🎯 Step 1: Align Flooring Pattern with Circulation Flow
Here's a mistake I see in 7 out of 10 homes: flooring installed perpendicular to hallways. When your planks or tiles run across a hallway instead of along it, the space appears significantly shorter and choppier.
Think of it like horizontal stripes on clothing—they widen. The solution?
Install flooring parallel to your main circulation paths. Your 3-meter (10-foot) hallway will suddenly feel like 4 meters (13 feet).
📏 Step 2: Leave Proper Expansion Gaps for Material Changes
When you're transitioning from tile to wood flooring, many installers rush and butt materials directly together—big mistake.
Timber is a living material that expands and contracts with humidity and temperature changes. You need a 5–10 mm (3/16"–3/8") expansion gap beneath your transition profile.
Without this breathing room, your beautiful hardwood will buckle, cup, or crack within the first seasonal change.
Use a metal or wooden transition strip that covers the gap while allowing movement underneath.
This isn't just technical specification—it's the difference between flooring that lasts 5 years versus 25 years.
💧 Step 3: Create Water Barriers at Wet-to-Dry Transitions
The bathroom-to-corridor transition is where water damage begins in most homes. Here's the critical specification: ensure a minimum 5 mm (3/16") height difference that slopes toward the wet area.
This creates a subtle threshold that contains water and prevents it from seeping under your hallway flooring.
Many homeowners worry this creates a tripping hazard, but when properly detailed with a beveled transition strip, it's barely noticeable underfoot yet performs like a dam.
The wet area floor should always be lower—never assume grout lines alone will stop water migration. This single detail can save you thousands in water damage repairs and mold remediation down the line.
