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How To Add Floor Trim, Transitions, and Reducers

Since sharing this photo over a month ago, some of you have asked for more detail about putting the transitions around the cork floor in our kitchen (and around the fireplace’s floor surround).

Seal Transition 1

Oh but remember we’re eventually going to be refinishing the rooms with the orange wood flooring to match the darker cork tone, so it should look something like this down the line (pardon the bad photoshop):

Seal Transition 2

Finding the right thing for the job was a bit of an effort on our part since our Lisbon Cork doesn’t come with matching transitions. In fact, the guy at Lumber Liquidators recommended against any kind of cork transition because they’re not as durable as a harder wood when it comes to the kicks and bumps that transitions may have to withstand. Lumber Liquidators sold oak transitions that we could’ve stained to match (I think the price was around $45 for a 72″ piece), but I found an engineered option at Home Depot for $27 that was a pretty darn close match already. The only bummer was they only carried 48″ pieces in stock, so I had to special order the 72″ pieces (and then wait a few weeks for them to arrive at the store where I could pick them up) which is why only our shorter doorways got transition-ed back when we finished the floor in March. So yeah, it was about time we got on the rest of them.

Transition 2 Full Pieces

 When it comes to installing transitions on cork floors, there aren’t a lot of tutorials out there (at least not that I could find) so while I’d love to create one, I’m not sure I’d call my methods perfect – but I’ll tell you guys about my process so at least there’s something out there on the ol’ internet. Since I didn’t photograph the process of putting in the transition above back when we finished the kitchen, let’s follow the story of this guy instead (who we finally tackled last week).

Transition 1 Arrow At Transition1

Since we installed our floating cork floor over an existing floor (due to an asbestos liner under our vinyl tile), our transitions have a smidge of a step down. Around 1/4-1/2″ because the existing floor was already a tiny bit higher than the original hardwood in the dining room (keep in mind these rooms didn’t connect like this until we made them). In instances where hardwood floors aren’t the same level, you need a transition piece called a “reducer.” I’m sorry the photo below looks like a hand puppet choking on a giant piece of wood, but you’ll see how one side slopes down and one side steps up – that’s how it connects a slightly lower floor to a slightly higher one without making a big bump that everyone trips over. The key to the most seamless look is to keep it gradual and not go for anything that looks crazy curved, like the letter C.

Transition 3 Reducer Cross

 Once I stripped the plastic off of them (that’s what looks marked up in the third picture), I drew a line with a ballpoint pen where I needed to cut it in order to get a good fit. Then I made the slice with my miter saw.

Transition 4 Marking Cut1

Some of the tutorials I read suggested using adhesive to keep the transitions in place. All of the transitions in our house are nailed in, and that’s how the transitions were in our last house too – so I decided to go that route again. Since we haven’t purchased a nail gun (although we do plan to take that plunge soon), I pre-set the nail into the wood before putting it into place in the doorway by partially banging it in with a piece of scrap wood underneath to get it started (pre-drilling a very small hole could also work, especially if you worry about your transition splitting).

Transition 5 Pre Nailing1

Here’s how I was positioning the transition along the doorway. Since this was the most drastic drop, I actually rested the small lip on the high end on the top of the cork to keep it in place.

Transition 6 Placement1

After banging it all in to get things flush (tip: we like using a $3 nail punch to avoid denting the wood), it actually came out looking pretty good. And now it’s no longer the toe-stubbing hazard that it’s been for the last four months, though we’ve somehow dodged getting tripped up on it (perhaps because the for-now floor color change makes it so obvious).

Transition 7 One Done1

The transition along the hallway was pretty much the same exact process, so I’ll skip right to how we finally tackled the unfinished fireplace. It was an interesting case since it has corners that I had to miter, but I just cut 45 degree angles with my miter saw after measuring the length of each side. You might remember seeing the raw edge most recently in this post.

