It depends on a lot of things:
How wide the space is,
What the spaces beyond are and how the wood will flow into those rooms

Talk to your contractor and see if you can reach an agreement.
If your contractor has a lot of experience they should have a good logical opinion.

Listen to it, but then use your own common sense and intuition to see if you agree. It's a team effort.......

I had to lay ours in the opposite direction as to what i preferred. 2000 sq feet all running the same direction. It has to do with the floor joists. The wood has to be laidperpendicular to the joists. And everyone you ask will give you a different answer. I trusted my contractor. He was not going to warrant the job if it was not done in this manner. So im used to the floors now, they look awesome and im SO glad i listened .....throw rugs break up the look of the wood laid in the rooms as well.

Oh also , watch contractors will suggest a direction which makes it easier for them ie less cuts! So beware of that too.

I agree with the above advice - be guided by your contractor's preference about what will give you the most securely installed result.

Also consider, though, when the flooring will run continuously through several rooms, it may well pass over joists running in different directions. Will you change flooring direction there?

If the entire floor will have wood running in a uniform direction, it is inevitable that this direction will be more appealing in some of your spaces than it will in others. But "all one direction" is still the most appealing visual result... makes the rooms feel nicely unified, and more spacious.

Good Luck! Mark

I want to install a porcelain wood like product over concrete in the basement. The family room is large with an office and bedroom on opposite sides of the family room. I am afraid if the floor is laid vertically the family room will look like a bowling alley. Horizontally will probably make the room appear smaller and cozy.

What do you guys think of a design in the center of the floor?

Wanna make sure I get it right the first time.

If the space is large, then the direction of install won't make too much difference visually. What will make a difference is how many runs you have with the tile. The more runs (short runs) the more waste because you have more cuts.

Adding a pattern in the centre of the room is going to add quite a bit of cost and it will probably never be seen because of furniture. If this was in the middle of a grand entrance (think "The White House") then a design in the middle would look magnificent and would have huge impact.

In a basement with office and bedroom = no one will see it but you and the rug that will sit on top of it.

And tiles in a basement are alwasy cold and hard. They wear very, very well...but you will almost always have the floors covered with area rugs.