I am planning on installing 3/4" 3" Prefinished Tigerwood in my living room which currently has carpet. I've never laid hardwood, but am pretty handy. I've thought through the project, but would like some experienced advice to help me along.

So just to get on the same page, here's a layout of the room


I've decided to put the flooring in diagonally, because of the direction of the joists and the sun.

The tile that borders some of the hardwood is currently transitioned with Schluter - Reno U, which I plan on removing so that we can have a nicer transition (tile and hardwood at same level...so just caulking).




To remove the Schluter, which is aluminum, I was thinking of protecting the porcelin tile with some wood and carefully cutting the Schluter off with a circular saw. There is about 1/8" of grout between the tile and the Schluter. 1) Has anyone ever done this....is there a better way?

2) Am I ok just butting up the hardwood to the tile without a border parallel to the tile?

3) How much room should I leave at the ends that butt up against the raised hearth and the built-ins?

I plan on using the 6-8-10 rule along the outside wall and the kitchen tile transition to establish the first board. 4) Where should I nail the first board, and in what direction should the tongue face?

Thanks for your help.

I would cut the grout out first using a handheld grout saw or razor knife. Then you could use a very sharp chisel to cut thru the metal. I don't mean to bang on it... just tap,tap,tap. A fein Mutilimaster would be the ideal tool here. If that don't work you could cut it out but remember that heat can crack tiles if the metal gets too hot.

After its out leave a gap similar to the grout joint and fill that with a color matched grout caulk.

I had a diagonal install pictorial somewhere on my computer but can't find what I did with it.

Diamond blade on an angle grinder and take out the metal and grout in one swoop. You will need to manually get the ends, where the blade won't reach. Careful pounding around tile!

Ok, I'll give the angle grinder a shot.

My next question, is how much room should I leave at the ends that butt up against the raised hearth and the built-ins?

Can I butt right up against them....I understand the expansion occurs in the width of the boards, but since I'm installing diagonally, I'm wary about not leaving any space to expand against the wall with the built-ins. It will look much cleaner if there is no space or moulding hiding the expansion gap.

On the end of a solid wood, you can get away with very minimal space. You can make it as wide as the grout line of the tile, tape off and fill with color matching sanded grout caulking.