Hardwood floor installation question

What was under the carpet when you pulled it up? There should have been a floor of some kind with a sub floor under that. If the sub floor is diagonal or plywood, then it really shouldn’t make much difference which way you run the hardwood.

-- Tim

Also, if you’re installing the Cherry as a “floating” floor, make sure that the sub floor is in good shape. If there are nails loose or coming up, you might want to pull them out and install screws. Of course this would also apply even if you’re nailing the Cherry down.

-- Tim

The subfloor is 3/4 plywood and was in relatively good condition, though slightly squeaky. We replaced the squeakiest sheets which happened to occur where the joist/truss direction changes because the joists and the trusses weren’t exactly level. We used liquid nails and decking screws so hopefully no problems will crop up in the future. On the less squeaky sheets we’ve been just trying to dig out the offending nails and adding decking screws, the same way you suggested. The floor is nail down. Thanks for the response!

im certainly no flooring expert , but i think id add screws everywhere to help prevent future squeeks ,

The odd thing is someone else must’ve tried to fix the squeaks b/c when we pulled up the carpet there already were (course thread drywall) screws everywhere… unfortunately it didn’t seem to eliminate the problem. Thanks for the response!

Reluctant,

It really doesn’t matter about the direction of the floor joists. You are nailing the flooring into the plywood not the joists. BC is a gorgeous flooring product. I put down about a 1000 in my main level. The only thing that you have to get used to with it is the natural darkening with age and exposure to light. My wife can’t seem to leave the furniture alone. The first time she moved the couch and saw its outline on the floor she was completely surprised. But this simply gave her an excuse to move the furniture more often.

Good luck on the install. You will end up with a beautiful floor.

fixing squeaks is a matter of tracking them down, understanding why they’re squeaking, and tightening them up. We’ve used Bostick floor glue. It never hardens and gets like vulcanized rubber. It allows some movements and is tough as nails. Definitely take the time to deal with them before.

I’d use better screws than d/w screws. P-coated deck screws.

-- arborial reconfiguration specialist

ScottBryan—I think we’re going to keep rugs off the floor for 6 months and try to arrange the furniture in many different patterns to get an even color. Your floor sounds excellent, and I’m glad the wife is happy, that’s really the most important part.

Catspaw—I’ve never heard of bostick floor glue… sounds like a good product. I’ve been using 2 inch deck screws, though I don’t know if they are P-coated or not… the drywall screws were put in by a previous owner.

Thanks for the responses!

Bruce makes a pretty good floor glue also.

The phosphor coated deck screws are the fancy colored ones and have a thicker shank than “normal” screws.

I got the Bostick stuff and name from a real high end flooring installer. We’ve used it on our own installs of bamboo, jatoba(?sp?...brazilian cherry) and hand scraped walnut. It’s insidious stuff. If it gets on your fingers it will get everywhere else…on your tools, clothes, body, everything…..but it’s good stuff.

I figure glueing it down will compensate for not being able to nail into floor joists and certainly will eliminate any squeaks from the flooring itself.

-- arborial reconfiguration specialist

screw everything, on the existing subfloor put a screw next to each suspect nail, screws every 4-6” along seams where two sheets of plywood meet(short end)...if you want to run the hardwood parallel to the joists you need at least 1 1/4” of subfloor if it isn’t (most likely not) by running hardwood parallel with insufficient subfloor cracks can open up on the crests of any high joists… lay another layer of plywood on top of the subfloor perpendicular to the first sub floor, screw everything again, screws every 6 inches…

when using glue for joists to prevent squeaks use a glue that is not flexible, movement is what causes squeaks…PL Premium is made for gluing plywood to joists to prevent squesks…

wyly, I was a little bit afraid of something like that. The part that would be parallel to the strips are trusses so they are flat and very even… no noticeable crowns. I was more worried about the possible bowing effect when stepping on the floor between the trusses b/c they are 2ft center-to-center. It’s a bit late in the process for us to add another layer of plywood. The backup plan was to go from below and add 2×6 supports perpendicular to the trusses in the high traffic areas. Is this something that we should do as a preventative action? Or is it a situation where we can wait and see if any problems develop and address it then? Thanks for the response!

sorry for the tardy response I forgot the name of this website, getting old sucks.

2ft between joists and anything less than 1 1/2 is risk and I’d worry about that as well.
Heavyweights like myself will cause the floor to move/bounce, over time it will squeak as the cleats or staples work loose. Staples have a better chance of holding.

As a preventivie measure 2×6 blocking under seams in the plywood subfloor and will certainly help (glue and screw them in) . An old technique that I haven’t seen done in 20yrs, cross bracing, would stiffen the entire floor considerably.

Hey wyly don’t worry about the response time. It’s 2ft b/c they are trusses instead of joists, which makes for a very flat surface, but I don’t like the huge spacing either. I guess code allows for it though. I’ve already got the hardwood down on the first floor. After I finish the other floors I’ll try fixing the problem from below. I think I can access most of it from the basement and will add in 2×6 blocks perpendicular to the trusses in the high traffic areas… hopefully that will help with stability and with squeaking. Thanks again for the response.

the building code here allows for 2’spans as well, which is ok for carpet , laminates and vinyl but not tile and hardwood, any quality installer will recomend a minimum of 1 1/4 -1 1/2” of subfloor even on 16-18”spans…

I hate to be a pessimist but 3/4 ply over 2’ span even trusses is to much, the plywood will deflect under weight over time things could come lose (a stapled floor will hold better than cleats)....to late now to address the issue from above hopefully it will work out for you…as you suggest I’d block up from underneath in suspect areas “before” they begin to squeak….

15 yrs ago I recall being on site with a lady client complaining that her truss floor squeaked, we had two men together men bouncing on the same spot trying to find the squeak with no success, we estimate she weighed in at about 350 lbs, she was the only person it would squeak for….never found the squeak just tore up the floor and braced, glued and screwed it down again…