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Home > Archive > Building and Construction > April 2006 > Running hardwood parallel to joists
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Running hardwood parallel to joists
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| jenerik2@hotmail.com 2006-04-13, 1:21 am |
| I know the general rule is to lay hardwood perpendicular to the joists
but I'd rather run the length of the room, parallel to the 16" o.c.
joists. This is new construction (house addition) with a subfloor of
3/4" T/G OSB. The finish floor will be 3/4 3" Brazian Cherry. I am
planning to add a 1/4" ply for extra stiffness of the subfloor.
I have read horror stories of the hw gapping over the joists and
squeeking when running parallel, but it seemed to me that was based on
usually 5/8" subfloor from old construction. Will the 3/4" + 1/4"
subfloor be ridgid enough to keep the floor tight and quiet?
Thanks
Erik
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| marson 2006-04-13, 8:21 am |
| no, i think you still shouldn't run flooring parallel to joists. what
you could do is run blocking between the joists...24" oc is probably
enough. wouldn't take that long, provided you have access to them.
1/4 plywood would do little or nothing in the way of stiffness.
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| TVeblen 2006-04-13, 8:21 am |
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<jenerik2@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1144900572.253694.49770@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>I know the general rule is to lay hardwood perpendicular to the joists
> but I'd rather run the length of the room, parallel to the 16" o.c.
> joists. This is new construction (house addition) with a subfloor of
> 3/4" T/G OSB. The finish floor will be 3/4 3" Brazian Cherry. I am
> planning to add a 1/4" ply for extra stiffness of the subfloor.
>
> I have read horror stories of the hw gapping over the joists and
> squeeking when running parallel, but it seemed to me that was based on
> usually 5/8" subfloor from old construction. Will the 3/4" + 1/4"
> subfloor be ridgid enough to keep the floor tight and quiet?
>
> Thanks
> Erik
>
I have run hardwood parallel on a few occasions with no observable problems
or callbacks. But then again I planned for the installation and prepped the
work ahead for that job. A few comments:
#1: the 1/4" will not add a significant amount of tensile strength to the
floor unless you glue it all down *continuously* (like contact cement on
laminate). It would also hurt, not help, the nailing of the hardwood I would
think.
#2: The OSB is not a good product to use with hardwood (the NHMA does not
endorse it because of the poor gripping power on nails) in the first place.
High density products like ADVANTEC are endorsed. Running parallel requires
more nail grip, not less.
#3: If you've got enough time to waste laying down 1/4", it would be better
spent installing blocking at 16" centers between the joists, if the floor is
still open from below.
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| In article <1144900572.253694.49770@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
jenerik2@hotmail.com says...
>
>I know the general rule is to lay hardwood perpendicular to the joists
>but I'd rather run the length of the room, parallel to the 16" o.c.
>joists. This is new construction (house addition) with a subfloor of
>3/4" T/G OSB. The finish floor will be 3/4 3" Brazian Cherry. I am
>planning to add a 1/4" ply for extra stiffness of the subfloor.
>
>I have read horror stories of the hw gapping over the joists and
>squeeking when running parallel, but it seemed to me that was based on
>usually 5/8" subfloor from old construction. Will the 3/4" + 1/4"
>subfloor be ridgid enough to keep the floor tight and quiet?
>
>Thanks
>Erik
>
All the flooring in my 75 year old home runs parallel to the joists, and I
suspect quite a few homes were done that way. Think about it: the joists run
one direction, then the old style sub floor consisting of fir tongue and groove
boards runs across the joists, then the flooring is put down across the sub
floor, making the finished floor aligned with the joists. The only way to do it
otherwise would be to run the sub floor at a 45 degree angle.
I added a section to the end of one room where they originally had linoleum. I
used 3/4" plywood as the sub floor in that case, it has worked just fine for
over 15 years. If the manufacturer doesn't recommend installation with nails
over OSB, you may need to glue it down.
As others have posted, forget the 1/4" ply, it won't add any stiffness.
--
Dennis
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| DT wrote:
> All the flooring in my 75 year old home runs parallel to the joists, and I
> suspect quite a few homes were done that way. Think about it: the joists run
> one direction, then the old style sub floor consisting of fir tongue and groove
> boards runs across the joists, then the flooring is put down across the sub
> floor, making the finished floor aligned with the joists. The only way to do it
> otherwise would be to run the sub floor at a 45 degree angle.
T&G fir running perpendicular to the joists is far different than OSB.
Mark
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| jenerik2@hotmail.com 2006-04-14, 2:21 am |
| Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, the hardwood idea was an
afterthought for this project. Had I thought we were going to use
hardwood, I would of done things a little differently. Sounds like I
should forget the 1/4" ply. Luckily I do have easy access to the
joists from below. I think blocking is in order.
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