I have never used transition strips in large areas of laminate and have never had a problem as long as the walls etc had the right spacing and IMO they look silly in the middle of a space.

Doorways should always have transitions. That should lessen your run enough to not have to do one in the middle of the run.

I have read this in the installation instructions for some brands, but from what I’ve been told, with the Mannington we’re using we’re okay without transition strips in every doorway. We are moving our baseboards up, undercutting our door jams, and have planned all of our expansion points painsakingly to avoid transition strips. None of the model homes or parade homes we looked at before we bought our house have transition strips in any doorways, and the installer we purchased through does great work and I’ve only seen him use it at the threshold. To clarify, the area I’m concerned about is an open area (the “doorways” do not have doors, but it spans three rooms) and the reconmendation is specifically for spans over 30ft, and ours is 35. I definitely do not want transition strips between rooms, and I will run the flooring the other direction if I have to, but I will do anything I can to avoid it.

Get ready to re-lay the whole thing when it fails. You will not get a warranty from either the manufacturer or the flooring guy. It is all on you. The proper installation will have thresholds between rooms.

Or. Pick a different flooring. Not floating. Like a glue down engineered wood. You are setting yourself up for failure.

You can choose not to follow the manufacturer's installation instructions but if You ever have an issue down the line no matter what the issue is, it will void the warranty automatically. It's not a risk I'd be willing to take, but maybe you are. Some laminates can go larger spans without needing transitions/expansion joints so maybe you should look at other options. My laminate can go 66' without a transition so throughout our entire main floor we have all laminate and the only transitions are in the doorways to the powder room and office. We have several archways and they don't need transitions.

It's the doorways that can create problems which a good number of installers don't pay attention to. I'm speaking of under the casings. While you really can't see what's going on, it doesn't take much to butt up against the framing part of the door. If enough humidity or moisture is present after the installation, that hidden area could cause a nice buckle; raised floor. I've had to cut a few of them out in the past.

Lisa, what laminate did you use? Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen transition strips anywhere locally, everyone is using a different brand?

I am definitely willing to accept the consequences, I just want to have the information so I know what I’m risking when we make the decision. It is a difference of 5 feet and everything hinges on that. I really would like to know specifically what could happen if we lay it the way I want. Is it more likely to separate? More likely to buckle? Are these issues that I could fix if they come up? Do these things happen right away or potentially over time? Is there anything out of the box that I can do to prevent these things without using the transition strips? Have other installers been doing floors without transition strips at the request of homeowners, and what has worked and not worked?

Thank you, Uptown. I just finished removing the baseboards yesterday (turns out our baseboards were better installed than I realized and it was s lot of work to remove them without causing damage!) and we are getting ready to do the casings tonight.

We actually do not have any casings at all in this long span. The only casings we do have are to the powder room and the pantry, which are small spans. I could get on board with a transition to the powder room because I might tile there at some point anyway. The pantry I think would be really annoying to sweep, but I could. I would think this could be managed with deeper casings to give a little more wiggle room but that would take a lot of forsight and creativity. Either way, we’ll be careful and accurate with cutting the pieces for the casings.

when you refer to the expansion, it occurred to me that maybe the reason everyone in my area does it “wrong” without problems is because we live in such a dry climate.

Why laminate? Why floating? You are creating a problem that doesn’t need to exist. Slab foundations have been gluing engineered hardwood for over 40 years with no issues if done correctly. Why are you cheaping out with a temporary plastic floor that costs as much as a real wood floor?

I didn’t find anything even remotely close to what we paid for this flooring in engineered or hardwood. We bought the flooring on sale, and it was by far the best looking flooring we found in our budget. If you tell me now I could do wood for the same amount of money I don’t think I’ll ever get over it! I brought home so many samples and hated all of them at first, including the one we chose. I grew up in a house with beautiful maple flooring, so it was hard not to compare. After a couple of months of looking I came back around to it because it was by far the best looking floor we could get within our budget. We’re also saving by installing ourselves. If I did wood flooring myself I’d be pretty comfortable with the installation but I’d be concerned about finishing on my own, and hiring someone for that would also increase our cost.

