Installing Moldings & Trim

We recommend you considering moldings, trims or transitional pieces if you wish to go for a professional and finished look. The purpose of molding is to cover edges, camouflage expansion spaces, and bridge surfaces where wood ends and other types of flooring begin (for example tile or carpet). Engineered flooring might come with matching trim. In case of solid wood flooring, you need to buy separately these pieces. After the floor is completely installed, the trim is the last finishing step. In order to avoid frustrating other issues you should plan in advance the overall project.

What kind of trim will I need?

Consider the edges of the room and anything that meets the floor, to determine what kind of trim you’ll need. We present you different types of used trims:

• Wood to tile or wood to wood: generally calls for a T-molding, which has a rounded top T shape. The top is a bit rounded and the stem on the bottom fits between the ends of two types of flooring roughly equal in height.
• Uneven levels: A reducer is recommended in order to eliminate the raised edges if one floor surface is noticeably higher or lower than the other. Reducers can be one-sided, flush, bi-level or overlapping.
• Threshold: is used to bridge the gap between the floor and a sliding glass door while leaving an expansion gap in place. This can also be used to connect wood floors to carpet. End cap or square nose molding may also be used.
• Stairs: In this case you are in the need of overlap stair nosing or bull nose trim. For stairs that end flush, square edge stair nosing may be used .
• Baseboards: around the walls, trim will be necessary to cover the gaps left by expansion space. Decorative or plain baseboards may be used, with quarter round or shoe edge molding at the bottom to conceal additional gaps.

Installation Methods:

• Baseboards and other trim may be attached to the wall every 16 inches on the studs using staples or finishing nails.
• Transitional T-moldings are generally glued in place to the subfloor.
• Reducer trims have a tongue and groove edge that attach to the last floorboard and overlap the edge of the next surface.
• Baseboards and other trim may be attached to the wall every 16 inches on the studs using staples or finishing nails.
• Overlap reducers and threshold transitional trims are generally used with floating floors and with transitions to carpet.

General Tips:

• Choose trim that is as close in grain pattern and color to your flooring as possible, unless you plan to paint trim to match your walls.
• You should select wood strips that match the trim with little variation to go around the perimeter of the walls.
• Moldings should be acclimated for 72 hours. The same case applies to flooring planks.
• Pre-drilling is recommended to avoid splitting.
• Start with the longest unbroken wall (usually the outside wall).
• Do not drive in nails or staples at a downward angle, when installing shoe edge or quarter round moldings.
• Splice trim use miter cuts. For a perfect look, the direction of the miter should be oriented with the long point away from the room’s main entryway.

Special Circumstances

Doorways:

Using a transition (T-molding) is generally a better choice than continuing the flooring through a doorway. Since creating an exact fit is very hard, using a molding allows a little extra expansion easement. Keep in mind that you must use a transition molding if the flooring is floated.

Pipes, vents, cabinets and other fixed objects:

You should leave a 3/8” expansion gap around any fixed object and use moldings, pipe rings, or vent covers.

Raised Hearths:

Transitions around fireplaces are pretty weird. The most natural looking is to trim out an area around the hearth itself by using an undercut saw with a diamond-tipped blade. Two cuts are required and this needs to be prepared before installing the floor. The first cut goes at the vertical height level of the floor and the second flush with the subfloor.