what options are there besides rosin paper to lay underneath a hardwood floor?
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Some people prefer tar paper. I like the resin paper better. It doesn't make as much of a mess as time goes on, cleaner to work with.
Another option is to use nothing. I've heard from more than one hardwood flooring guy that the primary reason for laying paper is to slow moisture transmission from below, not to "guard against sqeaks" as is commonly assumed. If you are installing above conditioned space, the paper might be a waste of time.
Mike
gotta disagree with you on that one. Rosin paper will do nothing to slow moisture passage but will definitely function as a slip sheet to temper squeaks. I have torn up many a wood floor where you could observe the wear at high points in an old board subfloor.
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I know we've had this discussion before, and mostly I'm just passing on what I've heard from experienced floor guys. But even if there are wear patterns, the floorboards aren't sliding back and forth which is what would produce squeaks, right?
Boards bouncing up and down won't squeak, it would be more like hands clapping. I've never understood where the squeak that rosin paper will prevent is supposed to come from.
Mike
The diagonal subfloor gives under weight, and then uplifts again when weigh removes. The amt is tiny, but enough to wear the paper, and will cause sqeaks when it is not there, not always, but often enough to annoy the HO. it is when tearing himes apart to redo that I learn most of what I know - what has worked and what has failed over the last hundred years or so.There are three cuases of sqeaks in floors. my own opinion is that most of them are from wood sliding on a nail not securely hooked up, but there are plenty from wood/wood. I can only imagine that a flooring guy who wants to skip such a siomple step is only trying to save himself some time - at the expensive of my customer's satisfaction. Can you think of anything more annoying in a house than a floor sqeak? Other tan maybe a roof leak above your pillow? He would not be allowed to cheap out like that on my jobs. But then, we do all out own wood flooring.
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The floor guys, one in Boston and one in Maine, that told me that rosin paper wasn't really necessary still used it, because that's what the contractors and homeowners and everyone else expected. When I've done my own wood flooring I've used either rosin or tar paper, or glued it down with PL Premium. I just never was convinced that the paper was preventing squeaks. Most sqeaks I've discovered have been from subfloors riding on their nails. But, as with many things in building, it's cheap insurance. If that paper prevents one squeak in a house it's paid for itself.
Mike
Why not use rosin paper?
I lay a few wood floors from time to time and always use what locally we call "triple 30:"
it's essentially just a thin layer of asphaltic material sandwiched between 2 layers of Kraft paper....comes in 500 sq. ft. rolls, 37" wide, lays out very smooth and clean and the lapped edges lay flat, unlike tarpaper, which can be a pain. It's also easy to keep the floor clean ahead of yourself (I usually have a foxtail broom with me to keep the paper clean).
Most building supplies should carry it. I also use the leftovers for temp covers for touch up painting, etc.
I was once provided a similar product, I think, except that it seemed made rfor a large or commercial setting. The roll was something like nine feet wide and there was an asphaltic center ply with a kraft on one side and something else ( long timne ago memory defecit) on the other. It had a two inch lap that was only the kraft, so when you laped the edges, the thickness remained dead level true across, not making the sort of hump that say a doubled edge of 30# felt would make.
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I just finished a prefinished 3/4" hardwood floor installation. The instructions called for 15# tar paper under the floor.
You cannot substitute 30# paper. It is too thick and the overlap can be felt in the finished floor...not always, but at least some times!
I did a whole room with the 30# without trouble, but in the next room, with a new roll, the first overlap didn't work. Too thick. Had to go get 15#.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
When I have a reason to use 30#, I just don't lap it. I normally would prefer a double ply of 15# to using thirty, but there are times when thirty seems like it will be better like on a rough board subfloor. My first choice is resin paper, then 15# when there may be moisture migration problems, and thirty when the subfloor is in roughr condition
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