How do you install a hardwood floor next to limestone without having to use a tmold, reducer, baby threshold, etc. Homewoner wants them to butt up to each other without having to use a transition piece. Also, they would prefer to have that same look where the floor butts up to the glass sliders. I have seen this look in homes but don't know how to accomplish it. Thanks.

Need more info. Product, engineered or solid, thickness, limestone thickness? Nail, glue, float ?

It is an Armstrong Bingington 5" wide engineered floor that will be glued down. I will check the thickness of the limestone tomorrow morning and let you know. We have heard that you can lay down hardy board or cork to raise the floor so it butts up evenly with stone. The only problem with that idea is where do you start and stop the unerlayment of cork or hardy board? The main living areas of the house will be hardwood so we really don't want to go to the extra expense to have an underlayment put down throughout the area. We are just trying to avoid a t mold between stone (master bath), tile (guest bathrooms), and hardwood. Stay tuned for thickness of limestone and tile. Thanks for responding to our question.

the limestone is 7/16" thick

I went to the Armstrong site, and cant seem to locate that plank. Alot of times they use different names and labels for different retailers.

I was trying to find the thickness of the plank. I would guess it's 3/8", 1/2", or 9/16" ?

The hardwood is 3/8" .

The Hardwood @ 3/8", and the limestone @ 7/16 " is pretty close in thickness. We're talking the limestone at 1/16" thicker , which is good. There's a few ways you can go.

Keep one thing in mind , engineered plank is very stable when it comes to movement. The large majority of the movement, if any, will be in the widths of the planks, and not the ends. Although engineered is very stable, you still want to allow for expansion space as per Armstrong's installation specs. When scribe fitting an area I usually feel comfortable leaving TWICE the recommended expansion space, parallel to that scribed area. I also undercut my door jambs deep. That's just me. There's guys that will net fit engineered wherever, and dont worry about it. It's a judgement call.

That being said .... Usually if you measure a stone or tile floor thickness say at 7/16", most of the time that measurement is not perfectly consistant, along that edge. Plus ofcoarse you have the 1/16" height difference to deal with. What I usually do is leave a grout line width, the same width as the stone, inbetween the stone and the wood. I then grout the space in, with matching grout , mixed with a siliconized latex additive, for bonding and flexibility. This "grouting the wood into the stone" solves the problem of minor height differences, like wer'e talking about, and makes a nice transition. This only works when the stone is higher than the wood, so you can "feather" the grout into the wood, and deal with height variation, accross the stone edge. If the wood was higher , you would see the edge of the wood, not good. If the ends of the planks are going up to the stone, I will install a feature strip, grout width from the stone, and cut the planks to the feature strip, ( I dont think board ends look good against the stone. If you are cutting to a jagged stone edge, leaving a grout width, I will seal the ends of the cut planks with liquid silicone, to prevent moisture from absorbing into the the cut ends, when grouting and maintaining the stone.

That was a mouth full
I hope you understand what I just said !
Let me know if questions
Howard

As Floorologist says, many contractors are relaxed about acclimatizing engineered flooring and proper expansion tolerances. (including our company).
If site conditions are good and the adjacent floor surface is at the same (or close) elevation as the hardwood; we will fit the floors tight to each other. I like and use, floorologists grout line connection with ceramic since that does compensate for any irregularities in the edge of the tile.
A threshold piece across the floor where butting into ceramic, finishes the job nicely, unless there is already a marble threshold in place.

Tile and stone require expansion joints the same as wood.
That transition must be a soft joint.
Most stones vary in thickness some, but where the biggest issue comes into play is stone is usually laid flat or level. That means your stone when it hits the transition could easily be an 1" off the floor.

But a soft joint is a must.

Hope it came out well.