Hardwoods on main floor. Can I put similar LVT on 2nd or carpet best?
Anna MB
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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Can 3/4' Oak Hardwood floor be put over OSB?
Comments (52)In regards to using OSB, I have the following comment: I am a structural engineer in California, and I have specified OSB as a subfloor, roof sheathing & shear wall sheathing for hundreds of homes. As far as an underlayment for hardwood floors, there appears to be two issues. 1) is the floor structurally sound for hardwood, and 2) whether attaching the hardwood directly to OSB will result in nail slippage many years down the road. I have comments on both issues. As far as the floor being structurally sound, I have seen a few posts on this issue & I am not one to automatically say that hardwood should be placed perpendicular to the floor joists... But it would definitely be stronger and may help in easily repairing the hardwood attachment if the nails should slip many years down the road. I myself have placed the hardwood parallel to the floor joist because my subfloor is very stiff. To get a stiff floor, this is my recommendations: joist spacing should not exceed 16"o.c.; floor joist span should be designed conservatively (building code minimum is not conservative), and floor sheathing should be 3/4" nominal and placed with the face grain (long dimension) perpendicular to the joist & staggered. In regards to item 2: some national floor associations have said direct OSB attachment is acceptable as long as sheathing is PS2 standard & 23/32" minimum. That is all we can go by. As I mentioned above, let's say the nails do slip after many years... If your hardwood is perpendicular to the joist, couldn't you just screw it down to the joist below as a repair? That is one benefit I can see with placing the hardwood perpendicular to the joist or adding blocking between the joist. In regards to nail slip, I posted a blog regarding using the hardwood nailers that drive the cleats at an angle in the tongue of the hardwood edge. The cleats are locked in place inside the T & G connection. How is this going to lift up? Also when you drive the nail at an angle, there is a vertical bearing component of the nail that is preventing the nails from lifting. This is versus using a brad nailer that goes vertical. The vertical nail would rely totally on friction between the OSB & nail and I can see this possibly slipping down the road....See MoreEasy to rip up carpet and put in hardwood floors?
Comments (32)Hi Estreya: I have five cats and one male sprayer named Elvis. I had Elvis on antidepressants for about three years. The vet changed from Amitryptilin to Paxil. They just kept upping the dosage and it never did ever stop his spraying completely. He was just doped up all the time. I finally hated seeing him look so out of it and took him off of them completely. Yes he still sprays, but not near as much as he did in the past. I have no idea why that is. He is 11, so I guess I will be dealing with this for a couple more years, but I am used to it and have become quite the cleaner because of it. LOL! I tried the Feliway spray when it first came out. I would have to spray the whole house because he would just spray somewhere new. It was a bit rediculous and costly. I am lucky that now in the house we have lived in for the last four years he has more room and is keeping his spraying to one room in the basement. We have cement floors that I sealed thank goodness, but like your problem we had the cheap base boards. We took them off cleaned the area replaced with new cheap base boards and this time I sealed around the top of the base boards with caulking. We now keep the door closed, but the odor is gone. It was just absorbed into the baseboards not the drywall because I had painted the wall all the way to the floor before we installed the first base boards. I really don't think there is any product out there that will get the urine smell out of carpet padding though. The enzyme cleaners like you are using are the only option for cutting some of the odor though. I use a Hoover steam cleaner on my carpet. It is the best investment I have made for my house and my sanity. LOL! I am with you about putting in hardwood floors and ditching the carpet. Go for it! If you do decide to put your cat on an antidepressant ask your vet to prescribe it in a compounded form. It is basically a cream form you rub on the outside of the ear and it absorbs into the skin. Pilling a cat is no fun as you probably know, so just to save you and your precious cat from a stressful situation go for the cream form. I also used a liquid form and it was a mess. If you ever have to have someone else watch your cat it is much easier for them to put cream on the cat's ear than pill it. LOL! Sorry this is so long, but I feel your pain. We love them so much we will do about anything for them. One more thing you might try is putting a second litter box in the room she seems to be spraying in the most and see if she will use it instead of spraying. My male cats sprays in his litter box also. LOL! I know that is not very appealing having a litter box in your living areas, but it might do the trick. Just make sure it is a hooded one to keep the smell in. I clean my three litter boxes twice a day and I have used the attract cat litter. It is pretty expensive for three litter boxes and I am not certain if it did any good, but it is always worth a try. Boy have I worn your eyes out yet? Sorry this is so long. :) Good luck tomorrow. Let us know how it all goes....See MoreLayout advice-Where to put a 2nd sink?
Comments (16)The Mr. prefers windows on both north and east sides, but isn't sure how that could work... We both like no uppers as much as possible. We could do a secretary desk, but I need a place for home office materials. I don't feel comfortable using the den/classroom/ guest room as guests will be staying in that space and as much as I trust our guests -I wouldn't want to leave our personal documents there. So the desk space could surely be removed. I don't like the countertop running into the cabinets in the dead corner, not a fan, it feels awkward to me. So no fridge in the corner...But I'm open to moving it, though it would only leave the desk space aND I'm not thinking that's a good option. And thank you for sharing your parents' junk! Lol! They've got nothing on us! We once had 4 junk drawers! I would greatly prefer to have an organized home office space. The thing there has been that the hubs works from home, this using the home office. But it'snot a home office, it's a work office in our home. So we need space for his work office AND our home office. The mudroom area in the house is a hallway and I'd MUCH prefer an actual ROOM where I could put the home office space, we have that on the list to discuss with the designer. So the desk is a temporary fix...a backup. Here is the broader layout. Not exactly to scale, and things are in flux still...need to straighten so of these corners out. The kitchen is off the screened porch, adjacent to the dining and living room. We have a very large dining table, that will be turned to extend for gatherings. The stairs are not at all acurate, other than start and finish points. There are stacked stairs from basement to 2nd story. Thinking on switching the sink/cook top. .. Appreciate the photo links! We both liked the kitchen with slate? floor and 5 chairs at the island. I don't care for the upper on the far side though. Is that neseccary to ballance the look? Hmmm... Really appreciate all the thoughts!...See MoreAm I Insane? Replacing hardwood with LVT planks.
Comments (25)Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. There is obviously a clear preference here to keep the hardwoods. Just to clarify a few things: - We can't ditch the dining room, though I understand the sentiment there. Formal or not, our house is small and we don't have an eat-in kitchen so the dining room is the only place we have to eat and, unlike many families, we use it every day. - I agree that the two existing wood floors in the do ing and living rooms could easily be refinished. My concern is the dust, the fumes, the pain of having to be out of the house for days while everything dries. If we did refinish, I would want to find a better, more matte coating than what is on there now. - The wood floors can remain untouched, even if I hate looking st them every day. there is no pressing need to replace or refinish them, other than wanting consistency if we do the other floors. However, not ripping out the carpet and worn kitchen flooring is not an option. Both are so old and dingy (they were here for years before I moved in) that no matter how much I clean, vacuum, or shampoo, it still feels dirty. I can't in good conscience allow a baby to crawl on that, which is the impetus for replacing the floors to begin with....See MoreAnna MB
5 years agoAnna MB
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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