Do I Need To Nail Hardwood Floor To The Joists

To fix a floor covered with deep pile carpet drive a wallboard screw through the carpet and pad into the floor joist.

Do i need to nail hardwood floor to the joists.

To avoid nail pops pullouts and shiners nails that barely hit the joist all of which can cause squeaks use the correct nail size and spacing and ensure the nails penetrate the floor joists and sink fully. With hardwood floors drive ring shank or cement coated flooring nails into the seams between boards. You ll need to figure out how to lay hardwood floors for your room size shape. 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.

No matter what you do you should eliminate squeaks on the subfloor first by screwing the floor down through the sub floor to the joists anywhere you can hear squeaking. Engineered flooring can be installed above grade at grade and below grade level do not install hardwood flooring in bathrooms. Separate wooden bridging members to eliminate noise problems. Countersink all the nails.

Always check with the manufacturer s instructions to determine if your hardwood floor can be installed over an in floor radiant heat system. Nails approximately 2 inches in length pass through the inch plywood and still provide plenty of length to secure the plywood to the joists. Although you can secure inch plywood sheets to the joists in a subfloor with long nails you don t generally need extra long nails for the floor to stay in place. Mark the walls to show the location of the floor joists.

If the subfloor is stiff enough there is no reason why solid nail down strip flooring can t be run parallel to the joists. A flooring contractor howard brickman responds. Generally nails 6d ring or screw shank or 8d common should be spaced 6 inches on center along supported panel edges and 12 inches. Solid hardwood flooring only can be installed on or above ground level with a plywood subfloor.

To remedy this situation cut a piece of joist material 2 8 2 10 or 2 12 depending on the circumstances to fit crosswise between the two joists under the soft flooring.