One of the consequences of one of our local stores forgetting our order for glue and transitions for our floating floor was that the transitions would not arrive anywhere near quick enough for us to work on the floor. We decided to cancel that part of the order and make some of our own.
Now I know that some people come here looking for how to advice and to those people I’d like to say "step away from the power tools". If you’re looking to me for advice you need to get as far away from anything that cuts as quickly as possible. But, just for the record, here is how to make a transition.
Take a piece of 1 by birch, and cut it about an inch too long (for final fit). On a tablesaw rip the birch down to 1 3/4" wide. Rip it again so it is 5/8" inch thick. Set the blade to a shallow angle. I used about 18 degrees and with the piece on it’s edge ripped and angle on the piece. Set the blade to 45 degrees and rip a bevel in the other edge. Flip the piece over and rip a rabbet about a half an inch wide and a hair deeper than the floating floors thickness. On the other side rip another rabbet about 1/2 inch wide and the depth of tile floors thickness. Sand all the top edge to round the angles. You should end up with a piece that looks like this on profile.
It takes a total of eight passes through the table saw to make each piece. The considerations are these: the base and the rabbet for the tile floor should sit flat on the underlay and floor. The rabbet for floating floor needs to allow for expansion in the floating floor. The wood over the rabbets can not be too thin, or it will break under use. It can not be too thick either, or it will risk tripping someone.
Sure would have been easier just to have the manufactured transitions in the first place.
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Clare–I’ve envious of your house construction knowledge and abilities. My visit last week to my house (actually, more a hovel) in Washington was to consult with a contractor about remodelling; it’s a scary endeavour for those of us who can’t nail straight.
And all it took was 18 months, an excellent teacher/craftsman and hundreds of thousands of dollars. When I started this project I couldn’t even spell carpenter, now I are one.