Helpful Tips to Avoid Trouble with Wood Floor Moldings

 

When you're dealing with a big wood flooring job, it's easy to overlook a piece of trim or molding that didn't get ordered. Unfortunately, payment on the job can be held up by one piece of T-mold. Now you're in a rush because you may have to wait for two weeks on a special order piece of molding. Sound familiar? I have a saying I like to use in our industry:  "Don't shoot the molding guy!" Of course I say that, because I am the molding guy, but it isn't usually my fault! Here are some things to keep in mind about trim and moldings that can make your wood flooring jobs go more smoothly.

Order the molding and flooring at the same time.

There are a couple reasons for this. Most importantly, as you are installing, you should match up the color of the flooring with the adjacent molding. So, for example, if you are installing a factory-finished Brazilian cherry floor that has a color range from lighter to darker, set aside the boards that best blend with the molding and use those next to it.

Unfortunately, many times what happens is this: The retailer orders the flooring first and waits to order the molding later. The contractor goes out and gets the floor down, and then he goes back and is installing a nosing that may be darker next to a piece of flooring that was on the lighter side. Even though the nosing is in the right color range of the whole floor, customers might not find it acceptable because they don't like a light piece next to a dark piece.

The bigger the molding, the more likely customers will think the color is a problem. They aren't likely to to complain about the color on a piece of quarter-round up against a wall, but on a wide piece of stair nosing, color differences are more obvious.

There are other reasons for color match problems, of course. If molding manufacturers try to have a general color like "gunstock" that matches a range of manufacturers' products instead of specific colors for specific products, it can lead to matching issues. Other times, even when moldings have been matched to a specific flooring line, sometimes the flooring manufacturer makes a small change in stain suppliers or plant location, and the products no longer match, so new matching has to be done.

Realize that appearances may be different.

Wood flooring is coated with flat-line finishing machines, but since they are shaped, moldings have to be either vacuum-coated, sprayed or misted. Even though the finishes may have the exact same sheen level, the appearance of the finish on the floor and on a molding may be slightly different because the angles of the light reflections are different on each one.

Make sure you have everything you need.

It's easy to overlook one transition in a back hallway or order a T-mold when the customer really wanted a flush transition. Now we're back at that first scenario from the beginning of this article-the whole job is done and looks great, but there's no way the customer is going to hand you that check until the final piece is in the puzzle. One 4-foot piece of nosing is holding up thousands of dollars on the whole job. This is when we get the panicked phone call.

Don't assume matching moldings exist for the flooring you're using.

People figure that if they're picking out a wood floor, of course they can order the matching moldings, but you wouldn't believe how many wood flooring lines are introduced before the flooring manufacturer has thought about a molding program. Especially if it's a new line, make sure you can order products that match the floor. Distressed and hand-scraped floors with custom-looking finishes and textures can be particularly challenging when it comes to matching moldings.

Keeping these simple things in mind on the front end of a job can help make sure things go smoothly on the back end, and, most importantly, you won't end up wanting to shoot the molding guy!

Common Molding Issues

The same manufacturer, same product name and same SKU: When flooring manufacturers change production facilities and/or stain brands, the floor color can change, and matching moldings may now be outdated. Here original flooring that had been matched to the moldings is on the bottom and a newer piece of the same flooring is on top; moldings that were matched to the original samples will no longer match. Here a stock overlap reducer in natural Brazilian cherry is shown on top of a prefinished natural Brazilian cherry floor with all the varied colors in natural Brazilian cherry. Making sure that the flooring directly adjacent to the molding is a close color match can help reduce complaints.

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