Tile to laminate transition - hidden attachment of transition strip

[tibz]

I am about to lay timber laminate in a lounge room that has a tile strip along one side running from the front door to the family room.  The family room is separated from the lounge room by a wall and door.  I want to install a transition strip along the edge of the tiles to hold down the edge of the timber laminate.  The difference in height is 2-4 mm.

I have found at Bunnings that there is products at Bunnings from Roberts that are held down by magic plugs.  However I am unable to find instructions, tech specs or videos on how these products work.  Can anyone point me in the right direction or help with instructions and how to tips?

[Jason]

Welcome to Workshop @tibz. Great to see you make your first post. I hope that you receive lots of helpful advice from our members for this project and many more to come in the future. 

I see that Roberts has an extensive range of products available at Bunnings. It might help members if you specified exactly which item you are considering to use so that they can provide as much assistance as possible. 

Thanks again for joining in the discussion on Workshop. Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site.

Jason

[tibz]

The products that I am interested in is the Roberts Floating Floor Junior Trim secured using magic plugs into the concrete stab flooring. I am assuming the plugs are into the floor next to the tiles and that sufficient gap between the plugs and the laminate planks needs to be maintained for expansion. My concern is that the plugs have an offset (from the centre of the plug) connector which means that they need to be aligned to keep the trim straight.

Which way is the offset meant to face?

What is max distance between plugs?

Are there any tricks to getting plugs aligned for joins and corners/changes of angle as I have a number of these?

[Jason]

Thanks for the extra info @tibz.

Let me tag @PJA for you, as one of our resident flooring experts, Peter might be able to steer you in the right direction. I'll also tag @JasonD as he's an expert about everything!

Jason

[tibz]

Found the following on an overseas timber laminate installer's website - the instructions are for the same style plugs but the product manufacturer's name has been omitted on the installer's website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Installation Instructions

Step 1
Determine where the laminate flooring will end and draw a line (line 1) on the floor.

Step 2
Draw another line 10mm away from the pervious line.

Step 3
Using a masonery drill bit for concrete or a wood bit for timber floors, drill  6.5mm diameter holes at 220mm centres. Holes should be at 50mm deep. Vacuum out all dust from the holes.

Step 4
Install the laminate flooring ending it at line 1.

Step 5
Cut ramps or cover to suit required length.

Step 6
Slide magic plugs into ramps and line up with previously drilled holes. TIP all plugs need to be facing the same direction.

Step 7
Using a rubber mallet or a steel hammer and a piece of timber so not to damage the surface, gently tap the cover or ramp into position. It should fit snug to the laminate floor.

[ProjectPete]

Sorry I didn't see this sooner @tibz as it looks like you've found your answer.

• Ignore (as in don't be put off by) the offset on the plug, they rotate within the strip allowing your holes to be slightly misaligned. Just get the hole diameter right so they're a snug fit and knock them in there.
• I don't know what best practice is for max spacing but I wouldn't exceed about 200-250mm to ensure a solid fixing. 

Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help.

[PJA]

Sorry I took so long to get there, but you've done well.

Couldn't have put it any better.

Your floor will look great.

[tibz]

I have now completed the job. The floor looks great and the transitions installed and looking good.

The list of tips on installing the plugs were helpful. The one thing I would stress is that the get the plugs aligned before pushing them in fully is critical. I messed up the alignment of first piece and destroyed a number of plugs as I pushed them in too far to be able to rotate them for alignment purposes. After that I sat them in the holes and twisted them around until the strip was correctly aligned before pushing them in.

As far as the whole job was concerned the best decision I made was to buy an Irwin aluminum cutting blade for my miter saw. This gave beautiful clean cuts for all the strange angles that I needed for the job. All the verbal advice I had from experts was to use a hacksaw - my advice is don't ever use a hacksaw. Interesting this same blade also cut the laminated timber beautifully and cleanly.

The other trick I work out myself was for install a straight section of 6 m in length. I was having all manner of issues aligning the 2 sections of transition until I created a make connector out of rigid plastic that I jammed into the track that the magic plugs slide along. This connector keep the 2 pieces perfectly aligned in a straight line while I pushed the plugs into place.

One last thing was I had to source the scotia timber trim from a flooring supplier as I was not able to source the style and colour that I wanted from Bunnings.

[Jason]

Well done @tibz and thanks for letting us know. Great to share your experiences for the benefit of others tackling this job in the future. 

Jason

[ProjectPete]

Good job getting the work done @tibz!