Laying Hardwood Flooring On Joists

So there is no right or wrong way to lay your wood flooring.

Laying hardwood flooring on joists.

Join the ends of the boards over a floor joist where possible avoiding joints that form an h. For strength run the strip flooring perpendicular to the joists. You should also lay red rosin paper on the subfloor before you apply the wood to eliminate squeaks caused by the subfloor and hardwood rubbing together. Before starting calculate the width the last row will be.

If raising the floor height is not a problem you can install a layer of 1 2 inch plywood over the existing 3 4 inch plywood. Align the edge of the board with the chalk line and drill pilot holes down through the hardwood plank and into the sub floor and joist. Mark the walls to show the location of the floor joists. If you haven t already purchased hardwood flooring tools follow that link for the complete list of what you ll need.

You can also read our complete instructions for installing hardwood floors. Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically. Keep joints that line up at least two rows apart. If you can feel some deflection you have two options.

The other option assuming you have access to the open joists from below is to install 2x4 blocking between the joists 24 inches on center. Face nail each board at the point of every joist and set the nail with a nail set. Visual congruity usually requires the boards to run. Being laid directly over joists needs to be thick enough to support the furnishings and footfall it will need to put up with without risking damage.

Asphalt saturated felt or silicone vapor shield. The general rule of thumb is that your engineered wood flooring boards should be no less than 18mm thick if you are planning to lay them directly over joists and you should fix them using nails or staples at a maximum of 300mm spacing. The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation. Install hardwood floors perpendicular to the floor joists parallel to the longest wall leaving a inch expansion gap around the perimeter.

We recommend measuring and snapping a line or using a string to guide installation of the first row. Cover the floor with an acceptable moisture inhibitor such as 15 to 30 lb. Wood floors should always be laid perpendicular to floor joists across rather that in between them.