Hi everyone,

My husband and I will be installing 4-7/8” width 3/4 thick tigerwood hardwood on our second floor (3 bedrooms and the hall).
It currently has carpet but we will remove it this weekend and start the hardwood installation soon.

We are still undecided of where would be the best area to start the installation.
What I have found online is you will be better of starting at the hall area, but the hall is not to big, so we are not sure if that's the best idea.
But if we start at any of the bedrooms there might be a bigger space for error.

I've drawn a sketch that I'm adding here below in hopes to get some ideas going.



The area is about 700sq ft.

Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks,

Juliana

One of the basic principles is to start somewhere that guarantees you a straight line in the most visible places. That's why most of us measure into a hallway and snap a straight line it .The hall way is a terrible place to have a off centered appearance.

I usually measure off of exterior walls from the bedrooms and into the hall. Exterior walls tend to be very straight.So if you start in a bedroom, make sure to measure off the walls and create a line into the hallway that you can check for straightness. If you find that you wont be straight in the hallway, then you can alter your starting row in the bedroom a little (hopefully) so that it will be straight with the hall.

So in your case, you could either start in the hall way or in bedroom 1. Just take some time to measure off walls and make chalk lines and you'll be fine.

I would seriously consider running the hardwood the opposite direction that you have labeled it will flow better and probably run perpendicular to your floor joists. I would then start in hallway and make sure everything was as square in hallway as possible.

I agree with Mickey. Your floor joists are most likely running front to back so you would want to run your floor opposite. And it would also be aesthetically appealing. Are you planning on running the floor right through all the doorways or are you going to put header strips in the doorways?

I would also recommend running the floors the other direction and starting the install down the hall way. I would measure off of the outside wall in BR1 to get your straight line.

Thanks for all the input.

We will definitely have to take the carpet out to see the joists direction.
For clarification the front of the house is to the left of the sketch, BR2 and BR3, the back of the house is on the right side (BR1).
The main level of the house has the wood installed in that direction so we are assuming (until we take the carpet out) the floor should go on that same direction.
But if the joists are actually running from top to bottom of the sketch then we will have to change the direction of the floors to be perpendicular to the joists.
We would like to have the floor running through the doorways without any split lines

Juliana

I just thought of another question.
Are you required to split the layout below the doorways? or can you just go from one side to the other without any split lines?
We would prefer not to have any splits, but I'm not sure if there is a requirement or a reason for doing that.
Juliana

The only time a t-moulding is required in a doorway is if the installation is "floating", otherwise run the hardwood continuously right on through.

Only required to split in doorways on floaters. If it were me I would snap line like previously mentioned on the hall BD1 closet line head south into BR1 and 2 and then spline and go into closet and Bd3 and closet. Halls are notoriusly crooked, specially in my house. For some reason when the framers get to a hallway, it's either a Friday or a Monday.

Here is an update!
We took the carpet out for one of the bedrooms (BR3) and the joist direction is as we initially assumed; perpendicular to the way the diagram displays the hardwood direction installation.
The joists are located every 24in. The sub-floor is 3/4 of an inch.
We are thinking on starting on BR1 know but at the closet level and continue through the hall into BR2 and BR3.

We are know trying to figure out how to measure the MC and the difference between the sub-floor and the hardwood.
We bought one meter for the MC on the wood, but I've read you will need another one to calculate the differential.
Any thoughts? Also, how would you measure humidity?

Thanks again,

Juliana

You only need one meter, a pin meter. And get a thermohygrometer for keeping track of the rh in the house. Also 24 inches on center for floor joists seems a little far out there to me. If I were you I'd throw down another sheet, at least 1/2 inch plywood, not that osb junk.

Thank you again for the replies.
We got out wood yesterday and it states the following:

"Minimum thickness sub-floor material recommendations are satisfactory for 16'' on center joist spacing. Thicker sub-floor recommendations will allow up to 19.2'' joist spacing"

From what we see it seems that out joists are 24'' apart on center. Is it necessary to install another layer on top of it for this floor?
What would happen if you install the floor without adding any additional sub-flooring?

Thanks!

Juliana

Well, we will have to add another layer to the subfloor, probably 1/2 inch plywood.
Any ideas how it should be lay down?
We are thinking it should be glued and screwed down, and it should be staggered on top of the existing one.

* Any specific type of plywood we need to use?
* Should it be glued? If so, what adhesive is recommended?
* Should it be screwed to the joists? or just to the first layer of subfloor?
* Should it run perpendicular to the existing subfloor or in the same direction of the existing one?
* If screwed, what kind of screwsain should we use? (star, square, philips)
* If nailed down, what kind of nails should we use and how long? Can the be longer than the thicknes of the overall subfloor? (3/4 + 1/2)
* If stapled down, what kind of staples should we use and what length?

Thanks again!

Juliana

See if this helps... http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... floors.htm