls, exterior walls, and anything else that mattered. When I got to the doorway in the pictures, I discovered that the framers DID NOT frame the door opening exactly square to the hall wall & the door jamb followed right along. You can see in the pics that the cut ends of the hall boards form a line perpendicular to the length of the boards (and perpendicular to the hall wall). During the trial fit of the cross board, I saw I had to taper (3/8” in about 32”) the room edge so it would line up at the same place on the jamb on both sides. The taper eliminated most of the groove, so I’ll have to angle the end of each plank & butt into that tapered edge. The boards in the small area just inside the room MUST line up with the hall boards, must be parallel to the hall boards, & must fit tightly to the tapered cross board. I’ll size each cut piece according the opposing hall board to make the randomizing consistent. I can brad nail the cut pieces on the sides to minimize face nails.

Marking the correct angle on those board ends will be a challenge. I'm sure there will be some trial & error using scrap. I welcome any ideas &/or suggestions about aligning, marking, & cutting.

I plan to start this part of the project Thursday, March 2, so there’s not much time to reply. Sorry to ask for help on short notice. Even if you respond after I finish this area, I’ll appreciate it & learn from it.

Thanks!

OH, BTW...what's the best way to deal with scratches on this pre-finished bamboo? The finish is aluminum oxide. Very light scratches turn white. Slightly deeper scratches seem to collect dirt & turn black. Dents are a problem too.
 
For that angle cut scribe your first cut then use that piece to set the angle on your chop box. Should be pretty easy…. Or just scribe each cut.



Another tip would be to remove the baseboard in the room and reinstall after the floor. Gives a cleaner look than installing quarter round.

There are a number of touch up sticks or on the market for scratches…

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-H...olden-Oak-Minwax-Wood-Stain-Marker/p/81050408
 
Thanks for suggestions.
I wish I had pulled baseboards from the start, but this is the last room I have to do in the house. The powers that be didn't want them pulled so I used 1/4 round through out.
I used a lot of stain markers in 27 years of installing stuff in homes. Most of the scratches on this bamboo don't go through the finish, so the stain never gets to the bamboo.
Scribing is great for matching uneven surfaces when there are no alignment issues. What has me scratching my head is how to precisely bring the board alignment across the threshold piece to the new boards & then mark the angle. If the new boards don't line up exactly with the hall boards, it will look awful.
I have some ideas how to line things up, but they're a little complicated. I was hoping for some other "tricks of the trade."

The only way to be right most of the time is to aim for perfect every time.

I continue to be grateful for the help I get here.
 
If the new boards don't line up exactly with the hall boards, it will look awful.

No it won’t look awful but if that’s what you want to do a string/chalk line will do the job easily. A lazar will work too if you own one.

I would just take a measurement from the doorbuck to the joint in the boards in the hall and and move that measurement into the room. Then lay out the room straight with that measurement as your starting point. That should get you very close to perfect. Just make sure the boards are straight and parallel to the walls in the room, that’s much more important. I would even move that staring point over if I had to to avoid any slivers along the long walls…. No one will ever notice if the new boards are not perfectly aligned with the boards in the hall… Well except maybe you…😎

Also I don’t think I would have cut that cross piece on an angle to match the crooked door. As long as the joining fell underneath the door I would have been more than fine with the door being slightly askew. Then all your work would have been straight and square… Closer to perfect in my opinion…😎

I might even go so far as to change the cross piece. The angle cut would bother me more than the door being slightly crooked.

If you could go back in time I would have cut the header square and to the width of the door jamb, installed it straight with the door, and cut the floor boards on an angle to meet it on both sides. Then no one would know anything was crooked…

You could also use a protractor or a template to find your angle if you decide to keep it.

https://www.amazon.com/GemRed-Digit...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
 
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I knew there was a way!

I have a laser but I don't use it often because it's older & lacking in features; however, it will be great for this.

I'm glad I cut the threshold piece to match the crooked door jamb for the 17 years it touched the carpet. I also think changing that piece for for a non-tapered one will solve the angle-cut/alignment issue.
I just checked with the powers that be & she approved the plan.

I'll recheck everything, but using the reference line from the hall has been totally successful throughout the house, including seamlessly going through the doors to 3 rooms & 5 closets.

I don't think I'll have any slivers on the starting end of the room unless it's inside the closet. I haven't done the math for the other end of the room, but it has no traffic & will be covered with furniture.

The help I've received has definitely impacted this last room. Thanks so much for the advice. I hope I remember to post a pic when finished.

Now if I can get some breaks in the rain to cut boards I can get it done.

Thanks, Eddie
 
Real quick question in case anyone's on the site right now.

In replacing the threshold board as discussed above, I realized I'll have an empty groove across the doorway. Is that a potential weak place I should be concerned about?

I see 3 possibilities:
1. Not a problem, don't worry about it;
2. Rip the groove off back to solid wood;
3. Fill the groove, i.e. rip some tongue pieces off scrap & glue it in.

I like 1 & 3 because it leaves the pre-finished edge intact.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Eddie
 
Greetings All.

Sorry it took so long following up on my requests for help. I didn't intend to be rude--life just happened.

I've attached a pic of the end result.

I did remove & replace the perpendicular piece I had originally tapered to match the crooked door frame. The new piece allowed the lines in the hall to continue straight on across without needing to angle the ends of the new planks.

I was able to align the boards using a 4' straight edge & builder's square. No chalk to clean up. As close as needed without fighting with laser.

I know the how-to's & appearance are everyday stuff for most of you, but I was well satisfied with the result. Everyone's suggestions made all the difference in this project. I don't know why the last part of a job so often had the most problems, but I saw that a lot before I retired.

Funny word, retired. That's what happened when I was younger. I worked hard & got tired. The next day I worked hard again & got re-tired. Now the tired from one day carries over to the next day & keeps adding up. I don't get re-tired because I never get untired.

Thanks again. Now yard work.
Eddie

Oh BTW, I have some leftover material. I'll post a thread in general discussions with the details.
 

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