Subfloor overlay

[Johnnyy Johnson]

I need to replace my hardwood floor. My house was built in 1982, They used 1/2 plywood for the sub. I want to put down another layer of 1/2 over top of the subfloor. Which is the better choice, OSB or plywood? Also ,any ideas about the OSB Tung and grove

Thanks
Johnny

[Jim Matthews]

If water exposure is unlikely, OSB will work fine.

Is there something wrong with the existing underlayment?
Raising everything another 1/2" means recutting baseboards and trim.

That's not trivial.

[Tom M King]

Nail it to the joists only, and it should be fine without adding another layer. It takes a bit more picking pieces as it's laid, so you don't end up with short pieces not nailed to anything. You may not use all the little, short pieces, but they don't add up to a lot of square feet anyway. I've done this a number of times over the years. I know of one 5" White Oak floor I did in the early '90s that's still just fine, and no squeaks the last I checked.

If it was mine, I'd use 3-1/4" quarter sawn White Oak.

I did a room in the past month that used six bundles of 2-1/4" Select Red Oak, to match what was already down, and we only ended up with a couple of handfulls of the short pieces. I bought one $56 dollar bundle extra to make sure we had enough long pieces, and we ended up with over half of that bundle left.

After putting down the paper, use this and snap heavy lines in the middle of the joists. http://www.amazon.com/ProSensor-710-Franklin-Sensors-Precision/dp/B0064EICKG/ref=zg_bs_553280_2

[Chris Padilla]

Nice promotion of that stud finder, Tom. I've always wanted a better one and that one looks pretty good.

[Tom M King]

Mine just came two days ago. We had to put some crown molding up in a 50 year old house yesterday, and it showed where every stud was without having to hunt for the edges. It paid for itself in the time saved on that one job. So far, at a day old, it's working great.

[scott vroom]

Mine just came two days ago. We had to put some crown molding up in a 50 year old house yesterday, and it showed where every stud was without having to hunt for the edges. It paid for itself in the time saved on that one job. So far, at a day old, it's working great.

Tom, have you tried any of the Zircon models? That's all I've used the past 30 years....at times with some frustration. I'd buy the Franklin in a heartbeat if I knew it was superior to the Zircon.

[Mark Bolton]

Tom, have you tried any of the Zircon models? That's all I've used the past 30 years....at times with some frustration. I'd buy the Franklin in a heartbeat if I knew it was superior to the Zircon.

I have a zircon, the one with the marking scribe, edge/center detection. I don't to a lot of stud finding but its worked well for me even through 1.5" of plaster. It also has wire and metal detection incorporated.

My only gripe with it is its triggered by a lever/arm action between the body and the head and that switch can get a little fussy at times.

[Mark Bolton]

I need to replace my hardwood floor. My house was built in 1982, They used 1/2 plywood for the sub. I want to put down another layer of 1/2 over top of the subfloor. Which is the better choice, OSB or plywood? Also ,any ideas about the OSB Tung and grove

Thanks
Johnny

I wouldnt hesitate to lay a solid wood floor over the existing 1/2" sub (if you are going with solid wood). No offense to Tom but I wouldnt even be concerned with sorting sizes to make sure every board is nailed to joist. There is enough sorting for size and color when putting down a floor anyway and depending on the grade of your material you will likely have pieces in the bundles that will not span a joist bay or two anyway. Solid T&G hardwood when installed acts as a unit anyway so shorter lengths which may not be fastened to structure are still part of "the system" so to speak. By all means snapping lines and nailing anything that falls on a joist is a good practice but for me personally I wouldnt over think it beyond that. Hardwood has been laid for years over 1/2" substrates so I wouldnt think twice about it. Before that it was laid directly on the joist with no sub though I wouldnt want to go back to those times.

If however your not going to install solids and are going to go with some sort of engineered/laminate/floating then I would be looking into adding to the 1/2". I would avoid osb personally and where your only adding 1/2" my options would be ply or PB glued and nailed (or screwed if you want overkill).