Mantel Now2

Right now the fireplace is lower than the cork, so we needed to use the reducers again. It’s kind weird, but it’s only temporary (once we find tile that we love enough not to feel like we’re settling, we’re planning to retile this area, which will raise things up so it’s all flush and we’ll scrap these tide-us-over-for-now transitions).

Transition 8 Mitred Corners1

But for now, our transition trim actually works pretty well. It’s so funny how sometimes these little steps like trimming something out can make such a big difference when it comes to something looking polished and complete. Three cheers for no more raw edges!

Transition 9 5 Fireplace Done2

Here’s a view from the hallway of the new transition in that doorway (and the fireplace beyond it). Oh and yes, that is a giant faux clam shell in the fireplace. It was the item from our Joss & Main collection that we bought for ourselves (you know how Sherry is about giant fake clam shells…). It’s huge and probably weighs twice as much as Clara, but oddly enough at least five of our friends/relatives have asked where they can get one for their empty fireplace. Haha, let’s start a clam-shell-in-the-fireplace movement.

Transition 10 To Fireplace Done

And now for a shot of all three freshly transitioned-areas at once. Ta-dah! We have officially trimmed out our way to a completed cork floor. Don’t mind the place-holder rug in there (it’s leftover from our first kitchen, but would love to replace it someday).

Transition 11 All Done1

Anyone else have any transition adventures? Or need to take care of some doorways around their house? I was so surprised there weren’t as many cork transition posts on the interweb as I thought there’d be. In the words of Keenan Thompson: what up with that?

Comments

  2. Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

    The transitions definitely help the floors look more finished. Too bad there aren’t more tutorials available online (that’s surprising because I feel like EVERYTHING is online, especially after your post on Friday).

    Will you plan to stain the orangey-floors yourselves or bring in professionals??

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hahahahah, so true! How is video footage from 13 years ago online and there aren’t more cork transition tutorials?! As for the floors, we’d love to tackle them ourselves (although we have a local floor guy that we love, so it’ll definitely be weird not to have Mr. Sanders (that’s really his name) come over. Haha.

      xo,
      s

    • Donna Jean says

      I love it when people’s names and professions match up in almost comical ways! Before moving to Richmond I had a dentist named Dr. Fill and a physics teacher named Mr. Boyles – too perfect!
      The transitions look great! We have a really big difference in the floor height between our kitchen and living room – I’m talking like almost an inch (it was like that when we bought the house). Right now we just have a piece of quarter round as the transition, but it’s obnoxious that it is such a big difference. My son tripped over it more than once while learning how to walk. I’m hoping that once we are able to tear up the hideous tile in the kitchen and replace it with either better looking tile or laminate or something like that we will be able to address the huge difference in floor heights.

    • preethi says

      How’s Mr Fawcett who is a urology surgeon or Dr D’eth or Dr Dark for anaesthetists!?

  4. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    We’re seriously considering putting cork flooring in our little office. It’s currently the only area in the entire Little House without hardwood. We found some that is a similar color to our existing floors without looking like we tried to match stains.

    This will definitely help us make the transitions from the office to the other rooms in the house!

    Reply

  5. Theresa says

    In the future, you might want to predrill the nail holes with a slightly smaller hole than the nail. When one of those strips splits when you are punching through the nail, Clara should not be subjected to the language that usually follows. Trust me.

    Reply

  6. amybeth says

    That white fireplace surrounded by the dark cork is so beautiful. I feel like these pics are really good for seeing the whole “soft avocado”ness of your walls too. (It really does look lime green sometimes lol) Great palette. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  10. Amanda K says

    I’ve been thinking about re-tiling the area in front of my fireplace, but now that I know you guys are planning to do it, I think I’ll hold off and wait to read your post about it first. On another note, I tried your cutting in method for the first time last weekend when I repainted my bedroom, and it was amazing! It pains me to think of how many rolls of painters tape I’ve been through in the last five years. Thanks for the tip!

