My husband is laying an oak floor and has put tile in front of the fireplace … there’s a gap between the wood and tile (and the tile is slightly higher than the wood) … he wants to put metal strip moulding (yuk) around the tile over the gap — this is ugly to me … are there other solutions? I know the wood needs room to breathe so don’t know if we could just fill in with grout … or if there’s another material that people use in this situation …
Any ideas?
Replies
Yuk is right! Metal would be awful. I think a wooden trim, matching the wood of the floor, is the way to go. It could be milled to have just the right height and shape to transition from one to the other. Any woodworker can make it from your flooring stock.
Here's a link to a photo of a wood to tile transition. The "wood" is actually a laminate floor in this case, with an off the shelf transition piece, but the concept would be the same for real wood.
If you are installing a floating wood floor you need about a quarter inch gap between the wood and the tile to allow for movement. (This would be hidden under the trim, of course.) If the wood is fastened hard to the floor, only an eighth of an inch is needed, likely less.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=38882.6