Hardwood Flooring Installation

[Scott Neblung]

Hi all,

We are about to install 3/4" solid oak hardwood floors in our LR remodel and I need some advice.

First the background:

The room size is 16' wide x 26' long.
On either end of the 16' side is an entrance to the kitchen and the front door entrance...one on either end.
In the middle of the 26' side are two bedrrom entrances.

Picture a rectangle...at the top is the front door entrance, at the right side are two 5' windows, at the bottom is a kitchen entrance and on the left side are the two bedroom doorways (soon to be archways with french doors into them).

My query is this...

Which way would you or I should say is there a proper way to run this flooring?

LOML and I are at odds and I'm not sure which to do. She wants it to run the long length (26') and I think it should be the short way (16').

If it's run the long way you will see the front door from the kitchen entrance and it would maybe make the room look longer....but a greater chance for installation error IMHO.

If it's done the short way, the error is lessened by 10' over going the long route.

If you've seen this done or have it done to your house ...please comment....either way I need to know as it's going to be installed (by us) on Labor Day weekend.

Thanx...Scott

[Todd Burch]

I would typically recommend installing the long way. Todd.

[Kevin Post]

I would install it perpendicular to the floor joists and pay no mind to the dimensions of the room.

-Kevin

[Rob Russell]

Kevin's got it dead right. You install strip flooring so it runs across/perpendicular to the floor joists, not parallel with them.

There is a structural reason for this. Running the strips across the floor helps spread the load as you walk around and will reduce spring in the floor. I suppose one could argue that running parallel with the joists might create valleys over time (as measured with a micrometer).

I'd guess that your room is framed so the joists run across the 16' width, so your flooring would run the 26' length of the room.

Rob

[Glenn Clabo]

Scott,
The long way is conventional. I've done many floors and it pretty much always looks best that way. THink of a hallway. I just did our library/kitchen and have a 26 foot run that looks pretty darn nice. Besides...there are some things women are better at than men. :D

[Brad Schafer]

i put down a little over 1600 sqft of t&g red oak in our house a few years back. biggest room was 16x40 (installed long); next was 18x24 (installed short, as it was a continuous floor and the rooms were attached/perpendicular). here are the steps as best i can remember:

first, decide how you're going to fasten. i decided to use a "nail thru the tongue" technique. could have used air or mechanical w/mallet, but chose the latter due to availability/cost. air probably would have sped things up.

next, check the area for dead level (i used string/string level and a 4' mason's level). if not level, make it so using mud, grinder, whatever. gaps mean squeaks later. i used an angle grinder to take down edges on some OSB seams that had drawn damp.

next, put down 50 lb red rosin paper to minimize squeaks. (i'm sure there are other methods, but i don't know 'em.)

next, check the room for square. if it's not dead square, snap a series of reference lines with a chalk line on the rosin so you can keep true as you go. leave around 1/4 on the butt ends next to the wall so the wood can move. trim is a wonderful thing.

then, install the floor. i installed perpendicular to joists. be careful when you nail to not miss (and have a surface ding) or to miss the joist. i have 2 spots where i did, and it squeaks like mad.

i don't know how you could get away with installing parallel to joists unless you wanted to glue the floor down (i didn't). another advantage to going short is that you minimize butt joints; i had a whole mess of 16s that made long way in the big rooms easy.

make sure you have plenty of beater blocks to seat the wood. when putting down fir *years* ago, i built a persuader out of some scrap 2x4 to pry/hold a few of the more ornery boards in place. didn't need to with the oak. make those joints as tight as you can.

check your alignment every couple boards or so. there's nothing worse than getting 3 or 4 boards from the end and discovering you're 3/4 closer on one side of the room than the other.

i think you'll find that once it's down, the orientation is less important than the squareness of install and the finish.

sounding like i know more than i do - 1 man's experience ...


b

[Scott Neblung]

It appears the consensus is to run it the long way....which in reality is across the joists ....as Rob correctly guessed....

Nice job Rob!

Wish us luck,it will be an experience....

Scott...part time scm member at large