Hi!
I've purchased a new tongue and groove solid wood floor that I'm going to be putting down. I tore the old floor up, and right now, there are
1x6's perpendicular to the joists as the subfloor.Everything I read says you should install the wood floor perpendicular to the joists. Now, should I install the wood floor perpendicular to the subfloor 1x6's, or perpendicular to the joists?
Thanks!
*I'm no expert, but I would say perpendicular to the subfloor. I don't think that you want the joints from both floors to line up.
On the face of it, I would agree. Do we have the full picture? Are the 1 by
6 laid such that they are six inches tall? If so, why? To tie into another structure/ extension. I would need more info. to provide a secure comment.
Perpendicular. You already have plenty of stiffness in the direction of the joists. You need stiffness in the other direction now.
Edit: Perpendicular to the joists.
Newer construction? But not that new if you have 1x6 subfloor. The old guys always ran the 1x6 sub floor on a 45 to the joists and the hardwood ran perpendicular to the joists.
When plywood is used, the hardwood is always perpendicular to the joists.
In your case I would do the same. Use 30# roofing felt over the subfloor before laying the hardwood. This serves as a moisture barrier and a squeak reducer. Trust me the minor extra expense is worth it a year after the install.
"Always" is pretty inclusive. My home, built in the 40's has joists that run both ways. In my living room area they run front-to-back in relation to the house, while in the rest of the original home the joist run side-to-side. The 1x6 subfloor does run at a 45 (to both obviously), but the hardwood runs front-to-back so than means it is parallel to the joists in the living room area. I've been here 30+ years and haven't noticed any problems one way or the other.
Fast forward to a few years ago when we added on our family room. It is open off the kitchen, and the builder ran the new joists front-to-back. Remember that the kitchen was side-to-side, so we had to decide which way to run the floor. I decided that since running it parallel to the joist over the old 1x6 subfloor worked in the living room, I'd run it side-to-side (parallel to the joists in the old kitchen area) so that it would be perpendicular to the joists in the new construction where the subfloor is plywood.
So far so good, with one exception. I wish I'd been around more as the new floor was going in. The installers didn't take much care when nailing (power nailer) on the old 1x6 and when I look at it from the basement I see where a good number of nails either missed the subfloor and went into the gaps between the 1x6, or were close enough to the edge of the 1x6 to split the wood. The original installers back in the 40's seemed to take more care to hit the subfloor with the nails (by hand I'm assuming). I'm guessing I'll be having some squeaks in the kitchen area eventually, but that will only make it like the rest of the old house where there are some squeaky areas.
Skip the tarred roofing felt if you have alergies of any type, you don't want the smell nor the offgassing. Use waxed kraft paper, it is made to go under floors. If your floor is not over a damp, uncovered dirt floor crawlspace you don't need a moisture barrier, which tar paper doesn't really do much. These days many flooring manufacturers recommend a layer of plywood over the 1x6 subfloor to ensure that the surface is level over the wood boards which are probably cupped and uneven.
On 4/10/2009 2:01 PM mike spake thus:
Aaaaaaargh. The confusion.
I *believe* you were trying to tell the O. P. to install the flooring perpendicular to the subfloor, to give it "stiffness in the other direction now", right? In that case, the flooring should go *parallel* to the joists, as the subfloor is perpendicular to the joists.
OK, glad we cleared that up now.
You are right. Always was a poor choice of words. One of our former homes was built much like you describe.
I really think a big part of the lasting part is the subfloor on the 45 degree angle. That and the fact the sub floor was hand nailed and well secured. Neither of which are very likely in modern construction.
Colbyt
The 45 degree subfloor added a lot of racking resistance to the floor and eliminated the problem of subfloor unevenness from telegraphing through to the strip flooring - regardless of which way the strip flooring was laid.
In this instance, why is a hammer driven nail better than using a nail gun? I work only on old houses and I've seen plenty of loose 1x subfloors. They didn't glue subfloors to the joists back then and they didn't use ring-shank nails.
So it's not "one step forward and two steps back", it's more like one step forward and one step back. ;)
R
No. I meant what I said. The I value of the floor joists is huge compared to the thin stuff on top. You don't need more members parallel to the floor joist. Lay them perpendicular.
OK, glad I re-cleared that up.
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