My kitchen has 3/4" Oak (Bruce Dundee 3-1/4" Plank) installed and a perpendicular transition piece installed which "transitions" into the carpeted family room. I will be removing the carpet in the family room and installing the same hardwood that exists in the kitchen. I want the hardwood floor to flow from the kitchen into the family room without the perpendicular transition piece (since it's all one big open area). The problem is, when I remove the transition piece, I'll be left with 6.5ft of flooring that will not have staggered joints and this will not look right if I just butt the new flooring up to the old.

Below is my poor attempt to help visualize the layout (c is carpet and dashes is existing hardwood). If I remove the transition piece (includes a small 90 degree piece butting up to the wall of the countertop), I assume I need to remove existing hardwood so that the joints will be staggered. If that is the case, what's the best way to accomplish this? Start at the back wall and remove more as I get to the counter wall? Or just saw out pieces here and there and then slide them in and top nail or glue them?

back of house
_______________________
ccccccccc |------------------------
ccccccccc |------------------------
ccccccccc |--------kitchen-------
ccccccccc |------------------------
ccccccccc |------------------------
ccccccccc |____------------------
ccccccccccccccc |ctr|-----------
ccccccccccccccc |top|----------

Oh, and one other issue. The tongue of the existing floor is facing back of house. So really, I should be starting at the other end of the family room, but then I couldn't guarantee everything would perfectly line up with existing planks. I guess I could use a spline for this problem and start at the back of the house?

Thanks for any suggestions - the transition piece is troublesome for me and wondering what experienced installers do in situations like this.

Thanks.

Aaron

Aaron, you got a tough job ahead if you want to lace a new floor into you old flooring. The best way is not to try that, but instead to use a double header board where the two floors meet "if" you have good clean cuts at the butt joints going across the opening.

If you insist on lacing you would start at the opening and remove boards back to a butt joint. On that long a span I would use a Fein Multimaster and create new butt joints so you don't end up tearing out clear back to the wall.

Thanks for the reply Jerry. I'll try to take a picture and post so you can see the odd shape I'm dealing with. Because of this, I don't think the transition piece will look right. But maybe with a picture, you'll have a suggestion on how I can make the double header look good.

I figured it would be tough to lace (thanks for the proper term), but I'll check out the tool you mentioned if I end up going the difficult route.

Thanks.

Aaron

I think you really should put the effort into lacing the old and new floors together. End result will be much more esthetically pleasing. But dont try to start on a distant wall and hope the new floor boards line up when you get to the opening. Aint gonna happen; for a variety of reasons. Cut your staggers using a Fein saw, or remove to the first joint in each row of the existing floor (better). Strike a line from first full board in opening, across the new space, check for parallel to the opposite walls and cheat a little if you have to, but you dont want a bend in the line of the floor, this would be highly visible along the eased edge of the floor boards. Blind nail through the tongue of each accessible board in this patch area, use urethane adhesive where not possible. You dont want excessive face nails in an open area such as this. Use a spline in the groove side of the first line, and work towards the two parallel walls of the new space.
Point of curiosity, my dad used to call this invisible weaving back in his day, lol.