Fixing Plywood Flooring To Joists

Because the floor joist frame supports the entire house an engineer must determine the configuration of the header lumber dimensions and the extent of support necessary to safely fix the problem.

Fixing plywood flooring to joists.

To smooth out the plywood with the existing subfloor run the edger over the areas. A plywood subfloor often squeaks when it separates from the joists but it doesn t have to make any noise at all to give you a. When inflexible flooring is installed over a substrate that dips or heaves various things. Place the plywood over the joists and nail it down.

Hold the squeak ender s steel mounting plate against the joist then screw it to the plywood subfloor. To remedy this situation cut a piece of joist material 2 8 2 10 or 2 12 depending on the circumstances to fit crosswise between the two joists under the soft flooring. The subfloor the structural support below the top floor that you walk on will sometimes shrink over time as the wood dries out changing the shape slightly and resulting in high pitched irritating squeaks. The process of fixing both an out of level and an out of plane floor is simply known as leveling a floor.

The short edges of the plywood must be centered over joists. For this fix to work well the upper edges of the joists must be solidly fastened to the subfloor above. Also make sure the joints between sheets in the underlayment are offset staggered from the joints in the original subflooring by about 1 2 sheet. Plywood firmly fastened to the undersides of joists helps prevent this side to side bending and stiffens the floor.

Use a chalk line to check the evenness of the new floor then nail the plywood onto the floor. Tap a wood shim into the gap above the floor joist after smearing the shim with carpenter s glue. Most squeaks are the result of the plywood subfloor rubbing against the floor joists. Squeak ender is a piece of hardware that effectively quiets those annoying squeaks by placing a steel mounting plate against the joist and screwing it to the plywood subfloor.

Tighten the nut with a wrench until the subfloor is pulled down snug against the floor joist. Plan the layout of the plywood sheets so the long dimension of the plywood runs perpendicular to the floor joists. Step 5 use an edger.