Best Subfloor Material For Hardwood

Floating sub floors for solid hardwood installations generally consist of two layers of plywood or allowing enough wood for a 1 inch flooring cleat to hold effectively.

Best subfloor material for hardwood. A typical wood framed residential flooring system is more complicated than you think. Sub floor construction should have expansion areas of their own in the area of 1 8 1 4 between boards or sheets of ply. The subfloor consists of sheet materials that are nailed or screwed to the joists to. Preferred subfloors in these cases are a mortar bed or cement board.

In addition to the visible surface flooring material the carpet tile or hardwood there is usually an underlayment and beneath that is a subfloor that serves as the foundation and structural reinforcement for the floor. As with hardwood laminate flooring is best installed on a 3 4 inch thick plywood subfloor. Certain types of subflooring known as resilient flooring are good for rooms that will not be exposed to a lot of moisture like living rooms kitchens and bedrooms. The tongue and groove edges interlock to resist movement along the panel edges and create an overall stiffer.

When it comes to hardwood flooring the quality of the installation will be determined by the quality of many things including the choice of subflooring and the condition its in. If there is any deflection in the wood plank subfloor when walked on it would be advisable to add an additional layer of 3 8 or 1 2 thick plywood. It s in these rooms where people will likely install tiles hardwood flooring or laminate. Plywood has been a standard subfloor material since the 1950s and remains the preferred subflooring for many builders.

Standard plywood can be used for subfloors but a better material is 3 4 inch tongue and groove plywood subflooring. 9 16 or thicker floating engineered wood floors can simply be installed directly on plank subfloor the hardwood flooring must be installed crossing the subfloor boards at a 90 degree angle. If the existing subfloor is in poor condition you will need to add a secondary underlayment of thin plywood over the subfloor. Even the slightest imperfections in your subfloor can telegraph into the flooring and result in squeaking buckling and uneven floors.