Hello. I'm about to put in solid hardwoods into my home. I ripped out the carpets and I found brackets below the pad, attached to the plywood. They are on the exterior walls at the ends of the house. Each is a strip of metal maybe 1" wide and 1' long. It comes in from the wall and is nailed to the floor. Do I just put the hardwoods directly on top of this? Or do I need to do something with it first?

I have a photo, but I'm not seeing an easy way to attach it to this post.

The brackets are a problem. Usually they are only an eighth inch thick You may either dado a little groove for each clip, or use eighth inch thick roll roofing to shim the space between the clips, then taper the shim to 30 pound tarpaper for another six inches or so to make a slight taper to the flat sub-floor in the middle of the room. Check with a six foot straight-edge to see which solution would work best. It is recommended to keep the sub-floor within an eighth of an inch of flatness over 6 feet. I find that every floor we work on needs some preparation before we start laying the flooring.

Thank you for the response. I probably should have noted that because I am doing 5" board I'm going to follow the recommendation of gluing in addition to stapling. I assume that rules out the idea of the shims.

I was kind of wondering if I would need to make a groove. What should I use, like a dremel?

So far I think most of the sub floor has been pretty good. I need to go check it more thoroughly. I know on the transition to one room I had to hit it with a belt sander because there was a period with a ridge. There were a couple other plywood intersections I have had to smooth out as well.

If you're handy and feel safe with a chop saw, flip the board over. Works best with a sliding miter. Or you can use a table saw.