My weekend jigsaw puzzle habit saved a complex herringbone install

I love doing jigsaw puzzles to unwind after work, and it oddly helped me on a job last week. We had to put down herringbone hardwood in a room with tons of odd angles and corners. I kept messing up the cuts and was getting frustrated, lol. Then I thought about how puzzles force you to see the shape of each piece before you place it. So I started laying out all the floor pieces on the subfloor like a big puzzle first. This let me plan the cuts better and reduced my material waste by a lot. Now I tell the new guys to think like a puzzle solver when tackling tricky patterns.

3 comments

3 Comments

hunt.rowan1mo ago

Your waste reduction trick works for tile too.

spencer_johnson221mo ago

How does that trick work for tile?

hugo_ellis1mo ago

Start by laying out your full tile pattern on the floor first. You can shift pieces around to use offcuts from one row as starters for the next, which really minimizes waste. It takes a bit more planning but saves a lot of material.