Wood Flooring Moldings
After deciding on your wood flooring, you have to take some things into consideration. For example, the purpose of molding and trim is giving the floor a professional, finished appearance.
Selecting the right trim and moldings is the most important aspect to the aesthetic of the any area.
Engineered flooring typically comes with matching trim while hardwood flooring comes without a trim. It is important that the trim selected matches your flooring in grain and styling. For example rustic flooring should be paired with rustic trim. Consider wider baseboards with a carved design element in order to create a classic Victorian look. If you want to go for a balanced design, you might want to consider wood trims around doors and windows.
Different types of molding are used for each specific purpose. Everything depends on the features of your home.
Baseboards or Wall Base Trims
Once with the raising of the temperatures and humidity of the air, wood floors expand and contract. You must leave some space around the edges of the room and things that are stationary, like kitchen cabinetry. Trim attached to the wall or the base of things built in (called baseboard or wall base), covers and hides the gap.
Quarter round is most of the times used in conjunction with baseboards. This adds dimension to the transition between the bottom of the baseboard and the floor. It can also be used instead of baseboard as a very low profile trim.
Shoe edge molding has the same purpose as quarter round molding.
Transition Trims
Transition trims have the purpose of being used as a bridge between different types of flooring. They could also be used to cover the threshold between rooms. We present you the different types of threshold trims and how each is used.
T-molding cover transitions between floorings which are equal in height in order to create a flat threshold. It is generally used to transition from wood to tile floors. Furthermore, it may also be used between two wood floors. The top is flat and with a rounded edge and the underside has a ridge running the length that fits in the gap between the two floors.
Reducer (one-sided reducer or flush reducer) is generally used in order to create a smooth transition between a wood floor and flooring with a higher profile (for example high pile carpeting).
Overlap reducers or bi-level reducers are transition moldings. Those are generally used with floating floors, transitions to carpet, and to connect floors with a lower height.
Thresholds or baby thresholds are moldings which are used where expansion is needed. Customers mostly edge a sliding glass door. This type of molding can also be used to transition to carpet. Other choices for the same purpose are end cap or end moldings and square nose molding.
Stair Trim
Generally used with floating stairs where expansion is needed is overlap stair nosing, or bull nose.
Flush, square edge stair nosing, or bull nose is edge trim used as a transition for stairs.