Cutting Corners....Literally

Pictures below I have 2 areas of concern.

1) In my home the previous owner thought he was clever and cut the corners of laminate flooring instead of notching at the doors. They also cut the laminate too short. My issue here is that I dont know who made the laminate. It says switzerland on it. I would appreciate suggestions on what I can do to fix that. I do have sone scrap pieces laying around. Now at the transition Im going with material like the piece in the photo. Since the laminate is cut short I needed something long. Im concerned with seeing subflooring so no idea what to do there either.

2) I dont know what happened but this room transition is weird. I know part of it has to do with a floor vent. Should I keep this as a corner or do something else? I have better transition pieces to dress it up.

 

1. The only way to repair areas where the flooring was cut too short is to replace those planks. Luckily you have extra pieces. Beware that they may not match as the existing floor has years? of wear on it so the new pieces may stand out. Also, how easy it is to remove the bad pieces and install the new depends heavily on how the floor was installed. If it was a click lock you'll likely have to remove the base boards and start at one end of the room and disassemble the floor keeping track of the planks order/location so you can re-install them properly. Then install the new planks cut to the proper length. Then re-install the floor. Or, you can use a saw to cut out the damaged plank. Carefully cut off half the groove then tuck the replacement piece into the floor and nail in place. This will only work on a floor that has been nailed down as a floating floor will buckle or crack if one piece in the middle is nailed down.

2. You can keep the odd corner but to get rid of it you'll have to somehow have to extend the hard wood. Since it goes across the full width of the doorway you'll need a good bit of flooring from the original floor.

 

Photos 1 and 3 belong to part 2 and the other photos for part 1. I dont know why it placed them out of order. In any case I would love your thoughts. It will be hard to remove for just this one.