Amish made hardwood

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 Post subject: how much can a subfloor be off by?
PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:43 pm 
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Hi,
I have a home that's about 7 years old and I am going to install 3/4" (most likely oak) where carpet use to be in the hallway. My hallway is like a backwars C with stairs making the opening (see diagram below). "S" is the stairs and the "\" is where the hardwood is going. Total floor space is about 120 sq feet.
The curent subfloor is OSB and has some high area's where the boards meet, low areas in the middle and squeeky spots kind of all over the place. Some of the it is piece meal in certain area's. I can see that the carpet guys sanded down as much as they could and put in a bunch of screws to stop the squeeking. I'll go over it with more screws.
I can't tell if the joist run all the same direction because there a mess of nails and screws everywhere. I think they change direction. At the top of the S, where the opening of the stairs is there is a steel beam under the subfloor that I see.

How much tolerence should I allow before it's good enough eg. 1/8 of an inch?
Do you think 1/4" BC plywood overtop is good enough?

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|SSS|\\\\\|
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|SSS|\\\\\|
|SSS|\\\\\|
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------------

Thanks,
Ivano


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:44 am 
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Strive for 1/8" over 6 ft. you will be in good shape. :)

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:29 am 
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Thanks B. If i'm able to achiev that a 1/4" ply overtop would be Ok then?


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:50 am 
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I am not certain what you would be trying o achieve with the 1/4" plywood. That product is best used to cover a floor that needs to have a product glued to it like vinyl flooring.

3/4" OSB is an acceptable substrate to nail floors to. If your OSB is less than 3/4" you might use plywood to sturdy up the floor. 1/4" plywood would have little effect.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:23 pm 
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I thought 3/8" over 6ft was acceptable. 1/8" would be nice I suppose, but is that realistic?

I'm going to use layers of linoleum to build up some low spots, and hope to be within 1/8 but we'll see.. =)

Barquios wrote:
Strive for 1/8" over 6 ft. you will be in good shape. :)


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:22 am 
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For a nail down or floating floor, using vinyl scraps are great for leveling the lower spots. You could also use asphalt roofing shingles. I think the vinyl is thinner. Using these you should have no problem getting your floor flat.

Place the straight edge on the floor if there is daylight 1/8" or greater mark the floor. Basically map out the floor. I check width and then length, finally one or both diagonal.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:29 am 
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Question for ya Barquois - I have to thicken my subfloor by adding 3/8" fir ply on top of the existing 5/8" OSB. There are some seams which need planing, etc and I'm doing that all now.

For the low spots, would you recommend that I fill them with the linoleum (old-scool, not vinyl, can't use shingles due to chemical sensitivity) before or after sheeting with the plywood? IE - should I sandwich the linoleum in the subfloor, or should I put in on top immediately before the hardwood?


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:25 pm 
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I would think that the benefit of creating a smooth uniform surface by laying the linoleum under the 3/8" ply would be worth the bit of effort. Rmember to stagger your 3/8" ply seams offset from your existing OSB floor. And space the 1/8" apart. If you have started and did not space them just set your skil saw to depth and cut in an expansions space at the seams. One saw pass will suffice. 8)

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 11:17 am 
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So let me get this straight (no pun intended), my current OSB needs to be leveled off. What I would do is use vinyl pieces to build up the low spots. Then I thought that I would need to lay 1/4" ply overtop of it all to create a nice smooth and flat surface for me to nail my 3/4" hardwood. But could I just put the vinyl pieces down and just nail my hardwood overtop?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 11:41 am 
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Quote:
But could I just put the vinyl pieces down and just nail my hardwood overtop?

Yes, you have to do it in a manner that creates the least amount of ridges however. If I need multiple layers, I start with small pieces and get larger for each layer. This way, it smooths out the ridges left from layering up the vinyl/ shingles. Then, lay your asphalt felt over the entire floor. This will also help in smoothing out ridges left from layering up vinyl pieces.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:00 am 
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Wow Gary I never thought of doing it smaller to larger before. Great idea.

It is the little things that make me happiest in life. :D

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:07 am 
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Absolutely! I had never thought of that either. As simple as it is. Thanks Gary.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:10 pm 
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Yep, I'm just your average genius! :lol:


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