ᐅ Flooring Direction for Parquet: Parallel or Perpendicular to the Hallway?

Created on: 22 Feb 2024 17:55
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SimonSimon
Hello everyone,

I’m facing the often-asked question myself now: in which direction should I lay my hardwood flooring?
On the ground floor, we have 20cm (8 inches) wide planks, ranging from 2 to partly 6 meters (6.5 to 20 feet) in length.
On the upper floor, the planks have the same lengths but are only 15cm (6 inches) wide.

We are gluing down the flooring ourselves, meaning we also run the planks continuously through the doorways without expansion gaps.
Only the bathrooms and the utility room are tiled; the rest of the rooms, including the kitchen area, will have wood flooring.

I lean towards laying the planks parallel to the hallway on both floors.
This goes against the “rule” that you should enter a room across the direction of the planks. The stair treads would also run perpendicular to the plank direction.
However, the natural light would fall parallel to the planks, which I have read is the preferred approach.

The photos are roughly oriented to the cardinal directions, so the top is north. This means the evening sun comes from the right side into our living room, and on the upper floor through the large window at the right of the hallway.

What do you think, how would you do it?

I appreciate every opinion!

Best regards from southern Baden,
Simon
Ground plan of a house: hallway leads to bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, and two children’s rooms; staircase.

Ground plan of a house with kitchen, hallway, office, cloakroom, and living area.
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ypg
23 Feb 2024 18:09
filosof schrieb:

Interestingly, we have almost the exact same floor plan on the upper floor as you, and I installed the floorboards lengthwise.

Please show us and the original poster a photo of the hallway.
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filosof
23 Feb 2024 21:13
ypg schrieb:

Of course, please show us and the OP a photo of the hallway.
I’m happy to do that, but I probably won’t get around to it before Monday.
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filosof
26 Feb 2024 11:15
As promised. Unfortunately, my photography skills are not great – I hope you can still make out some details...
Bright hallway with wooden floor, dresser on the left, window at the end with a plant, stool in front.

Bright hallway with wooden floor, wooden beams, pendant lights, two round laundry baskets, window at the end

Bright hallway with wooden floor, a wooden beam on the ceiling, hanging lights, and wooden doors

Bright room with large wooden window, plant on top, floral upholstered stool, rocking horse, wooden floor.
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filosof
26 Feb 2024 11:19
And here is the floor plan for comparison.
Floor plan of a house showing Child 1, Child 2, Parents, upper floor hallway; red ellipse marks central staircase.
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SimonSimon
28 Feb 2024 09:41
Hi filosof,
thank you very much for the photos, the floor plan above is really very, very similar.
I really like the longitudinal layout; whether the hallway now appears longer because of it, I’m not sure, but there’s no harm in having a “long” hallway.
Really great, this helps me a lot, thanks!
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xMisterDx
28 Feb 2024 23:18
filosof schrieb:

(...)
It is also important to carefully measure the width beforehand and possibly start with a half plank. Otherwise, it becomes problematic if there is 2cm (0.8 inches) left on the opposite side of the room.
(...)

Especially when installing flooring through all doors and passages without expansion gaps, it is hardly possible without a good plan or a lot of experience. It takes a lot of luck to avoid it looking awkward or ending up with fiddly adjustments or misfits...