I got a deal on some beautiful unfinished 3/4″ brazillian cherry hardwood that I plan to put down in my house. The current hardwood (1/2″ thick) is sitting on a plank subfloor that runs diagonally to the hardwood planks.
The house was built in 1927. Is it safe to assume that I can rip up the old hardwood and put down the new cherry on the existing subfloor since I’m not changing the orientation of the hardwood planks? I’m trying to keep from having a big lip on the thresholds that lead in and out of the room which would happen if I put down 3/4″ plywood.
Thanks for your help,
Mike
Replies
You should be good. I would screw down the old subfloor first, lay down a slip sheet (rosin or tarpaper) and then the new cherry.
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screw down the existing sub-floor, check for squeaks and remedy, ensure subfloor is sound (nothing broken, seams fall on joists etc.) 3/4" cherry is going to be beautiful so doing the prep will be worth it. I will use trim screws if the sub-floor is prone to cracking(very dry and old) after I have sunk a few #8s (red 1 3/4" robbies) and the wood is splitting like crazy. Enjoy the holiday(s)!!!
My hardwood guys always complained when they had to nail into diagonal sheathing. Usually 1x8's. They felt that was too big a span {about 22"} on the diagonal, too springy. All the ones' I have torn have looked pretty poor. The gaps are now large, knots fallen out, the weaker boards are up and down, etc. Sometimes just prying up the old floor can damage the subfloor.
Given that, I would plan on plenty of time and effort to prep the floor as every else has said. It may need some blocking in places. If it's really bad you could just tear the whole thing out and plywood. Be sure and put in a good vapor barrier as there are many gaps compared to plywood.
Don't mean to be a downer. Should look great when it's all done.
John
Edited 12/26/2008 10:59 pm ET by JohnCujie
I will one day be looking at a similar scenario to the original poster. Given the labor intensity of prepping the original subfloor per your description I start to think it would be worth adding a layer of plywood over the existing subfloor and screwing it down.In my case I have 10 foot ceilings so the only place I would lose critical height is going through doorways.I would think I would need to either pull the baseboard or run a jambsaw the length of the baseboard to accomodate the new hardwood (currently I have 1/4" topnail) so I could just raise/cut the baseboard and jambs enough to accomodate the additional ply as well as the new hardwood.Are there significant advantages to totally removing the original subfloor prior to adding plywood?
Karl
I only meant to give a worse case scenario. You won't know until the old floor is up. You still need to do floor prep of the old floor, screw it down, etc. before putting plywood over. Best case, the existing subfloor is fine.Taking it all up depends on the rooms you are doing, number of walls, etc. as of course you can't take it all up because stuff is sitting on it. There is a lot of work integrating the plywood area to the existing subfloor. I suggested it as a worse case because the OP was concerned about floor transition heights.If it was my house, I would ply over the existing subfloor with 1/2", based on my past experiences. John
I've helped with a Brazilian cherry flooring job, and let me tell you, the finished floor was beautiful. Like everyone else said, prep is the key. As long as the existing subfloor is in good shape, I don't see the need for plywood. You might could put down 1/4" Lauan, just to level it a bit. The blocking idea wasn't bad either.
I'd say you be fine, if the new floor is endmatched ..that stuff is pretty darn stiff. If it all fell with it's joints on joists ( like a deck) and being as stiff as Ipe ( almost) you'd not even need subfloor. If it isn't endmatched I'd biscut the ends that fall in the middle of two joists.
Fer sure I'd be tightening up the old diagonal for squeak prevention.
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