What Can Happen If I Do Not Stagger the Planks of My Hardwood Flooring?
Before installing your own hardwood floor, look around at some other floors to get an idea of what a professionally installed hardwood floor looks like. You’ll notice that the ends of the planks stagger, lending a random effect to the floor’s appearance. Even manufactured flooring panels, designed to mimic the look of hardwood planks, have random surface patterns. In addition to compromising the structural integrity of the floor, aligning the ends of hardwood planks is a sign of amateur workmanship. Does this Spark an idea?
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Floor Stability
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Real wood is a natural product, and as such, it can move with temperature and humidity changes. Hardwood flooring planks feature tongue-and-groove assembly on the long sides and on the ends of the planks. When you stagger the planks, the tongue-and-groove on the long sides supports the end seams of the adjacent planks. However, if you align all the end seams, you lose that support from the adjacent planks. Since end seams are weak points in the floor, aligning them reduces the overall stability of the floor.
Material Waste
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Although possible, it’s unlikely that the length of your floor corresponds with the cumulative length of a row of flooring planks. During staggered installation, you pick up the portion of a plank you cut off at the end of a row and use it to start the next row. If you discard the cut end, you could waste a substantial amount of hardwood.
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Plank Length
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Hardwood flooring planks come in one of two types. They may all be the same length, but more likely, the box will contain random lengths. With random plank lengths, it’s nearly impossible to align the ends of the planks without cutting and discarding most of the flooring. Since one plank may be 3 foot long and the next plank only 16 inches long, you’d have to cut all your planks to the size of the shortest plank to install them with aligned end seams.
The Subfloor and the Seams
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Staggering your seams compensates for discrepancies in the subfloor. While you should always install high-quality subflooring material, if the subfloor panels were exposed to humidity, the edges of the panels can swell, making the subfloor seams heave slightly. While this may not be an issue with staggered seams, if an aligned seams runs in close proximity to a subfloor seam, it could create an uneven spot in the floor in that area.
Butt Joints
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The factory ends of hardwood planks lock into each other for support. When you cut off that tongue-and-groove end, you’re left with two flat ends that form a “butt joint.” This is a weak spot in the floor, because the planks do not interlock, and should be avoided.
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References
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