Renovating
How to Transition From Tile to Wood Flooring
Here's what you need to know to prevent unsightly or unsafe transitions between floor surfaces
Transitioning a bathroom’s tile floor to the hardwood of another room is often given little forethought. However, not planning the transition can result in a final product that doesn’t meet your expectations, or a floor assembly that’s destined to fail.
Below you’ll learn what to specify when planning a transition from tile flooring to hardwood.
Below you’ll learn what to specify when planning a transition from tile flooring to hardwood.
Most of today’s floor tile is 0.95 to 1.9 centimetres thick. Most hardwood flooring is 1.9 centimetres thick. This means that when you put tile next to hardwood flooring, your tile choice will be critical for a flush transition.
Tip: Installing a second layer of plywood over your subfloor and under your hardwood allows for more floor preparation options in the future.
Tip: Installing a second layer of plywood over your subfloor and under your hardwood allows for more floor preparation options in the future.
Here’s an action shot of tile being installed over an uncoupling membrane from Laticrete, which prepares the plywood subfloor for tile.
Here Tarkus Tile is prepping for a tile installation with a second layer of plywood and an uncoupling membrane. The orange material (Schluter Systems‘ Ditra) was installed with a quality modified thinset (mortar). Since this home’s existing framing was not suited to hold the new tile selection, the installers beefed up the subfloor to make sure the installation would last for years to come.
Tip: The choice between a flush installation from tile to hardwood and one that meets industry guidelines should not be a hard one. Always follow industry guidelines!
Tip: The choice between a flush installation from tile to hardwood and one that meets industry guidelines should not be a hard one. Always follow industry guidelines!
This custom oak transition helps adjust for the difference between the bathroom floor and the bedroom floor in this master suite. This is often called a reducing wood transition, because it works with two surfaces, reducing their height differences.
We centered the tile installation under the door, so when the door is closed you see only tile in the bathroom and oak in the bedroom.
Tip: I find that these transitions look cleaner if the door jamb (the vertical part of the door frame) overlaps the tile a little bit. But this is hard to do if the tile hasn’t been installed yet. If possible, install your bathroom door after the tile installation.
We centered the tile installation under the door, so when the door is closed you see only tile in the bathroom and oak in the bedroom.
Tip: I find that these transitions look cleaner if the door jamb (the vertical part of the door frame) overlaps the tile a little bit. But this is hard to do if the tile hasn’t been installed yet. If possible, install your bathroom door after the tile installation.
The simplest way to link floor tile and hardwood of different heights is with a transition strip. These strips can be finished to look like the floor or painted to stand out.
Tip: Leave 1.6 to 1.9 centimetres of space centred underneath the door for the bottom of the transition strip. If you affix a piece of scrap baseboard or plywood in the same size, it’ll help keep this channel clean of thinset, making the transition strip much easier to install.
Tip: Leave 1.6 to 1.9 centimetres of space centred underneath the door for the bottom of the transition strip. If you affix a piece of scrap baseboard or plywood in the same size, it’ll help keep this channel clean of thinset, making the transition strip much easier to install.
A custom transition can be milled by your flooring contractor for installation after the tile is complete. Notice where the wood transition meets the tile here – the wood is not cut to a feathered edge but kept to about 0.3 centimetre thick. This makes the edge stronger. The reducing transition also overlaps the tile, which helps with movement, since wood and tile expand at different rates.
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TELL US
What kind of flooring do you have in your home and where are they connected? Share in the Comments below.
MORE
10 Questions About Solid Wood Flooring Answered
Notice the flush transition from hardwood flooring to tile. Looking closer (click on the photo to enlarge it), you’ll see that the tile is large (about 30 by 60 centimetres) and made of marble; both features require a stiffer floor than most homes have.