    Reply

  11. Lauren@FilingJointly says

    The floors look so much more finished! I love the color by the way, our new house (we move in May) has hardwood floors almost the exact same color and I am OBSESSED with them.

    This post is helpful as some of the transitions in the new house are unfinished and will be something we need to tackle at some point. Probably quite soon after moving in as I am the clumsiest person of all time and will definitely trip as long as they’re unfinished.

    I think I’ve mentioned this before but I have really really really long arms (a la John)and yesterday I actually managed to trip myself with my own hand/arm(sounds impossible, but it’s not apparently.)

    Feel free not to read this. I know how busy you guys are but I wrote about it here http://www.filing-jointly.com/2012/04/i-got-hate-mail-today-i-have-made-it-as.html

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We thought about that briefly but wondered if something else could be more fun over there instead of just matching the backsplash – just to spice it up. We’re waiting to find the perfect tile that we have to have and then we can’t wait to get ‘er done.

      xo,
      s

  14. S @ keepitneat says

    You beat me to it – I was just about to say, how is that your awk & amazing Eminem video is out there, but no cork tutorials? Also, love the Keenan reference. Remember “All That”? Ha.

    Reply

  16. Beth says

    Are you still liking your cork floor after living with it a while? It’s on our kitchen floor short list next to Marmoleum, and I would love to use it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we’re really happy with it! No dings or scratches or stains with a crazy toddler and pooch with tiny scratchy nails, so we’re really happy! It’s so soft underfoot it’s almost like standing on a pad.

      xo,
      s

    • Willow says

      We have cork in our entire house except for the kitchen, which is Marmoleum. I wish so badly we had just gone with the cork in the kitchen as well. The Marmoleum scratches like crazy! Our cork has dings and scratches too, but because of the way it looks you can’t see them unless you know they are there and are right down on the floor. It is also quite hard compared to the cork – after standing on it for a while cooking my feet get sore.

  19. emily @ go haus go says

    It looks great. I have similar unfinished edges around my fireplace (I ripped them to paint the tile surround versus gently removing… i’m regretting that now) and this just may be the thing to get me motivated. I’ve been living with mine for a few months now!

    Reply

  20. Nichole says

    Oh man, it looks great! I’m a little disheartened after seeing this post, though, because my husband and I are dealing with our own transition/trim woes as I write this. We had hardwoods installed (over a floating subfloor) in the living room, which transitions the the now lower tiled kitchen. The actual transition piece is fine, but the large space beneath it is less than ideal. But our major hang-up is how to trim the wall where it slopes into the kitchen. We have an open concept, with rounded corners where the walls meet (make sense?). Anywho, our floor installer said he’d figure it out (that small weird transition trim dilemma… It’s not in a doorway like yours is) and we were so over our experience with his work ethic (far too long a story to divulge), so we said we’d just take care of it. In comes guy #2 to do the trim, promising a smooth trim transition. I want to cry. It looks TERRIBLE. Any suggestions on what to do or where to seek help? It looks like a cosmetic surgery gone way wrong… But on my floor. It’s sad. Thanks guys!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh no! So sorry about the bad floor surgery! We can’t really picture your dilemma, but if you posted a photo on our Facebook page we could try to suggest something (along with other readers who are usually far more brilliant than we are, haha). Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just left them! Haha. They’re not very noticeable and we just looked at the other transitions around the house and saw tiny little nail heads there, so we went for it. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  22. brooke says

    Looks awesome as usual! I was thinking oh I love that basket with toys in the fireplace looks great! Then the Clam…Love it!
    Brooke
    onprairiehill.blogspot.com

    Reply

  23. Jenn @My Southwestern Life says

    Wow, those look great! We are going with a similar color to your cork for our vinyl floors that look like real wood. Hopefully, we will be getting them in the next few months.

    P.S. I love that giant clam in your fireplace! It’s always interesting to see what you guys put in there.

