What Subfloor Is Best For Hardwood Flooring

When considering your subfloor also think about the joists.

What subfloor is best for hardwood flooring. The subfloor consists of sheet materials that are nailed or screwed to the joists to. Concrete floors can be laid in basements or at ground level while upper level subfloors generally consist of wood. Sub floor construction should have expansion areas of their own in the area of 1 8 1 4 between boards or sheets of ply. Laminate is a fairly thin material and is not forgiving when it comes to grooves dents and ridges.

As with hardwood laminate flooring is best installed on a 3 4 inch thick plywood subfloor. Even the slightest imperfections in your subfloor can telegraph into the flooring and result in squeaking buckling and uneven floors. And for floor truss systems it s 19 2 inches o c. Keep in mind that for mechanically fastened floors osb doesn t hold fasteners as well as plywood so you need to use a thicker material to get.

Creating a flat subfloor involves lowering the high spots and raising the low ones. Do this by multiplying the room s length by its width. The industry standard for hardwood floors over joists is 16 inches o c. Before you install your plywood subfloor first calculate the room s square footage to find out how much flooring you ll need to buy.

If you want to lay inch plywood as a subfloor or another inch flooring over a subfloor you should use an appropriate size of nail to ensure the flooring stays in place. If the existing subfloor is in poor condition you will need to add a secondary underlayment of thin plywood over the subfloor. In this one however floors are often slanted pitted or bumpy. Floating sub floors for solid hardwood installations generally consist of two layers of plywood or allowing enough wood for a 1 inch flooring cleat to hold effectively.

A typical wood framed residential flooring system is more complicated than you think. If your floor is less than perfect your best flooring options are carpet vinyl or linoleum. Usually manufactured in 4 by 8 foot sheets plywood panels and osb are acceptable subfloors for hardwood flooring as long as they are the proper thickness. When it comes to hardwood flooring the quality of the installation will be determined by the quality of many things including the choice of subflooring and the condition its in.

Consult the manufacturer nwfa or nofma recommendations if joists trusses are at a wider distance than recommended. 1 suitable wood flooring. Tearing out and replacing the subfloor is costly and laborious so most homeowners prefer to skip it whenever possible.