I am considering a mixed media installation in my foyer. The foyer in my house is essentially part of the living room and I thought that would be a good way of distinguishing it from the rest of the room. What are the opinions of the professionals here about this? Do you guys do them at all?

My flooring is 5" wide 3/4" oak T&G, nail down installation. The wife hasn't selected a tile yet but it will be in the 18" size range and she will probably want a border tile to also go in the area. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jeff

I have installed quite a bit of "mixed media", it can be a beautiful floor. There's issues to look out for, and pros and cons.
IMO an engineered wood should be installed. With a solid you have stability issues, especially with 3/4 x 5. In your case what you can do is use an engineered 5" width, with a sawn face, and build up the difference of the thickness with plywood cut into 5" widths.
On the subject of thickness... You will want the stone or tile to be a hair higher than the plank. You dont want to have the edges of the plank exposed to traffic, or cosmetically.
I usually install the grid 1st , and then the stone or tile. I let the adhesive fully cure before grouting. I dont want the grout to affect the curing of the adhesive, and I want no movement of the planks.
When grouting , I use a grout with a siliconized, and latex additive.

With that type of floor, one needs to be aware of the difference in maintenance. Usually people use quite a bit of moisture when cleaning a stone floor. I would recommend using the Bona wood floor cleaner, and staying away from the Bona stone cleaner, ( maintain it like a wood floor).

I wish I had some pictures to post, they can be awesome floors. Usually I install them on diagonal.

I am assuming that you are talking about an installation similar to the one shown here in the upper right photo (http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/mixed_media_installations.htm)? I will most likely be installing a tile border around all of this. I found a website that described building a form for the border so that you can lay the wood first and fill in the tile after. That made sense to me for the border but it seems like it would be a lot of work to do that for each individual tile. How do you get the spacing set exact for your tiles? How much space, if any, do you leave between the tile and wood.

Jeff

That look is nice but maintenance must suck.

Here's one Locky's Hardwood did: http://flooringinstaller.ning.com/photo ... ext=latest

Sorry, gotta sign up to see it.

I have always installed the wood before the tile. I just dry lay a few tile to get my measurements, chalk lines, and pencil them in, and install the grid accordingly.
Stone or tile you can adjust the height while installing it. There is no adjusting the height on the grid, once you are gluing it down. As I mentioned, you do want the stone a hair higher than the wood. I usually leave a grout width at the wood, the same width, or a little narrower, as the width between tile or stone. This gives you a little room for feathering grout to the edge of the wood.

The picture shows a "picket" pattern with 1 tile. In the past I have done a basket weave pattern , with 4 tile per module. Always on diagonal.

Not bad. Obviously one has to be aware of limited moisture on and around the wood. I have told people Bona Wood Cleaner on the whole thing, it's been good.

But here's one to think about... What happens down the road when the grid needs to be refinished? Now that's a bummer

I'm gonna dig this thread up again. If I want to use the solid that I already have as opposed to finding a suitable match in an engineered product, I understand there may be stability issues, however I'm curious how to fasten it. Obviously I must remove the tongues to get the tiles to sit in the grid correctly, plus I can't only nail one side of the board. I'm thinking I'll have to face nail the entire thing. Is that correct? Or are there other alternatives when doing a grid for something like this? Glue perhaps?

Maybe the answer is finding a suitable engineered glue down product, I dunno. That is why I'm looking to you pros.

Thanks,

Jeff

Glue is going to do the holding of the grid pattern. Using a temporary brace on one side of the individual grid pieces should allow you to use a fine brad gun to angle nail on both sides (one side at a time of course). I would use 23 gauge headless pins since they are only a temporary measure while the glue sets up.
One final note for future-proofing the wood components against maintenance related moisture. When I have done this kind of work, I always seal the vertical edges of the boards with a coat of urethane prior to inserting the tiles.

I have not built a mixed media in quite awhile. That last time was an addition to one already installed. It consisted of a grid of 1 x 4 x 3/4" oak planks installed on a diagonal. Ceramic tile was inset in the boxes of the grid. I used SAS 4 cabinet grade lumber to build the grid. I glued the planks down with a urethane adhesive and face-nailed them periodically. Since they were to be finished in place, filling the holes was not an issue. After installation, the planks were sanded, stained and finished. The existing boards were lightly sanded and re-coated. I also coated the edges of the planks to help with moisture absorption. It was actually quite easy. But I really did not care much for the "look".

Haven't done one in a while either. I was installing a ton of them a good 20-25 years ago, you know, back when white wash & mauve was the rage They were all over concrete so the grid was quite challenging, not being able to spot nail.

Dennis, can you or someone else recommend a glue? Any good urethane flooring adhesive or is there something in particular I should be looking for? I'm assuming I will just glue this down to the plywood underlayment?

Unfortunately my flooring is pre-finished so I'll have to be selective on how I nail it. I like the 23 gauge pin nailer idea. Plus I've been looking for an excuse to get one of those! I'm assuming that I can nail through the side of the board and not the top to avoid marring the finish, since the brads are only to hold it in place until the glue dries.

Any suggestions on what to do in the intersections of the wood? I could run the long pieces one direction and use short pieces for the other, or I could cut individual pieces that join in the intersection with a point on the end of each piece. I guess it is all in what I want it to look like.

Thanks,

Jeff

Any urethane "tube" glue should do the job. My own preference is Dural Purfloor but that may not be available in you area.
If you cut the pieces the length of two tiles plus the width of one board, and allow for your grout lines, you can form a basketweave pattern. Very attractive, and not TOO much extra work.