Do I Need To Nail Hardwood Floor To The Joists

To avoid nail pops pullouts and shiners nails that barely hit the joist all of which can cause squeaks use the correct nail size and spacing and ensure the nails penetrate the floor joists and sink fully.

Do i need to nail hardwood floor to the joists.

You ll need to figure out how to lay hardwood floors for your room size shape. If you re silencing floorboards you can place the screws strategically to stop the squeaking but if the subfloor is lifting you need to find the floor joists with a stud finder and sink 2 inch. To remedy this situation cut a piece of joist material 2 8 2 10 or 2 12 depending on the circumstances to fit crosswise between the two joists under the soft flooring. No matter what you do you should eliminate squeaks on the subfloor first by screwing the floor down through the sub floor to the joists anywhere you can hear squeaking.

With hardwood floors drive ring shank or cement coated flooring nails into the seams between boards. Solid hardwood flooring only can be installed on or above ground level with a plywood subfloor. Engineered flooring can be installed above grade at grade and below grade level do not install hardwood flooring in bathrooms. A flooring contractor howard brickman responds.

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. Separate wooden bridging members to eliminate noise problems. Mark the walls to show the location of the floor joists. Nails approximately 2 inches in length pass through the inch plywood and still provide plenty of length to secure the plywood to the joists.

Although you can secure inch plywood sheets to the joists in a subfloor with long nails you don t generally need extra long nails for the floor to stay in place. To fix a floor covered with deep pile carpet drive a wallboard screw through the carpet and pad into the floor joist. Always check with the manufacturer s instructions to determine if your hardwood floor can be installed over an in floor radiant heat system. If the subfloor is stiff enough there is no reason why solid nail down strip flooring can t be run parallel to the joists.

First renail the existing plywood subfloor so that the old nails are tight and add new nails to achieve a maximum nail spacing of 6 inches.