"T" shaped Transition Piece

[amateurfishing]

Wife bought "T" shaped transition pieces for between carpet (to be installed yet) & cork flooring. Anyone know when these transition pieces should be installed and how to install them? ive googled & youtubed but cannot find any direction that makes sense. also when laying flat on top of the cork flooring, the bottom of the "T" does not touch the concrete floor, is this a problem?

[Pat K]

In my experience the T shaped transitions don't work well with carpet on one side. I also used them going from laminate to ceramic tile, where they have worked well. But the door where the laminate meets carpet the transition piece cracked on the side over the carpet because there is nothing to support it.

The oak T I used had a plastic strip that I glued down to the concrete, then the T snapped into it.

[traveler]

Pat is right, the T mouldings aren't recommended for carpet, for the reason he mentioned. You want a bullnose moulding for carpet, and the carpet tucks up to it.

[amateurfishing]

will c what happens, I installed the "t" transition pieces yesterday, measured & they were 1/2 inch tall which will b same as new carpet so hoping carpet will still work underneath it.

I will say the look is awesome but co. that this came from aint my friend. the plastic channel cracked way to easily, is too soft, offers very little support to the transition piece, and came with no directions or hardware for installation. not impressed with that end of it at all.

will c how it goes with carpet install today

[traveler]

if you're using the T, the carpet goes in first, then the T moulding. Yeah, the transitions that use the plastic channel are not the best.

[amateurfishing]

looked in stores today to see if I could replace plastic channel with a metal one to b more secure, did not see any sold individually, do they only come with transition pieces?

[traveler]

Hmmm, not sure. Probably not on the consumer end, maybe at the floorcovering supply place. If it was Monday I'd make a quick call for you. My guess is different companies tracks are a little different, so likely it only comes with the transition piece itself.

I stick to carpet myself, so the various methods of meeting laminate are just a bit of a pain in the butt for me, as many places (especially the big box stores!) don't tell the customers what, when, or how to finish their edges. I've arrived at tons of jobs to do the carpet and found the laminate edges done wrong (or not at all), both by consumers and "installers".

I use the quotes because laminate gets installed by lots of kinds of guys, handymen, contractors, etc...and the transition thing seems to be a source of confusion much more often than one would expect.

[amateurfishing]

is there anywhere to learn about proper transition piece installation? online?

[traveler]

I'm sure there are you tube videos...it's not real complicated though. If you're going to have carpet done, finish the lam edge with bullnose and let the carpet guy strip up to it and tuck the carpet.

For hard surface to hard surface transition, the t-moulding. And for lam to ...nothing, either the bullnose, or preferably a beveled edge that steps down to 1/4 inch or so then has a very small bullnose. The latter isn't good for carpet, btw...but I've gone up to it at times if it's already there and installed.

And the metal track is preferable, but like I said, you're probably stuck with what was provided with the laminate.

[DANR]

I use a trim nailer through the center of the T and have not had a problem

[amateurfishing]

I ended up taking tiny cabinet finishing nails and nailing them into the side edge the hardwood is on. looks and appears a lot better and sturdy. will wait & c with time if it works, could not think of another way.