Hardwood Floor Subfloor

Even the slightest imperfections in your subfloor can telegraph into the flooring and result in squeaking buckling and uneven floors.

Hardwood floor subfloor.

1 suitable wood flooring. Floating engineered wood floors can simply be installed directly on osb subfloor the hardwood flooring must be installed crossing the floor joists at a 90 degree angle. Installation of a wood floor over the subfloor insinuates acceptance by the flooring installer. Hardwood floors do need a flat subfloor surface in order to prevent them from buckling after installation.

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 subfloor is meant to be flat and level. Hardwood flooring may be installed straight onto the subfloor with only a sheet of red rosin paper intervening. 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.

Do this by multiplying the room s length by its width. On the other hand the floors sometimes have more than three layers. Sub floor construction should have expansion areas of their own in the area of 1 8 1 4 between boards or sheets of ply. If not your floor covering which is the solid hardwood laminate tile or other exposed flooring that goes on top of the subfloor will never be flat and level this problem can be fixed but it all depends on exactly what kind of uneven subfloor you have.

Old homes that have been extensively remodeled. Use a pry bar to pull up hardwood floors one section at a time or unfasten carpet or laminate and roll it up from one end. This will expose the subfloor underneath which is where most leveling problems lie. When nailing down a wood floor the subfloor should be flat to within 1 4 in 10 or 3 16 in 6.

The key to a beautiful long lasting hardwood or laminate floor is a well prepared subfloor. Creating a flat subfloor involves lowering the high spots and raising the low ones. If there is any deflection in the subfloor when walked on it would be advisable to add an additional layer of 3 8 or 1 2 thick plywood underlayment glued and screwed down. It is the responsibility of the flooring installer to assess and address substrate flatness before installation.

You can leave linoleum or sheet vinyl in place if it s difficult to remove or if removal would damage the sub floor.