How To Lay Engineered Wood Flooring On Joists

This is to provide the strength and stability needed when installing hardwood flooring directly onto joists.

How to lay engineered wood flooring on joists.

Wood floor fitting over joists. Install hardwood floors perpendicular to the floor joists parallel to the longest wall leaving a inch expansion gap around the perimeter. The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation. Keep joints that line up at least two rows apart.

This is the typical structure of a floor. Join the ends of the boards over a floor joist where possible avoiding joints that form an h. Before starting calculate the width the last row will be. Here s how to install click lock engineered hardwood flooring.

If you are planning an engineered wood flooring installation on a ground floor it is important not to install your flooring directly over a ventilated cavity. 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. Use 1 2 inch spacers to assist in maintaining the 1 2 inch expansion gap between the first row of flooring planks and the wall. 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.

Put the first board up against the mason s line with the groove side facing away from the walls. If you can feel some deflection you have two options. It is also advised that long length boards 6ft or 1 83m are used. However is it possible to install our finish floor directly over the joists without a subfloor in between.

Making the right decisions before you lay your flooring particularly in a situation where you re laying flooring directly over joists is always time well spent. They didnt use a plywood in older homes it was a 1x4 on a diagnonal then a finished floor went over that. Either solid wood flooring or engineered wood flooring can be laid directly onto joists if the planks are at least 18mm thick. Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically.