Instalation direction?

[Balaclava]

Hi everyone. I plan to install about 1000 sq ft of pre-finished 3/4 x 2 1/4 inch red oak on my second floor. I will be installing it in the hallway and 4 bedrooms. The joist in the hallway and one bedroom run side to side. In two of the bedroom the joist run front to back. The problem I have is that the joist in the 4th bedroom run side to side for about half the room and front to back for the other half. Which direction should I run the hardwood in the 4th room? It is always recommended to install it perpendicular to the joist. I do not want to run half the room in one direction and the other half in the other direction. The sub-floor is 3/4 inch OSB and I do not want to install plywood on top of it. I want the same flat surface over the entire 2nd floor without any height increases in any of the rooms. Is it really that important to run the wood perpendicular to the joists? Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[havasu]

are you referring to a glue down or nail down floor? Honestly, I would just run it all in the same direction, regardless of which way the joists are running.

 

[Ken]

Manufacturers have really changed their tune with which direction to run the flooring. There are so many different types/sizes of fasteners and nailers that you really just need to make sure youre using the right gun. The perfect example of not hitting the joists is doing an installation on a diagonal. With the recommended nailing pattern youre lucky if you hit a joist more than once on a single plank. With a prefinished 2 1/4" oak make sure youre using the bostitch m3 stapler and youll be fine going in any direction.

 

[Ernesto]

Just re-sheath the whole thing and be done with it.

 

[Balaclava]

Thanks for everyone’s response, but I am still confused. Every ware I read says that if installed over OSB in the same direction as the joist you may end up with sagging between joist and a greater possibility of squeaks. Has anyone done this? What is it like a few years later? I have my own floor stapler that I plan to use but it is not a Bostitch m3 as Ken suggested. Re-sheathing the whole thing is out of the question. That would cause more problems then it is worth. Installing the hardwood at an angle sounds like a possibility but I’m not really fond of the look. I would prefer the lengths to run the long direction of each room and hallway. That means the Hallway and one bedroom would run front to back and the other three rooms would run side to side. What do you guys think?

 

[eric248]

It's not uncommon the one room changes direction, when dealing with upstairs, some even change in the hallway because of the stairway layout. We can talk about live loads, dead loads and all that other crap, but if that what you want do it. My exp. I just install hardwood flooring and have been doing for 19 years, unless your on 1/2 ply 24" on center go with it.

 

[FloorMaven]

What you're dealing with is called analysis paralysis. Fasteners aren't supposed to protrude through the subfloor so hitting a joist shouldn't be at issue. If you're 16" OC and its not sagging now there's no reason to believe it will later.