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Flooring Design Dilemma

Transition strips at a three way

13 days ago

This is what lowes did when they installed the carpet at my mothers house. its a terrible job but it happened moths ago so i cant call and make them redo it. I need some advice

on how to make this look better. its a weird spot where three floors meet. HELP!

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Comments (12)

KW PNW Z8
13 days ago
My gosh! I suppose there’s no changing the situation of 3 different floorings or you’d be doing that. My only idea is to change them to strips matching the 2 woods up against the carpet side.Leave enough space between the 2 strips for the end of the strip that will be at right angle for the wood to wood strip. This will at least get rid of the overlapping bump. . For the wood to wood maybe use the lighter color wood. Not sure what damage is there from nails / screws through the metal strips.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
13 days ago
Zoom out , let's see what we are dealing with.
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I've always seen the carpet tucked into the tile/carpet transition using the same scraping/tucking tool that's used at the baseboards. I guess it's possible to do this poorly and end up with fraying at the carpet edge, but I've had many like this in my homes over the years and none have frayed. This doesn't typically work at vinyl/carpet transitions because there's not enough height on the vinyl side of the transition to tuck the carpet edge in, which is why transition pieces are almost always indicated at vinyl/carpet boundaries. But carpet/tile boundaries can be finished looking and durable without transition pieces or binding the carpet edge. This post was edited by GauchoGordo1993 on Wed, Dec 4, 13 at 19:48
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You've done a very good job with the situation you've been given. The hardwoods look very close to identical. The only thing I could add to this - and it is ONLY an esthetics suggestion - would be to go 1/2 step darker on the transition strips. Like sewing a seam on a shirt/dress/pants, the ideal is a perfect colour match (thread to cloth). If the match can't be done, a good seamstress will go a snick darker. At a distance it is much harder to see a darker stitch then it is to see a lighter stitch. That is the only thing you could do at this point. And to be clear, the transitions are a pretty good match. If you do anything, the transitions going 1/2 step darker than they are right now would be all I would suggest. Other than that, think of those pieces of wood as the thing that saved you $15K. It's all about how you look at a situation. You can think, "Oh, geeze. I wish I didn't have to have those things there," or you can think "Thank GOODNESS for those transition strips! They saved me $15,000!" Still the same situation - just a different way of looking at it.
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PRO
JAN MOYER
13 days ago
last modified: 13 days ago
What exactly did they install? Just the carpet? Or the light wood AND the carpet? Why the metal between the two woods? who put THAT there?

Who let three months go by.........with no pic from mom as I assume you are in a miles and miles away situation?
jackowskib
13 days ago
last modified: 13 days ago
Yikes, wow that has got to go! I would have it all pulled up so you can see what you're contending with and then go shop at reputable flooring supply shops to get the right transition pieces.
shirlpp
13 days ago
last modified: 13 days ago
I'd call and send pics so they see what a mess they've made - months ago or not.

Maybe even go to the store with the pics to show flooring person so they can call the company they contract with.
palimpsest
13 days ago
At the very least, the carpet transition should have been a tap-down strip, or maybe a rubber strip because of the uneven transition:

And the hard surface to hard surface strip should have been wood or laminate matching one or other of the surfaces
kculbers
13 days ago
I had Pergo wood look laminate flooring in my kitchen installed years ago that is in fantastic shape. They no longer make the same colored Pergo flooring that I have. So when I changed my dark slate hallway flooring (that intersects the kitchen flooring) I chose Italian porcelain wood look flooring that had the same coloring as my Pergo flooring. My carpenter made a wood transition piece that intersects the 2 floorings. I am happy with the result.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
13 days ago
Transitions should be at the end of a pathway, not the middle of a passage or room.
PRO
JAN MOYER
13 days ago
last modified: 13 days ago
The real answer is what nobody wants to hear. One flooring to a living floor.
palimpsest
13 days ago
The real, real answer is that sometimes budget rules out the best solution, because changing three different flooring materials to one, costs a lot more than the flooring, when you come down to it.
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
13 days ago
Carpeting next to wood flooring should have a concealed tack attachment that properly ends the carpet. A good carpet installer knows how to do this.
Tish
13 days ago
You can see that there is 3 different subfloor heights that is creating an issue. This was likely a ”let’s remove these walls” situation that created the Cause, and the ugly trip strips is the Effect.

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