Installing hardwood floors

[Jim Haberkorn]

Run it like the rest of the house. Any mismatch in finish will only be seen at the doorway, about 36 inches max. And only when the door is open

[Steve Jenkins]

Decision made. We are going to run it across the joists like the existing. Thanks for all the help and willingness to get more info from me.

[roger wiegand]

I've always put 15 lb felt under hardwood. Across the joists is preferred but running the flooring the "right" direction for the rooms is more important-- ie don't run it crossways in a long narrow space. Some people think it's important for all the flooring in a house to run the same direction, I don't. Changing directions (tastefully) actually helps to better define spaces.

Nails, no glue. You want the floor to be able to move evenly with the seasons (the felt paper helps with that). And have pity on the guy who someday may need to pull it up.

I do a picture frame border (with contrasting woods in a couple of widths) around my rooms when I DIY hardwood; it looks really nice, gives a high end feel to the project, and is only trivially more work to do.

[Mark Bolton]

Perpendicular

[Alex Zeller]

Is it just particle board or Advantech? Particle board isn't that strong but if it was built in the last 20 years it's most likely Advantech which is very strong. What's the floor joist spacing? If 16" on center it's most likely stiffer than plywood. I can't think of a contractor who uses plywood for a subfloor anymore.

[Eugene Dixon]

Make sure the subfloor is secure with additional fasteners before laying the hardwood. Sand/plane the high spots. LL has an underlayment (pad) that has been good for my hardwood floor installs and no smell like with tar paper.
Run hardwood parallel to the length of the room to increase the perceived size.
YMMV

[Wayne Cannon]

Sounds like two questions: subfloor and direction.

My floor joists change directing in the middle of the living room because they support a cantilevered deck. I put down 3/4" unfinished oak flooring over a layer of felt with no glue and 1/4" side gap for expansion using a Harbor Freight air nailer with no regard for joist direction and no problems.

I had very little problem with warpage, but used a large screwdriver driven into the subfloor to pull them snug, anyway. The nailer angle also drives boards snug when you hit it with the mallet. For traditional T&G, a special router bit for flooring was very helpful to easily re-groove cut ends and narrow pieces (it also reduced waste to almost zero, so I had a lot left over).

It was my first flooring job. I have been very happy with the results. I'll try a perimeter border next time, as I now know it's not a big deal and looks nice.

[Paul F Franklin]

HW flooring run perpendicular to the joist will add stiffness to the floor. If the current floor without flooring is stiff and not bouncy, then there should be no issue running it parallel. But check for flatness; sometimes with inadequate subfloor you will get "waves" or dips where the subfloor sags between joists. If you have a wavy subfloor, then you will have wavy flooring if you run it parallel to the joists.

[Bruce King]

We had the 3/4 prefinished oak in the living room, foyer, dining room and kitchen. We didn’t like the looks of it but the 20 yr old house we bought had sawn lumber floor joists with a multitude of dips and creaks so it was an easy decision. We picked out a more expensive engineered hardwood that is easy to lay if you don’t count angled doorways. We wanted to keep the same height so fixed all the dips with various pieces of cheap vinyl flooring squares. Screwed down all the squeaks and added 1/4 OSB everywhere. Used a pneumatic stapler every 8 inches. Put down the thickest underlayment to help on the height and for feel. We did the entire house except for two guest baths. This stuff works fine in a master bath. All new shoe molding and looks like a new house. Ended up with 400 Sf extra that we kept.