hardwood flooring and sub flooring

[billconner]

Looking ahead to fall and continuing conversion of garage to living space.

My current plan is from 25+ year old slab which I suspect may be insulated, at least by icf stem walls if not foam under it: 10 mil poly; 2x4 sleepers 19.2" on center, cedar shake shimmed to level; 1 1/2" XPS between sleepers; 3/4" t&g ply, red rosin paper, t&g hardwood - thinking pre finished walnut.

I plan to let sleepers float - no anchors - and just glue and screw subfloor to them to hold in place. (I've specified that for a lot of stage floors and no issues.) No partitions sit on it.

Ply or OSB?

red rosin paper or other? (interesting article on that: https://www.jlconline.com/how-to/in...it's still commonly used,It cuts down on dust)

Other?

 

[larry4406]

At 19.2” OC we use T&G subfloor similar to Advantech. You won’t need the weather protection Advantech offers since you are under roof already.

Blasphemy on converting a garage to living space! This is GJ after all!

Our flooring guys used red Rosen paper, as well as what looked like roofing paper but had a logo stating for hardwood.

 

[billconner]

Blasphemy on converting a garage to living space! This is GJ after all!

I did build a new garage before this conversion.

So OK with OSB? Thats where I show my age....

 

[larry4406]

I did build a new garage before this conversion.

So OK with OSB? Thats where I show my age....

3/4” OSB subfloor has been the norm in production homes for easily 25 years, right or wrong. I think it’s fine when installed properly.

 

[duneslider]

What's your plan to keep the shims under the sleepers if you aren't attaching them to the floor?

No need for the rosin paper if you are putting poly under it all. It isn't gonna do anything but get in the way.

 

[billconner]

Glue, or maybe flip them and staple.

I may skip the rosin paper but it does make install a little easier. The pieces of flooring slide around nice.

May look at a load of rough dawn and dried cherry today. Not sure I'm up to the milling and screwing and plugging - but the price is unbeatable. History to - it's from the farm my great grand father settled in 1840s.

 

[jar944]

May look at a load of rough dawn and dried cherry today. Not sure I'm up to the milling and screwing and plugging - but the price is unbeatable. History to - it's from the farm my great grand father settled in 1840s.

Assume 50% waste, and the need for mutiple finished widths to get maximum yield. Final sizing should be on a shaper with outboard fence and you need to ensure everything is at the same moisture content. Power feeder on the shaper is a must there. You will need a set of flooring knives in some corrugated heads. Neil at MtTool just made a set of flooring knives for a someone I know.

If the intention is not tongue and groove ignore what I posted.

 

[jkuro]

Bill you may want to consider a subfloor something like this:

DRICORE Subfloor Membrane Panel 3/4 in. x 2 ft. x 2 ft. Oriented Strand Board FG10006 - The Home Depot

DRICORE Subfloor is the first and most important step towards creating a new living space as warm and comfortable as any other space in your home. DRICORE is the one-step engineered subfloor solution that is specifically designed for basements. It creates an air gap above cold, damp concrete to...

www.homedepot.com

There are other products designed for basement applications that will work also.

 

[duneslider]

I actually like dricore but in Bill's case, he is doing this in a garage so I assume the floor slopes and he wants to level it out.

Growing up, we added a big 2 car onto our house and then turned the single car into a dining room but we framed it to the same level as the house/kitchen.

We live in a dry climate (desert climate) and didn't put plastic down or anything and had no moisture issues but that worked in our case and not gonna work well in wetter areas.

Rough sawn cherry from the family farm sounds cool but not for the floor...

Maybe use the cherry for trim, cabinets, furniture, etc.

Whenever we did floors with sleepers we would level and then shoot them down with a powder actuated gun. These were usually for basketball courts and the concrete was usually pretty flat already and didn't need much if any shimming.

 

[billconner]

Not a basement and no signs of moisture in 4+ years.

Looking into milling flooring doesn't excite me.

 

[jar944]

Looking into milling flooring doesn't excite me.

Not a project I would want to do. Commercial flooring is just to inexpensive comparatively.

Making sure you're not a bot!

Phillip Mitchell on Instagram: "Some process photos of this batch of mostly quarter & rift sawn oak flooring I just made… . I also wanted to highlight that even though social media is lame in many ways, there are still some good parts to it - for me

99 likes, 12 comments - stillwater_woodworks on July 19, 2023: "Some process photos of this batch of mostly quarter & rift sawn oak flooring I just made… . I a..."

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