Hey Guys,

I am about to embark on my first hardwood install and need some real world advice.

Project details

Job: 1600 sq foot Carriage house
Flooring: 3/4 solid Birtch from Dubeau - 3 1/4 or 3 1/2 planks ( cant remember )
Nailer: Porta -Nailer 304 kit
Nails: T head for Porta Nailer 1.5 inch
Glue: Polyurethane construction adhesive from loctite
Other : Radiant heated floor - Staple Up

1. ) My plan was to both glue and nail the flooring into place using polyurethane construction adhesive in an S pattern. This is to avoid squeeks and keep things solid feeling as we have fairly large spans on our I joists. Because its a Carriage house, the entire lower floor is a heated garage. If I glue and nail the floor, I cant use a vapor retarder. Its one or the other.

We are in a dry climate. Its cold and dry in the winter and hot and dry in the sumer but the spring does see a good bit of rain and snow melt. Should I be concerned with moisture migration up through the floor? There is currently no vapor barrier in the main floor as the garage space is heated. The slap below in the garage has the 6 mil poly vapor barrier, 3" of insulation and ICF walls. 3 10 x 8 garage doors with weather strip. Soil is rocky like gravel.

What would you do if it was your house ?

2.) Hardwood in the bathroom. We had always planned to put hardwood into the bathroom. We love the look and the fact there will be no seam in the doorway. Everyone says to avoid this like the plague. When we did a search for people with hardwood installed in the bathroom, the overall feeling was positive and surprisingly we did not run across 1 person complaining about problems from humidity ( cupping etc ). General thought was use a big bath mat and dont soak with water etc.

Details - 50 sq foot bathroom , shower, vanity , toilet
300 cfm vent fan
No children.

3.) How do I deal with the stairwell being in the opposite direction as the floor planking ? If you say that the planking runs left to right, our stairwell runs front to back, putting this nosing cross ways to the install. We have 1 nosing for the top stair and solid oak treads for the remaining. How should I tackle this.

Thanks for the help

Dave

Be careful with that rad. heat and solid birch in a dry local.

I myself would not use anything solid unless it was quartersawn.

We are going by faith that with the low temp system and with humidity kept in check, things should be ok. We have a high efficiency home with very low heat loss so the floor is never very warm or on for very long, even in -20. We do not have excessive dry air inside. Not like my brothers place with wood heating and hard wood. I am going to install a humidity monitor though and keep an eye on it. The radiant system usually shuts off by the time temps reach 110 - 120 into the loops. I figure, if its too dry in the winter I can turn down the HRV a bit.

Any thoughts on the other points ?

Well be ready for some movement, its not the end of the world but if that floor doesnt end up with 1/8" cracks through out in a couple of years I would be some what surprised.
Actually went and looked at a birch complaint yesterday matter of fact. They had some termite damage and had to replace about 100sf in a kitchen. Got the call saying the old doesnt match the new yada, yada. Anyway the reason it looks so different is because its new and tight and all the other floor had 1/8" gaps down every seam and that gave it a totally different rustic look.

Yikes. Unfortunately we have the flooring now so we can not switch to a different species or type. We will just have to do our best with what we have. Atleast its probably the driest time of year to install ..

Can I get your help on the other points ?

How do you install when the stairwell nosing is at a 90 degree to the floor layout ? What would you do here ?

What about glue vs vapor retarder ?

Thanks

It happens all the time. install the nose first and work from it, that way you can still use the factory t&g.

on a 3" floor I would just put some aquabar-b down instead of glue.

Thanks guys. ANy specific reason for the aquabar vs glue besides cost ? If we glue and make sure the floor is flat, can we be assured of no squeeks ?

if their is no deflection there will be no squeaks. Subfloor type and nailing schedule will also come into play on the squeaks.

We have some pretty long spans than flex pretty good. You can feel someone walking across the floor easily. This was a major reason we went with the heavy 3/4 flooring. Otherwise we probably would have went with a 1/2 inch engineered. I am hoping the 3/4 across the joists will really stiffen things up.

Will the PL Premium hurt anything ?