If you’re laying hardwood flooring anywhere inside your home, you’ll likely need a hardwood tab. A tongue is the slide of wood that connects two pieces of wood flooring, where they meet and change direction. For example, where two hardwood floors meet at a doorway and the wood changes direction, use a tongue to connect the wood and hold it securely in place.
Before you start laying your hardwood floor, you need to prepare everything you’ll need ahead of time. And one of those things is a strip of hardwood. Here are some things you need to know and consider with the hardwood spline:
Consider how much you will need: It pays to pre-plan the number of grooves you need before you start laying your hardwood floor panels. There is nothing worse than starting a project and having to stop it halfway because you don’t have everything you need. If you don’t have any slots, you’ll need to stop any progress as soon as you need to change the direction of the wood. Just as you will need, or have already calculated, how much of the actual wood floor panels you will need, calculate how many ribs you will need. It pays to get more than you really need to account for any errors or inaccurate estimates.
Get the right size: This is just a simple tip, but make sure you get the correct thickness of hardwood tab, which is the correct size to insert between where the wood panels meet. As you probably know, hardwood panels come in different thicknesses, therefore so are the ridges. Again, there is nothing worse than being halfway through laying the flooring and then realizing you have to stop because the groove is too thin or too thick. So in addition to getting the proper slot length, make sure you get the correct thickness. If you don’t want to buy the groove of the specific thickness, you can always cut a piece of hardwood yourself to the proper length and thickness.
Where to get your spline: Spline is available at your local DIY store, or you can even buy it online (and potentially at great savings) if you know what size you need. It can often be cheaper to buy things like this online. Plus, you can even make your own spline out of whatever hardwood you have available, though this is only recommended if you’re fairly handy and want to put in the time and effort to do it yourself.
In conclusion, if you want your hardwood floor to flow smoothly from room to room, even when the wood panels change direction, then you’ll need a hardwood tab. Oak is often used as a hardwood tab for hardwood flooring, but you can also use plywood as a cheaper option. Take your time and make sure you use the groove precisely with a perfect fit, and no one will notice that there is a transition in the wood.