I have always installed wood flooring perpendicular to the floor joists. I guess I don’t understand why the layout doesn’t seem correct. What are the room dimensions, or why don’t you think this layout seems normal? You can block ever 4 ft and this does add alot of structural integrity to the josts by creating a ladder effect.
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Wiley,
I haven't had the pleasure of reading the article you indicate, but, IMHO :
If your existing subfloor is installed perpendicular to your floor joists, and you say your subfloor is 3/4 inch thick, I honestly don't think you have any worries. My own home has hardwood flooring throughout ( it is approx. 70 years old.) and it is laid parallel to the floor joists. It is still today in very good condition. My existing subfloor is 3/4 yellow pine 1X6 boards that were nailed diagonally to the joists. Your plywood nailed perpendicular should be as strong or possibly stronger; especially if the floor was glued and screwed in place. ( which mine was not...only nailed)
I would bet there have been hundreds of thousands of hardwood floors laid in this (parallel) manner. The main thing is to have a sound, solid subfloor that seems stiff enough...3/4 should be plenty stiff enough; especially if your joists are 16 inch OC.
No worries mate!
Now if your subfloor was nailed parallel to the floor joists....then you've got worries
Davo
I would almost bet my life that your framer installed the subfloor in perpendicular fashion...that's "Flooring 101" in basic carpentry. If by chance you have a basement with an unfinished ceiling, just walk downstairs and look up at it...even plywood has a wood grain pattern; which would be easy to discern. If subfloor happens to be OSB, just look for the 8 ft long seams ( as opposed to the 4ft wide seams...which should be hidden overtop the joists anyway). The seams should be running across the joists...now there you have it... no need to trust to memory anymore.
Davo
Block the joists. Unless the spiders/muck/darkeness sends you to the surface, then, add ply #### necc.
DAVo is right. Unless the 3/4"subfloor is instaled wrong, you can run the strip floor either way. Sure - adding bloicking improves things but it is now way a necessity. You are building new, with glued down subfloor. The folks at TOH are always in context of unknown qualities and older work where it may be wiser to give that advice as a generic rule of thumb.
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