Said It Here

How to install flooring around intricate door trim and molding

Installing patterned flooring around detailed door jambs, casings, and original plinth blocks requires tedious custom notching and alignment for every single board. This intricate fitting leaves no room for shortcuts and makes maintaining continuous patterns like herringbone a struggle.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Cutting custom templates and scribing boards
  2. 2
    Notching around the trim instead of undercutting it
  3. 3
    Cutting and gluing a butt joint
  4. 4
    Cutting a U-piece, cutting the back of the leg to fold it up and maneuver it in place
  5. 5
    Cutting a small sliver in-between doors with a knife
  6. 6
    Changing the layout row so it doesn't fall on both doors
  7. 7
    removing the door trim
  8. 8
    using an undercut saw to cut the door jambs
  9. 9
    modifying the locking mechanism and gluing the boards
  10. 10
    prying the flooring with a flat bar and tapping it into place

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

Every board had to be notched around the undercut original Victorian plinth blocks and details, so there was no room for shortcuts.source ↗

foamoirefresher · r/Flooring · 2,301 upvotes

this is the last row of a 1400 square-foot job. First time DIYer with a back ready to go back to my desk job after this.source ↗

stackemz · r/Flooring · 6 upvotes

I finally reached my hallway and I have a 72 inch plank that needs to go into two different closets that have wrapped around space. Is cutting and gluing a butt joint my only option here?source ↗

NsaneJoe · r/Flooring · 5 upvotes

Getting herring bone under jambs and casings is definetly a struggle.source ↗

Clay0187 · r/Flooring · 3 upvotes

the real pain was pulling the old nails and reclaiming it.source ↗

Pitiful_Substance457 · r/Flooring · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

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