If you want to elevate your home’s look and aesthetics immediately, you can’t go wrong with good-quality wood flooring. While most hardwood floors can be pretty expensive, you can save and cut down costs by opting recycled timber flooring. These offer you the same aesthetic design of hardwood floors and have better durability.

So, let’s suppose that you have made up your mind about the kind of flooring you want and it’s time to get them installed. What’s the one core thing that you should focus on? If you just shrugged your shoulders then you’re in the same boat as countless other homeowners. 

It’s actually the direction of the floorboards. Whether you’re getting recycled timber flooring in Melbourne or opting for completely brand new, deciding the direction that the floorboards should be seriously considered. The good news here is that you don’t have to be an interior designer or a professional to understand this area.

The following are some important points which help illustrate and illuminate how you can determine the best direction for the floorboards in your home. 

The Visual Impact

The direction of your home’s wooden flooring shouldn’t be just based on your taste or preference alone. You need to make sure that you’re paying attention to different principles of design, the most important of which is the visual impact. On this basis, you should try to lay out the wooden planks in such a way that focus in on the centre.

Additionally, you can try to highlight some other fixture in the room which you feel should be at the centre. Suppose you have a fireplace in the middle of the room. To highlight it better and to make sure that you draw attention to it, you need to make sure that your floorboards are positioned in a manner that makes it the defining aspect.

Remember that this isn’t meant to be done for any moveable fixtures in your room. Here, we’re talking about particularly beautiful architectural embellishments in your home. These are the best and should be highlighted as much as possible.

The Need for Transition

As a rule of thumb, when you have open space plans or you’re dealing with open areas, you have to be more mindful about the transition areas with your floorboards. You want to make sure that you’re paying attention to the sightlines so that you can make the floorboards visually pleasing and more transitional in nature.

In many cases, the general layout of the wooden floorboards is established by using the front entrance as the main sightline and making the boards run away from it. This creates an aesthetically pleasing line and ends up defining the front door as the main entry point in your hall.

You can try this in your other rooms too by turning the main door into a sightline. Just remember that if you have transition rooms, you should avoid picking a main or focal sightline. This can end up making the wood panels look odd when they suddenly change direction.   

The Sub-Floor and Joists

The sub-floor and joists of your flooring also make a huge impact on the overall direction of your wood flooring. In this case, you have to first determine the age of your home. That’s because of the following reasons:

• New Home – 1990 onwards – Newer homes are better designed with sub-floors which are properly levelled which mean that there are no technical issues. They can easily support the wooden flooring so your flooring will usually be laid parallel to the longest wall or run. 
• Old Home – Before 1990 – These are older homes which might have poorer sub-floors. You will have to pay attention to the direction of the joists to determine how well the floor is supported. The best option is to place the wood flooring perpendicularly across these floor joists. This is necessary to support the sub-floor and the joists. 

Once you determine the age of the factors and the layout of the subfloor and joists, you can easily pick out the best direction to lay the wood flooring. It’s also a good idea to make sure that regardless of the age of the house, you check the subfloor and the joists beforehand.

If there are any visible signs of damage in this area, you will have to get it fixed before any wooden planks can be added on top of it. 

The Dimensions of the Room

Another area which can determine the direction of the flooring is the dimension of the room. Most rooms follow the rule where you can install the floorboards by placing them on a parallel angle to the longest run or the wall of the room. 

This can help the boards get a natural flow towards the doorway and it also flows well with the traffic in that area and ends up making it look more aesthetically pleasing. However, pay attention when the dimensions of a particular room are very odd. 

If the room is narrow and long, the wood flooring may look like a ladder when you add the floorboards in a perpendicular manner. However, in a room which is wide but shorter, the perpendicular floorboards can end up giving more definition. 

Trying out Something Fancy

If you’re not really particular about the direction and want something fancy such as parquetry designs on the floorboard, make sure you work with a timber flooring specialist in Melbourne. Their experience, understanding of different wood designs, wood types and more will make a marked difference.

They will guide you about the right placement of the wooden floorboards and ensure that you’re able to get the best results possible. With the help of the right experts, you won’t have to worry about laying the floorboards down in any room.

Additionally, the experts can help pick out the best wood type and the best wood design to use for your room too!

About Author:-Simon is an entrepreneur and self-proclaimed jack of all trades. Simon has experience in the building and home renovation industry and he knows what it takes to knock out a successful project whether it be commercial or residential. Currently, Simon works as a marketing consultant with Smarter Timber Flooring- one of the prominent suppliers of various types of engineered floorboards, like traditional floorboards, grey floorboards, recycled and reclaimed oak floorboards in Melbourne. Another niche for Simon is travel and outdoors leisure, including sporting equipment and bikes. A big kid at heart if it goes fast, bounces, slides or you can climb it Simon has put it to the test.