Ideally, floor coverings continue from room to room throughout the house with no interruptions or gaps.
In this perfect world, one floor is installed all at once and it works for all areas.
But that’s not how most homes work.
The Spruce / Margot Cavin
Floors are often installed piecemeal over the years.
Hardwood might be installed in the living room because wood is beautiful and warm underfoot.
In the bathroom and kitchen,ceramic or porcelain tilemight be installed sincetile is durable and moisture-resistant.
Outside of function, different types of floors might be installed simply for aesthetic reasons.
These layers are not dimensionally analogous to the layers found in non-tile applications.
Tile flooring requires a mortar bed.
A good, professional tiler can maintain a nearly uniform thickness.
If the tile was installed by a do-it-yourselfer with little experience, tile heights might vary.
Wood flooring (including laminate flooring) is more predictable.
Subflooring, underlayment, and the wood flooring itself all contribute to making a single-height surface.
One important installation note: beware of accidentally striking any part of the transition strip other than the nail.
The only solution to a distorted transition strip is to buy a new one.
Transition strips are a neutral material; meaning, it’s neither the tile nor the wood flooring.
Wood transition strips look good when matched up with a similar jot down of wood flooring.
But when the wood is too dissimilar, their appearance can be jarring.
Also, higher-profile transition strips tend to wear down faster and show damage.
A half-saddle transition strip is designed for flooring where one level is higher than the adjacent level.
But there will still be a small gap.
Unlike the surface strips, flush-mount strips take many different forms and even lend themselves to improvisation.
Flush transitions can only be installed when both flooring surfaces have straight, parallel edges.
By contrast, surface tile transitions are more forgiving, because they can cover up irregular, ragged edges.
This strip can either meet the tile floor directly or can have a lip-over style.
