this is the situation so far:
*old concrete slab on grade
*6 mill plastic
*1×2 sleepers 16″OC with 1″blue board between each sleeper
*1 inchish tongue and groove DryPly
*all screwed on a 12″x12″ pattern to the slab
The flooring to be laid is solid cherry tongue and groove
with board widths mixed from 4+1/2″ to 7+1/2″
and these are the questions:
1) Asphalt paper or rosin paper?
2) Staples or cleats?
Edited 10/15/2009 11:21 am ET by therealpeter
Replies
I'd use tar paper. I think it does a better job keeping the moisture away from the wood than rosin does.
And I've always used cleats, but that's more because I can get the nailer that uses them easily. I don't see a lot of staples around here, but they should hold just fine too.
thanks Shep
I'm with Shep.
Tar paper & cleats - not too many staplers around here either.
Jim
make that a third for Shep...
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I'd use tarpper and cleats, but some of this puzzles me.
If you have 1x2 sleepers, they are 3/4" high. how did you fit 1" foam in between them?
If the sleepers are 16" OC, how did you fasten everything down at 12" OC?
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I'd use staples, but I have a flooring stapler. Cleats work fine, too. Or cut nails, if you can find 'em.
As for tarpaper or rosin paper, you've already got a sheet of poly, with blueboard on top of that, and dry-ply (with its plastic base) over that. How many different kinds of water/moisture barrier do you really need under this cherry?
I also have the same questions as Piffin about the sleepers. 1x2 sleepers don't do it for me; they follow the humps and dips of the slab too easily, and your Dry Ply isn't going to lie flat. Minimum sleeper size is usually 2x3, on the flat, shimmed over the hollows. If the slab isn't level, you can shoot a grid using a laser level or transit, then set the 2x3 sleepers on edge after having ripped each one to the appropriate slope for where it will be set.
PL Premium and Tap Cons to hold down the sleepers. PL 300 for the XPS. Canned one-part LE foam to seal the insulation to the sleepers.
Dinosaur
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Edited 10/15/2009 6:21 pm ET by Dinosaur
Not sure if you have read the recent threads (stories of woe) here about cupped HW floors.
You said: >> The flooring to be laid is solid cherry tongue and groove
with board widths mixed from 4+1/2" to 7+1/2" <<
Those are some pretty wide boards. The flooring company I use won't warranty anything over 4". I'll bet they have learned this the hard way.... What I'm getting at is I think you need to read the warranty info (if any) from the flooring manufacturer very carefully and also be sure that the expectation of your customer is properly set. IE - this floor may not be as smooth as glass = especially in the long run.... Also, I'd definitely advise using a moisture meter on the subfloor before even thinking about installing any finished flooring.
The base is already installed except for the hardwood?
Being slab-on-grade is better than below-grade, but I would have bedded the poly to the slab with asphalt mastic.
Too late though.
As to cleats or staples, I think it's an either/or. I transitioned to coated staples a while ago, initially for engineered flooring and bamboo. Cleats were more likely to split some of those engineered tongues or the more brittle materials like bamboo. Then I started using staples for solid species, too. For T&G flooring all I've used is staples, maybe for the last 10 years. So 1/2" crown, 2" coated staples would be fine.
Asphalt or rosin; as a simple slip sheet I'd use rosin. If you want a little more vapor retention/absorption capability, use felt.