I am putting in a laminate wood flooring in my living room and hallways. I am running the flooring the long way in the living room and in the 2nd hallway in the image shown. My question is should i run the flooring the long way as well in the 1st hallway and put transitions in at the points where the 1st hallway meet the living room and 2nd hallway? Or should I keep the boards running in the same direction as the living room and 2nd hallway so as not to use any transistions at all?

 

While your picture is not to scale, flooring always looks better running with the length of the room. Therefore, turn the flooring in the center hallway and use transition strips. Transition strips are just a given with laminate as it expands and contracts so much. It needs room to float. Breaking up the floor helps control the expansion to smaller areas and therefore smaller expansion/contractions.

 

Something else to keep in mind is the light from windows. Although as Czizzi has mentioned, usually the floor should run the lenghth of the room, but in some cases depending on how the light enters the room you might want to go the width of the room.