Hi all. I am going to be putting down my first hardwood floor. I have some questions as I go, I hope that some people can help. I have been a motorcycle mechanic for 20 years, so I'm good at working on things. I know that does not make me a carpenter but I love doing the work myself.

First I removed my carpet and the particle board. I have some leveling to do and I am also going to screw down my sub floor I have to put some cdx over the sub floor to bring it up to my kitchen floor level and my sub floor is a little crappy. my first question is should I get the cdx with one side that is smooth and the one side ruff or just get both sides ruff? I will be getting 1/2" cdx. Should I shim under the cdx or the hard wood to get me level? I have a high spot like a peak and the level teeters.

The floor I am putting down is a santos mahogany 3/4" x 5". I was going to order from Brazilian direct. has any one done any business with them?
I will have pictures as I go. Thanks for the site, it's been a big help so far.

If the peaked area is caused by a crowned joist, and not too high or compounded by too low areas on either side, simply grind, sand or plane the subfloor down to flatness prior to putting in the plywood. And there is no need for a finished side to the ply.

question. Do I need to put a space between my underlayment plywood. what glue should I use there are so many?

IMO it's a good idea to leave space at plywood seams. Dennis posted recently and said leave 1/4", ( seems like alot, but cant hurt ). I have always left 1/16", staggering the joints.
It's a matter of preference... I use Bostik EFA adhesive.

Ya Floorologist, the reason I suggest 1/4 inch spaces is that it leaves a margin for error, nothing else. I once had to inspect a floor that had one irritating mouse squeak that wouldn't go away. Was where two sheets were just touching each other and the natural vertical flex caused a squeak from rubbing together. What a pain to get rid of without removing a part of the floor above it, but we did it this way:
We cut out a small section of the subfloor from underneath (actually, four of then in a line) about 3 inches square. This of course required some fancy measuring between the floor above, and the basement below, but we managed it. We then drove metal wedges between the two sheets of ply and that solved it, presumably by stopping the independent movement of the sheets where they touched.
Unorthodox? Ya, but it worked so "shhhsh", lol