I have carpet over a mix of floors—wood (maple) and old linoleum. I want to put down 3/4″ hardwood. The subfloor of this 100+ year old house is in excellent condition. I would like to lay down 1/4″ plywood with rosin paper to give a flat, smooth surface. Everything I read says 1/2 or 3/4″ inch, but I can’t go that high.
Okay to use 1/4″ and nail (with flooring nailer) through the veneer, original flooring and into the original subfloor (1″ douglas fir planks). I would prefer 3/4″ flooring in this historic house, not engineered, though that is an option.
Thoughts?
Replies
Hey Bryan, see you haven't gotten much on this so I'll give it a go. What you propose would be an experiment. If you can afford to have the experiment fail, then by all means, give it a try. If you have a situation where the floor abolutely must do what it's supposed to do (lie flat, not cup or hinge, not squeak or pop, etc.) then you don't have a lot of options other than sticking strictly to the flooring installation instructions or, if standard flooring, the standard guidelines for what you are installing. Check out http://www.nofma.org or http://www.wfca.org. I don't know that 1/4" ply over a variety of substrates would fit the bill for a sound subfloor required for a wood floor installation. Could be, but its not been tested and OK'd by the folks that make flooring. You would in essence be the tester on what you have there.
Best of luck and let us know how it works out.
Good resource, thanks. I'll let you know what happens!
Why don't you have room???
are you not going to tear up the old finish floors???
New hardwood over old hardwood is asking for trouble!!!
old linoleum may come up pretty easy....
anyhoo...
get a collated decking screwdriver, preferably with a extended handle
rent or buy..
find ALL the joists and screw the old boards down to them securely.
now you can put down only what you need to make a smooth surface.
use ring shank nails and spooge for best results...
Mr. T.
There's a steering-wheel in me pants and it's driving me nuts!!!