We’re looking at tearing up the carpet in our living room, dining room, and hall, and replacing it with hardwood. There is currently fir flooring under the carpet, but it’s far beyond being able to be refinished, so we’ve got to go over it.
I’ve found some 5/8″ thick nail-down engineered bamboo that we like (I’m not into the whole “floating floor” thing, so I want nail-down), but I’ve heard that if you’re going to nail hardwood over hardwood, you’ve got to turn the top layer 90 degrees to the first to avoid problems with differential movement. Doing this would result in pieces running the short direction in a 12′ long hallway, which I think would look like crap.
I happened to see an episode of “Sweat Equity” where they had the same situation, and stapled 1/4″ luan over the existing hardwood prior to the new install. Of course, the source of that method leaves me skeptical of it’s real-world application, so I figured I’d ask the brain trust here for advice. I’d like to avoid adding the extra 1/4″ of height to the floor, but if it’s a must, I’ll do it.
Bob
Edited 3/11/2007 4:07 pm ET by BobKovacs
Replies
In my experience the reason to run the flooring perpendicular to the previous layer is because this layer may have small ridges in it(often imperceptible to the naked eye) and the new flooring will accentuate this and will not lay flat. If the flooring that you are covering is perfectly flat, I don't think there is a good reason not to lay the floor in the same direction. If it is not flat, either run the new flooring perpendicular where it can easily span the ridges or and a layer of underlayment to smooth it out.
What about running it at an angle or in a pattern like a herringbone or something?