Perpendicular Wood Floors

Sight lines and aesthetics.
Perpendicular wood floors. We chose to add a second layer because some of our flooring runs parallel to the floor joists. When hardwood floors are installed parallel to the joists they will sag squeak and gap. If your sub floor is a concrete slab you can run the floors in any direction you prefer. Therefore you should consider going perpendicularly across the floor joists.
This can eventually lead to the subfloor sagging in between the joists. For strength and durability installing hardwood flooring perpendicular to the floor joists is recommended. Join the ends of the boards over a floor joist where possible avoiding joints that form an h. Flooring experts recommend installing flooring boards perpendicular to the floor joists in a house with a plywood subfloor.
Installing them parallel creates the possibility that the floor will sag. Is there any reason i can t do it. For aesthetic reasons i would like to run 3 4x3 inch oak strip flooring parallel to the floor joists instead of perpendicular as is typical. Before starting calculate the width the last row will be.
Subfloor as long as it s plywood and the hardwood direction is perpendicular to the floor joists. Choosing which direction to install wood floors is often a confusing choice for many. You are good to go. In these cases the conservative choice is to go perpendicular across the floor joists and allow them to support the new floor as well as the sub floor.
In most cases you should try and go perpendicular across the floor joists to allow the boards to span the gaps and be supported by them. If you re laying your new floor in an older home that has a plywood sub floor the first thing to consider is the direction of the floor joists that support it. Many installers will lay hardwood over one layer of 1 2 in. If you go with the direction of the floor joists the weight of the wood floor could cause the sub floor to sag over time.
Glue using liquid nails and screw the floor down every 10 12 inches square. Keep joints that line up at least two rows apart. If you go parallel with the floor joists you will not have support under some portions of the wood. If you really want to run the hardwoods perpendicular to the windows and your floor doesn t meet our recommend specs you could glue and screw a half inch of plywood to the existing sub floor.
In a nutshell the preference calls for running the flooring front to back as you enter the home. The floor joists under the wood floor hold the sub floor in place.