I have a 24 x16 room I am doing in HW.

Trying to decide how to orient the planks. I have heard its best to lay them along the long side of the room. But, I've also heard its best to lay them parallel to the light entering the room, which is this case is across the width.

Which way is best?

 

Laying them along the long side of the room give you the best look. But if the floor is above another, you should lay the boards across the floor joist, which in most cases,is the long of the room.

 

missed the edit...

More questions. The boxes of HW I have do not come with any install instructions. Nor is there any mfr name.

I want to staple it to a wood sub floor, but don't know what size staples to use. Is there a way to figure this out?

It's engineered HW, for below grade install.

Planks are 5" wide:

By 1/2" thick, with the tongue being 1/8 thick ("A") with 3/16 either side:

 

Thanks Jupiter. I'll go lengthwise. Should have some pics up in a couple weeks.

 

Yes, go length-wise... It also asthetically looks better.

 

They should go perpendicular to the floor joists, regardless of how it looks.

 

Oh wait, it's below grade... Nevermind.

 

FWIW, I called the installer for advice on stapling. Coincidentally, he was installing the same brand of floor on site and recommended that I glue the joins, and not bother stapling.

 

Good call. I read this and thought 1/8" tongue is awfully thin to try to get staple in.

 

is that hardwood or engineered wood? If its HW u gotta install it perpendicular to th floor joist or your floor will constantly have cracking noises and wont be very solid, but if its engineered wood which is glued down you can go whichever direction you like.

Go fancy on a 45 degree floor hehe

put up some pics

 

It's engineered HW (for belwo grade). No joists, just going on a subfloor, over concrete.

45 looks good on decks, but I've never seen it done in HW. Saw a herringbone HW floor; it looked great, but there must have been a lot of wasted wood.

 

yes there is at least a 10% loss in wood but its a unique setup....take some pics when ur done