Laying Hardwood Flooring On Joists

Join the ends of the boards over a floor joist where possible avoiding joints that form an h.

Laying hardwood flooring on joists.

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. For strength run the strip flooring perpendicular to the joists. Asphalt saturated felt or silicone vapor shield. We recommend measuring and snapping a line or using a string to guide installation of the first row.

If you haven t already purchased hardwood flooring tools follow that link for the complete list of what you ll need. 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. Keep joints that line up at least two rows apart. 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.

Face nail the entire first row and remember to keep the board lengths random. Mark the walls to show the location of the floor joists. Face nail each board at the point of every joist and set the nail with a nail set. You can also read our complete instructions for installing hardwood floors.

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. 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. If you can feel some deflection you have two options. Visual congruity usually requires the boards to run.

The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation. Cover the floor with an acceptable moisture inhibitor such as 15 to 30 lb. This will make the floors structurally sound and will help prevent the planks from separating sagging or buckling. So there is no right or wrong way to lay your wood flooring.

Before starting calculate the width the last row will be. Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically. Wood floors should always be laid perpendicular to floor joists across rather that in between them.