    Reply

  25. Nickie says

    I love the shell! But you so should get a little mermaid figurine to put in the clam shell. I know I am totally random, but the little mermaid musical performance was the first thing that popped into my head:)

    Reply

  26. Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says

    We’ll be refinishing our wood floors in the dining room (and eventually the rest of the house) but we aren’t sure if we want to try ourselves or if we want to hire someone…

    The transitions look great! I would have stubbed my toes so many times by now!

    Reply

  28. heather s. says

    I’m confused as to why you thought there would be cork transition tutorials. Cork flooring is just like any other flooring and you’d use the same transitions between hardwood, laminate, cork, tile, etc. My transition was between a laminate kitchen and hardwood dining room and is now is wood kitchen to wood dining room and I used the same type of transition for both. I think the transition you use doesn’t necessarily matter on the wood type.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I guess it was more that we wondered why there are so many cork installation tutorials online but no one talks about finishing them (there’s not as much about sealing them and hardly anything about adding transitions). Although it might be the same process for wood flooring, we just would have loved reading what worked best for someone with cork! You know, just to be sure there wasn’t some reason that gluing them or cutting them a certain way would make more sense for a floating cork floor like ours.

      xo,
      s

  31. Jen says

    Looks great! Did you guys have to do any fill in work where you took the wall out or did you just run the cork closer to the dining room floor? We moved the door over during our master bath remodel and the carpet is too short where the old wall was so it leaves us with a really awkward threshold space. We don’t want the bathroom tile to show on the bedroom side of the door so we have about a 4 1/2″ gap to cover with a transition piece but we aren’t sure what to do. Our original plan was to match the wood to our vanity (which is a dark stain similar to the color of your floors) but its just too jarring against the white tile and beige carpet. The correct solution is to redo the carpet but we can’t afford to do that right now and don’t have any scraps to even do a patch. Any suggestions?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oddly enough we used a plank of leftover paneling (from the wall that we removed) to fill in the tiny height gap before laying cork right over that (it kept the whole floor flush). Then we just added the transition and it was all pretty seamless. As for your 4 1/2″ gap I’d use a wood/stone transition that’s less jarring I think. If it’s as wide as the walls/doorway it will hopefully look ok! Maybe try white painted wood like the trim (if the trim is white) so it hopefully blends?

      xo,
      s

  32. Jennifer (iffles) says

    We just put down a new wood floor in our family room, and it bumps up to the tile floor of our entryway, but the tile floor is just a *smidge* higher. It’s not nearly as big of a difference between your two floors, but it’s not completely even, either, and I’m not sure how we’ll handle that, because I’ve only seen the transition pieces like yours (which are too much of a difference in height), or the T ones that are for when both floors are the same height. Am I missing some obvious solution?

    Reply

  33. marie says

    oddly enough, we ARE dealing with transitions around here. we are having laminate installed on friday and the stair step the installer told us to order is NOT going to work where we ripped up the old stair step. the guy at lumber liquidators told me to put the old stair step back and stain it to match the new floor. guess what i’ll be doing before friday since my husband is out of town??

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, that’s smart! We couldn’t reuse a lot of the old stuff since the floor height changed (and we added that doorway) but if you removed it and can just restain it and put it back in it’s a great idea!

      xo,
      s

  34. Brenda says

    First of all, I’m not sure whether to give you bonus points for mentioning “What Up With That” or to take them away for getting the song stuck in my head.

    Second of all, it’s always so nice to see the little details come together. I think the fireplace looks especially polished now.

    Reply

  36. Lynn @ SafeBeauty says

    Last weekend we added the finishing transitions to our wood laminate flooring too. We used a T mould to attach the living room to the tiled kitchen. It looks so finished and grown up now. We love it because it makes the house feel more homey and less “squatter mansion”.

