How To Lay Solid Oak Flooring On Joists

We don t recommend installing over chipboard and instead would suggest a floating floor such as engineered wood flooring or laminate flooring.

How to lay solid oak flooring on joists.

All of that said if you do decide to go ahead and lay your hardwood flooring straight to your joists here s a few helpful pointers. This will ensure that the sub floor that you create is solid and stable. Nowadays oak flooring is laid in a number of situations and environments. Make sure the centre point of the first joist is not more than 450mm away from the centre point of the next joist the term often used for this is that the.

A flooring contractor howard brickman responds. If you are planning to lay a plywood or chipboard layer in between your joists and your engineered wood floor you should choose a ply that is at least thick and preferably 5 8 of an inch thick. Either solid wood flooring or engineered wood flooring can be laid directly onto joists if the planks are at least 18mm thick. This is because solid wood flooring has a higher tendency towards movement and needs to be fixed to the subfloor to avoid problems in the future.

Whether you intent to lay solid or engineered oak flooring when laying onto joists we recommend our 20mm oak flooring. If the subfloor is stiff enough there is no reason why solid nail down strip flooring can t be run parallel to the joists. True if fitting above ground floor the draft air brick part is not as important but dont agree on the acclimatizing in bit. First renail the existing plywood subfloor so that the old nails are tight and add new nails to achieve a maximum nail spacing of 6 inches.

When you are laying a solid timber floor it is best to lay it using a fixed method as opposed to floating commonly used for engineered boards. For instance if the house contains a high moisture content and lets say the joists sit at a moister level of say 14 and the floor you buy has been stored in a area of low humidity the floors moisture content is lets say 5 there will be a few weeks for the. Floor vents are normally attached to joists so you can use that as a starting point for measuring. Probably the most traditional method of fitting is to lay oak flooring onto joists.

This is to provide the strength and stability needed when installing hardwood flooring directly onto joists. Nailing the flooring into the floor joists will also help with stability. Make sure your wood flooring is at least 18mm thick. It is also advised that long length boards 6ft or 1 83m are used.

Watch our step by step video showing how to lay solid wood flooring with expert advice and top tips to help you complete the job with confidence. How to lay solid wood flooring installation methods.