Transition moulding help

I have a situation in my home where we had wood flooring next to newly installed tile. The flooring is pretty uneven since we used DITRA backer to lay the tile down where the old tile just had chicken wire and mortar. I purchased a reducer moulding but even that doesn't make up for the gap between the tile floors and there is a small between the bottom of the reducer and the top of the hardwood.

Any suggestions on how one could possibly put a reducer moulding between these two floors and not have to worry about any kind of gaps??

Welcome to the site and i think a photo would help a lot.

bud16415 said:

Welcome to the site and i think a photo would help a lot.

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Thanks bud....here is a quick depiction of what I am dealing with. I tried my best but if this doesn't help I will take photos when I get home from work. Thanks in advance for any advice.

No that’s pretty clear. I haven’t used that molding. How big of a gap do you have?

Can you add a small shim (glued) to the heal to fill in the gap? Strip of wood stained to match???

I had a huge height transition between the kitchen and living room and I made my own threshold to blend it down over 6 inches.

Thanks bud....I will see if this is a possible solution when I get home.

The best transition strip sits UNDER the tile and is embedded into the thinset. The curved piece rests on your non-tile surface and curves upward onto the tile. This ensures no gap on the non-tile side and a secure bond to the tile-side. Of course, this has to be done when you are applying the tile .... too late now.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lRj-jS5f3o[/ame]

For the shim Bud mentioned, use the hardwood iron on tape that is made for finishing the edge of plywood.

nealtw said:

For the shim Bud mentioned, use the hardwood iron on tape that is made for finishing the edge of plywood.

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Hi nealtw, can you be more specific as to how this would work?? I need to fill about a 1/8" gap between the hardwood and the transition. This tape doesn't seem like it would be thick enough to fill that gap.

You might have to put two or three layers on I guess. I would just grab a piece of hardwood and slice off a sliver and glue that on sand a little and maybe some stain or finish if it looked like it was going to show. I liked Neal’s suggestion as most people don’t have a way of making a shim like that but if you ask around someone has a table saw that could help you out.

At 1/8” I think that extra height won’t add to a tripping hazard you should be fine. I never liked the overlap molding like that but I understand the reason to hide the gap. I just don’t like the bump. On mine I was super careful in the kitchen to end in the doorway with a nice straight edge dropping down to the living room. The threshold I made butted up flush and the tiny crack that was there I used putty to fill matching the white oak I made the threshold out of. It ran wider than the door and then was tapered on the front and both sides. Being wider no one ever even notices the 1” step up. In my case the kitchen is a yellow oak looking laminate and the living room are the original chestnut plank floors I refinished. The white oak finished to be a blend in color between the two and I think it helps show that there is a transition. At least no one has told me it didn’t look good yet.

Post some pics as you go others might learn from your experiment.

Iron on tape is hardwood about 1/16 thick. It come in a roll and is pre=glues with heat activated glue.

nealtw said:

Iron on tape is hardwood about 1/16 thick. It come in a roll and is pre=glues with heat activated glue.

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This sounds like it would be the easiest solution...I may try this out and see if it works.

The last problem I truly have is getting the thresholds down and staying in place. The height between the tile and the subfloor is tall enough that the 'track' part of the moulding might not reach to the floor. I have some liquid nails that I've used on other mouldings with a little success so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Here are the thresholds I'm dealing with with the gap issue. I haven't yet decided which way I wanna go to fill in the gap but I wanted to let people see even though you can't see the issue at hand.



I was able to get this threshold down without a shim and some liquid nails. Turned out okay.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_526037-35938-36218_0__?productId=50047935

Who knew??

If you have access to a router, you could make the notch in the moulding just a little bit deeper.