Hi Patricia, did you laminate ever butt up to tile? And if so did you use a transition piece?

I did both. I was taught by an installer how to flush cut the flooring to butt up against the tile, which did have an edge strip, with a 1/16th (I think, it’s been almost 2 years) gap and silicone caulk. I hated it because the flooring is matte and I couldn’t find a caulk that wasn’t shiny so it left an obvious shiny line between the tile and the laminate flooring. I replaced it with a transition strip. I do remember messing with the strip to making it as flush as possible between the two different floorings, I think we had to modify the metal piece inside or route one side deeper. keep in mind all of this was DIY and with proper planning by a pro installer the different floor levels are taken into account. I changed my mind and decided to tile the powder room when the flooring was already in. Also, in this scenario the ends are supposed to be sealed and caulked beneath the transition strip in a powder room application, even if it isn’t “wet,” like with a shower or bathtub. That was so deep in the specifications for the flooring we almost missed it.

I did not use a transition strip by the front door. I intended to, just to be cautious since we spanned a greater distance, but I hated how the strip looked. Next to the threshold the caulk is invisible, even though it’s shiny.

We were pressed on time and budget because it was a new home without any closet shelves, garage storage, or landscaping. The idea of replacing the carpet that was falling apart (after less than a year) with more of the same carpet by the builder was discouraging to me, so we really couldn’t do anything differently. But in a more predictable world, if I could have wrangled a couple thousand more, I have done a simple, not engineered, hardwood and installed it ourselves.

The laminate has not had any issues at all as far as buckling or drifting. It’s on our main floor and the only place with an issue is where my kids drop ice cubes on the floor in the same spot and don’t pick them up. There isn’t any swelling or peeling but there is a thin line where you can see the composite is a different color. This is not in an area with a long span. The LVP with equivalent numbers of pieces were 2-3 times as expensive.

all the questions you asked I'm having the exact same issue with same questions. any updates on your flooring? what did you end up doing? I, too, don't want to lay down the transitional molding and I'm right at 35 ft as well. And it's only 35 ft at one row of flooring. Appreciate the feedback

We are looking at the same exact scenario. Only we have two long runs...the longest one has no doorways whatsoever...just a big room that is 34.5 ft wall to wall. However, there will be cabinets setting on top of two feet on each end, leaving 30.5 ft.. I just have a strong aversion to transitions, unless it's butting up against carpet. But since we're installing in all of the rooms, including kitchen and bathrooms, we need something durable and waterproof or at the very least water resistant. We've been advised by two different contractors to not use a glue down product.

If I was doing it again right now, 2 years later, I wouldn’t do laminate if it included bathrooms. We do have it in our kitchen, and the laminate we have is supposed to be rated for water up to 72 hours and can be used in kitchens and bathrooms that are more like powder rooms, but it would never work in a real bathroom in my house. I’m not sure I’d do it in the bathrooms even if it was LVP though.

Personally I wouldn’t be worried about a span just over the recommendation, but I would get feedback from the installer. We did it ourselves and decided it was worth potentially voiding the warranty, and we haven’t had problems. But you may not want to give up the option of the installer fixing it.

I would be really careful about the cabinets at both ends if it’s at the ends of a long span. I ‘m not an expert but I think it’s more likely to have expansion problems in that long span if it doesn’t have the freedom to expand under the baseboards. We did not install our flooring under our cabinets, the toekick serves as a baseboard. My parents build their house at the same time as us and the builder actually did install their floating flooring under their cabinets. They had to have it all cut at the edge of the cabinets and have quarter round molding installed because it made the floors squeak and caused separation. It was not a long span. I would definitely just check on that.

Some of the high-end LVP (the thick, rigid stuff) can be installed in rooms up to 1000sf in size (that works out to be 32'x32'). You have to know which one's those are and where to get hold of them.

Laminate should not go in bathrooms (full baths) - ever. And Laminate floors (which are different from LVP) should not go in kitchens because of the dishwasher stream/stray ice cubes, etc.

Im having LVP installed in my living room next week, and Im going to need a transition between it and the click laminate in the dining room. The span is about 100”. How can I get a transition strip that long?