Today we’re going to explore the wonderful world of molding. No, not the kind of mold that grows when it’s wet, and things are rotting that your mother always warned you about; we’re talking about the kind you use for transitions or to spruce up a room in your beautiful home just a bit. If you’re planning to install new hardwood or laminate flooring, you’ll want to know all you can about the different types of moldings and when to use them. If you’re new to the interior design world, the terminology can be confusing, so let’s get down to business.
What Is Molding?
What does that mean, a transition piece? Molding is trim or something to put around edges to differentiate between rooms, floor and wall, stair steps, or types of flooring. You’ll want your transitions to match your laminate or hardwood flooring but remember, with natural wood, the color can be slightly different with each piece due to natural variations in the wood. Like everything in nature, wood isn’t a consistent color throughout every piece. However, we think that this variation only adds to its overall rustic charm.
Hardwood Bargains offers a huge selection of both flooring and transition pieces from the same material to make shopping for your molding a breeze. Just select the wood you want for your flooring, and listed below are the types of moldings sculpted from the same materials. We couldn’t make it any easier, could we?
However, molding isn’t just for a complete flooring renovation. It can also be installed when redoing your floors to add a touch of elegance and increase the value of your home without costing you an arm and a leg, and we like the sound of that!
T-Mold
The T-mold is so named because of the distinctive shape of the mold and how it sits flush against your floor. You’d use a T-mold when transitioning from one surface to another of the same height. Because the T-mold has a straight top, it’s crucial that both surfaces are the same height, so you shouldn’t use the T-mold to go from hardwood to carpet. They also make for great doorways to delineate between rooms, even when the same flooring is used in both rooms.
When installing, leave a tiny gap between the two floors you’re joining with the T-mold. That’s where the bottom of the T will be glued down to meet the subfloor and rest snugly against the two sides with construction grade glue. You can then set something heavy on top of the mold to allow the glue to take hold overnight. If you don’t want to bother with the glue, you can also nail down the molding to keep it in place.
Another type of T-mold is called multi-purpose trim. It’s also used to transition between different flooring of the same height, but it can allow for the heights to be somewhat different as well. It has a curved top, as opposed to a traditional T-mold, which has a straight top, like the T it was named after. Multi-purpose trim’s rounded top evenly distributes the pressure when it’s stepped on to alleviate that pressure and prevent the molding from cracking, even when the two surfaces it is joining are slightly different heights. Hence the name, multi-purpose.
Threshold
This is what you want to use when joining hardwood to carpeting or any other surface that isn’t the same height as the original. They’re shaped like an L with a rounded edge, and the slope allows you to step on the threshold without putting so much pressure on it that it could crack. You would also use a threshold where the hardwood butts against the track of a sliding door. Like most of the other moldings, you can choose to either glue or nail down your threshold.
Similar in shape to threshold moldings are end caps, where the edge is completely squared off. You would only use them on floating floors, which are floors that don’t need to be nailed or glued to a subfloor.
Stair Nose
Similarly shaped to the threshold, this is what you put on the edges of stairs. When the wood or laminate is lying vertical and horizontal, there would normally be a very sharp edge where they meet, so stair nose allows you to have a shapely stair edge that isn’t sharp enough to cut your feet. Unlike the previous moldings, stair nose should be both glued down and have its face nailed into the stairs to prevent any lifting or damage.
In addition to the normal stair nose actually used on stairs, overlap step nose is used when the flooring meets a step down or a landing. It protects the edges and has a raised profile that overlaps the flat flooring. Both stair nose and step nose give your edges a smooth, sophisticated profile.
Reducer
A reducer works best when you transition from hardwood to vinyl or tile. They are almost the same height as your hardwood, but not quite there. There are multiple types of reducers: flush, overlap, and bi-level.
• Flush reducers can be either glued down or nailed down. It sits flush with the higher floor. You can use it around fireplaces or to go from wood to carpet. However, you should only use flush reducers on flooring that is nailed or glued directly to the subfloor and not for a floating installation, which won’t allow for the necessary expansion gap.
• If you’re doing a floating installation, use an overlap reducer instead. It’s less steep than a flush reducer and actually overlaps the higher flooring, as the name implies. You can use an overlap reducer to transition from floating floors to vinyl, ceramic tile, or low-pile carpet.
• A bi-level reducer is for wood floors that have a three-quarter-inch thickness that transitions to thinner flooring. It can be used to transition to ceramic tile or carpet as well.
Quarter Round
Quarter round is your transition from floor to wall and is usually one of the most common types of molding seen in homes. You may even have quarter round moldings right now. There is always a small gap between where your floor ends, and your wall begins, and this molding efficiently covers that gap, so it’s not visible to your visitors. Because this molding lays flush with the wall, you can choose to have the quarter round match your wall instead of the floor if you choose. This design choice is totally yours!
Quarter rounds are also the easiest to install. You simply nail the moldings into the baseboard, and you’re good to go. As an aside, baseboards are standard in most homes and join the wall trim and the floor. They’re not always especially fancy, but they get the job done until you come along to add a bit of decorative flair.
Another type of quarter round molding is called shoe molding, which is a little bit thinner and can easily hide uneven floors. It’s also installed where the floor and baseboard meet.
Our Final Thoughts
Moldings are an inexpensive way to make your floorings functional and fun. They work for all different types of flooring, including luxury vinyl, hardwood, and engineered flooring. They work to complete your floors by covering unsightly transitions, sharp edges, and spots where rooms end. They also help to cover necessary gaps which are left to allow for the natural shifting of the ground and flooring expansion. Moldings provide continuity and delineation and give you a little room to sprinkle in some decorative creativity in your beautiful home!
Sources
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/flooring/21017857/all-about-hardwood-floors
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/install-wood-t-molding-20584.html
https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/stair-codes-rise-run-and-nosing/
