Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Help! Door Transition Questions.

I am currently putting 3/4" prefinished nail down hardwood in my den and kitchen. I have two doors in the den. One external door and a door leading down to a two-car garage.

I need to know how to make the transition into these doorways.

1. External door For the external door, I guess I need to use threshold molding to bump up again the door threshold that is in place. There is a slight problem here. I had trouble getting the first row of boards straight, and even tore the boards back up after putting thenm down the first time. The first row is not parallel to the door threshold. However, I measured the room twice and each time it appeared to be perfectly square, so that portion of wall with the door must be slanted. Guess I will just have to live with this now. Half of the floor is done.

Also, there is not 3/4 of an inch for expansion between the threshold and the first row of boards. Along the rest of the wall, yes. Here, no. The door threshold extends out slightly inot the room. I guess I need to either cut part of the door threshold out, or cut part of the board out in the first row.

2. Garage door I'm more concerned about the door leading down to the garage. The threshold here consist of a piece of plywood with an aluminum threshold on top of it, which is then screwed to the subfloor. Several inches of subfloor are still exposed behind it, behind the door, even when the threshold is in place. The threshold It is easily removed. Should I bring my 3/4" boards up to this threshold and stop, or run them under the threshold and up to the edge of the subfloor behind the door. From here, steps lead down to the garage.

3. Expansion gaps When going through doorways, should I still leave room for expansion gaps, or simply fit the boards to the doorway.

Sorry, so long winded. I really do need help with thiese questions so that I can continue.

Thanks.

jdi