How to Install a Floor Medallion
By , This Old House magazine
Photo: Wendell T. Webber
- Time: 3 hours
- Cost: About $500 to $3,100 for an unfinished 36-inch medallion
- Difficulty: Moderate
Shopping & Tool Lists
- Supplies You Will Need:
- 1. Floor medallion
2. 1-inch painter's tape
3. Double-stick carpet tape
4. 40-grit sandpaper for sander
5. Moisture-cure urethane floor adhesive
6. Urethane adhesive remover
- Tools You Will Need:
-
1. Drill with a hole saw or hammer and a chisel
2. Magnetic nail finder
3. Router with ½-inch bearing-over bit
4. Nailset
5. Pry bar
6. Straightedge
7. Random-orbit sander
8. 3/16-inch V-notch trowel
9. Rubber mallet
Introduction
Q: I'd like to put one of those beautiful round wood inlays in my wood floor. How do I go about it? —Mark Turner, Leesburg, Va.
Charles Peterson of CP Wood Floors replies: What you're talking about is a floor medallion, a type of ornamental flooring designed to give a room a dramatic decorative focal point. They're made to order using colorful pieces of precisely cut hardwoods mounted to a plywood backing. In the best ones, these pieces are at least 5/16 inch thick and can be sanded multiple times.
Installation requires cutting into your floor with a router and then bedding the medallion in adhesive spread on the subfloor. The process is painstaking but, thanks to the router template supplied by the factory, takes only a few hours.
Make sure to do these steps in one go. If you wait more than a few hours after routing the floor, your cutout may change shape or size slightly, forcing you to rout it again.
Shown: Charles Peterson sets a 36-inch compass-rose medallion, made of Brazilian cherry, walnut, maple, red oak, and wenge, into a bed of adhesive.