Hello All,

I am installing a hardwood floor in a room with 2 french doors. The flooring will be parallel to the door thresholds. Since I won't be able to cover the expansion gap with my base moulding at the threshold what should I do? The threshold is wood.

It would look nice up tight...for a little while

Thank you,
John.

I have a similar situation with 3 french doors and the wood running parallel to the doors. How large of an expansion gap should be left between the wood doors and the floor? Is 1/4" ok?

The door threshold should be higher than the flooring, to allow the weather strip to clear the floor and still seal at the threshold. Hopefully, you have a threshold that is squared off on the side that faces in. Many today are. You would simply leave about a 1/2" or so gap at the threshold then cover the gap with a thin reducer. I'd use a 5/16" reducer for that. One can cut nice curves on the reducer ends to make it look better. BTW, the reducer sits on top of the flooring and butts to the threshold. This is sorta what they look like.

Ya, Gary, we used to do that too on the ends. However, one day one of our installers did not have any stain to treat the cut curved ends, so he did a mitred return on both ends of the reducer, now almost all our clients demand that, lol.

I've done it that way as well. Even done the easy "clipped corner". Anything is better than a plain 90 degree cut with the ends unfinished. That's what I typically see, especially in tract housing.

Yup, funny what some installers can get away with, and what some clients will accept.