Subfloor Required For Oak Flooring

The key to a beautiful long lasting hardwood or laminate floor is a well prepared subfloor.

Subfloor required for oak flooring.

A glue nailed construction technique is optimal for ensuring a flat stable floor. It supports your decorative floor finish whether it s carpet hardwood vinyl laminate or tile. Some wood flooring may not hold sufficiently if installed directly over solid wood subfloors. Subfloors such as vinyl carpet concrete or ceramics cannot support a solid hardwood installation and should be removed before you install.

For more information download our pdf about types of subfloors. These sheets install directly over floor joists which cross the floor every 12 to 16 inches to provide the support necessary for the flooring surface. Three fourth inch sheets are the standard in plywood subfloors. In cases where latex subfloor glue is required careful selection is necessary due to the wide range of performance between brands.

To comply with the warranties each manufacturer has a different set of specifications. With engineered floors you can also opt for glue down or floating installations. The subfloor is the decking installed on top of flooring joists. The floor joists beneath a plywood subfloor can be a range of heights but 6 inches is a standard.

Do this by multiplying the room s length by its width. Use a solvent based glue that meets astm d3498 performance standards. Stapling or nailing your flooring to the subfloor is the most common way to install solid hardwood. Engineered or solid strip flooring less than 1 2 inch thick and parquet flooring may need an additional 3 8 inch layer of plywood installed over these types of subfloors.

The building code for the subfloor is to ensure structural loads are adequate from a safety perspective not necessarily from a wood flooring performance perspective. To test your subfloor for moisture you should always take a moisture reading. No matter the flooring concrete subfloors should always be cured for at least 60 days before a flooring installation. Before you install your plywood subfloor first calculate the room s square footage to find out how much flooring you ll need to buy.

A subfloor is the bottom most structural level of your floor. Preparation for installing floor tile depends on the type of subfloor in the room you are tiling. Always check with the flooring manufacturer when in doubt. A concrete slab makes for a very hard solid durable and often very smooth subfloor.

The thickness of plywood panels in a subfloor is regulated by the.