Tile Borders

• If you plan to trim the room with a ceramic tile border on the hardwood floor, compare the thicknesses of the two flooring products you've chosen. When installed, the ceramic tile should rest just a small fraction of an inch higher than the hardwood planks.
  
  Thinset cement or mortar adds about 1/8 inch to the thickness of the tile. Once accounting for the mortar in the thickness measurement of the tile, calculate whether you need additional thickness in that area to raise it slightly above the level of the hardwood. If you need to add height to the ceramic tile flooring area, install concrete backerboard to the area where you will lay the tile and lay the tile over the backerboard.
  
  Where the ceramic meets the hardwood, apply caulk first before grout. Allow the caulk to dry and set for at least one day before applying grout to those joints. Internal joints between tiles can be grouted as recommended during tile installation.
  
  

Decorative Hardwood Borders

• When installing a tongue-and-groove decorative hardwood floor border made by the same manufacturer as the hardwood planks you use, you may need to substitute only two or three rows of planks for the decorative trim. If, however, you use a different type of hardwood trim, you may need to make some adjustments.
  
  If your hardwood planks click-lock in place using tongue-and-groove floating installation, use a circular saw to cut the lip from the last row of planks before installing them. Lay the trim around the perimeter of the room and install quarter-round trim to cover the gap between the flooring and the baseboard. Once the flooring and trim are installed, use wood putty to fill gaps greater than 1/16 of an inch. Use stainable wood putty if the floor is unfinished and stain it all at once after installation, or match the wood putty to the color of the finished hardwood planks.
  
  When installing a decorative border on a glued-down hardwood floor, start by gluing down the border along the room's longest wall. Install trim before planks so that if additional cuts are needed, you can trim the less expensive planks without them being noticed rather than damaging the decorative medallions.