I'm planning to install hardwood floor in an L shaped hallway and I was hoping there'd be a way for me to place the planks so that they were the long way of each leg of the hallway. I'm using 4" planks that are 3/4" thick and I was thinking that I could have them run the length of the hallway and then join up with eachother at the 90 degree turn with a herringbone-like pattern as shown below. I'm ok with the thought of a smooth 45 degree line where they intersect, but the staggered look of herringbone is much more appealing to me.



Each leg of the hallway is about 16' long and 3' wide with about an 1" thick subfloor (two thinner stacked layers combined). I'm new to hardwood flooring and have a few concerns about this.

1) With a design like this do I need to worry about expansion/contraction destroying the staggered look?
2) Can I put additional perpendicular floor joists in below to support the flooring?
3) If this design doesn't work what would be an alternative design that you would do that would be more stable?

Thanks in advance for the advice and please feel free to ask if you need additional information!

The log cabin corner in a hall will make the space special.
With a log cabin border the flooring will not need to be exactly perpendicular.
If you find that you need to cut pre-finished planks to make the angle you may not be happy, so a 90 degrees angle is the least amount of work.With unfinished planks that are sanded after installation it won't matter.
Run a line down the middle of each leg to get the intersecting angle.
The corner will not have gaps later if the wood has been properly acclimated.
I think that log cabin corners are stronger than mitered corners.
You may add extra support, but this is not necessary.
A hall takes lots of work, but you use it a every day.

Thank you, now I have a name to the style! I will be using prefinished flooring and didn't even think what affect cutting them would have on the finished look. Perhaps I could square everything up with chalk lines and start from the L joint and work outwards towards the end of the hall? That way I could cover up the required cuts at the end of the hallways and not expose them at the intersection joint. I would still be worried about support and think I might put in a few extra supports from below. If anyone on here has done this before I'd very much like to see some of their pictures of the finished product. I might be able find some more information on here now that I know what the style is called.

Thanks again!