Hardwood Floors October/November 2025

ADRIAN MOLITOR

If it is a wide enough section with enough pieces being laced in, the first thing I do is take a chalk line on the seam of the floor that is existing and in maybe three, four, or five places, I’ll just snap reference lines so that I can go in between those lines to see which parts of the floor are the most crooked. From there, if there is an area that is a little bit straighter than another one, I’ll try to start my lace-in there. That may mean working backward to compensate in some cases. I do it in sections and usually that leaves me with a piece at the end that is kind of like a wall pull where you can bevel a little bit of the bottom side of the groove on the long part of the stick to drop it in and just use wood glue and sausage glue. If you have a weird shaped piece, you can hide the width of that so it is close to a full piece. Our tendency is to use fasteners to hold the floor in, but in these situations, you really want to let the wood go where it wants to go in a natural way and depend on that sausage or glue to hold it because that is as strong as nails. Otherwise, you get stuck with a pie

shaped piece at the end and it looks even worse. I break it into chunks and try to take small bites of it and let the glue do the work versus overnailing, which can be the tendency for some of us.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADRIAN MOLITOR | MOLITOR TRADITIONAL FLOORING

It’s also really important to manage client expectations. Most people who own 100-year-old houses own them because they love them like I do. It is important to say, “This isn’t going to line up with this part of the floor over here, your floor joists are pushed up here,” or something like that.