flooringlaminate
My room is 24×42
Estetically I'd like the planks to run long
It's a good quality laminate that is floating
I'm told that if I go long, it's too long and will require a seam. (Ugly!)
So I'm advised to lay planks the short way
Ideas? Suggestions? Feedback?
For an inexpensive and easy to work with material I would consider MDF. In particular there is coloured MDF available. The colour is throughout the board, not just painted on the surface, here's an example:
The benefit of this is that simply scratching the surface will not remove the colour. It also gives the MDF a neat texture as the colour is not 100% solid.
Not an expert but I have installed laminate in 3 rooms in my house. I would go with the light (assuming you mean windows being the light source) rule for the following reasons:
Also, no matter what the choice, I would probably recommend putting the laminate in the closets the same direction as the main room. I believe those rooms are small enough that the longest wall rule doesn't really apply and I believe it will look funny having the boards a different direction when finished.
Best Answer
You might want to consider a different laminate or switch to engineered wood. Found this install instruction for laminate and it does mention adding an expansion joint for larger rooms. Max room size before expansion is 33' for the panel length and 26' for the panel width. Switching the panels to run on the short side of the room is not going to help since it will still require an expansion gap in the middle.