    My best, Lynn

    Reply

  37. heather says

    It’s amazing how transitions can change things! Good luck finding a nail gun you love :) I was going to recommend the one we have. Except I remember it was pneumatic and I’m pretty sure you guys don’t have a large air compressor with tons of air hose to bring out haha. I’ll ask the hubs though if he has a good recommendation you can look up more on to see if it’s a good fit for you!

    Reply

  38. Nora says

    Great job! How did you tell that the vinyl tile had an asbestos liner? Our house is older with two layers of linoleum and subfloors over the kitchen floor but the previous owner said they had all the asbestos removed. I’m not sure if they would have considered that floor or just the basement where asbestos on the pipes would have been more noticeable.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We heard that any liner that’s black and sort of looks like tar paper in a house of our era is usually full of asbestos and shouldn’t be messed with, and sure enough when we were moving our fridge and pantry position we saw that telltale black liner so we knew we’d be adding a floating floor.

      xo,
      s

  39. Meghan says

    Oh man! Now I have that SNL song stuck in my head! Which is kinda okay cause it makes me laugh. But I’m going to end up singing it out loud I know, and my co-workers will think I’m nuts.

    Reply

  40. Suzy says

    We just moved to Richmond a few months ago and close on our new home next week. I just met w/ “Mr Sanders” this morning to refinish our floors. He was great and gave a competitive quote. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Reply

  41. Nina says

    We are about to put in transition pieces (laminate wood to cheapy vinyl in a bathroom), only we have a concrete subfloor. So I think we have to use some type of adhesive… I’m so scared!!!

    Reply

  42. Brooke says

    What would you suggest using to hold the transition piece down other than nails? We have concrete underneath, so I’m not sure nails would cut it. Liquid nails maybe? Or some other adhesive?

    Reply

  46. Callie says

    This is weird but I just had to say that I’m happy to hear you guys don’t own a nail gun yet either!! I haven’t taken the plunge yet and I’m definitely behind you guys in my DIY pursuits…but sometimes I just feel like everyone has a nail gun in their back pocket! ;) Huzzah for arm muscling in those nails – and I’ll be listening if/when you do take the plunge and then you can write about your research of which one to get, hehe :)

    Reply

  47. Devon @ Green House, Good Life says

    Looks great!

    My husband and I were really careful not to have any transitions when we built our home two years ago (wood everywhere except bathrooms, which are tile), but because of the radiant floor in the master bathroom, it was going to be a quarter-inch or so higher than the wood. When our builder asked how we wanted to handle the transition (put a curve the edge of the tile abutting the wood?), we asked if the tiler could slope the first tile gently upward to meet the rest of the tile. He didn’t think that was possible, but the tiler was AWESOME, and you totally can’t tell that there’s any height difference at all.

    http://www.greenhousegoodlife.com/2010/04/looks-like-theyre-getting-serious-about.html

    Reply

  48. Wendy says

    Thanks for this post. I am currently dealing with the transition issue between my kitchen (light ceramic tile) and dining room (maple hardwoods) — and we’re not just talking a doorway, we’re talking the wall was removed and the two rooms are fully (except for an island in the midst) open to each other with one of those ugly metal transitions between the two floors — ugh. Hoping to have hardwoods installed in the kitchen, budget allowing. If not, perhaps new tile that’s more in keeping with the hardwoods color-wise.

    Love your blog!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ooh I bet a nice maple hardwood transition would be a huge upgrade to those metal ones even if you can’t get hardwoods or darker tile in the kitchen!

      xo,
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks! It’s from jossandmain.com a while ago. It moves around a lot, so it used to live in Clara’s room. She likes sitting on it and often will wake up from a nap and say “Go on the pouf!” – it’s hilarious.

      xo,
      s

  50. Crystal says

    Your flooring look beautiful! I’ve always been apprehensive about darker wood floors. But you’ve changed my mind! Are those actual shelves in the corner by the fireplace with the little jars? Or is it a framed print?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s just a print from allposters.com! I got it a few years back (it was in our first house’s dining room) but I think it’s still sold on their site.

      xo,
      s

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