Hardwood Floors February/March 2019

leave some squeaks in the hallway that led to their rooms, in hopes of hearing them if they ever tried to sneak out. My response was, “We can try.” It worked, and he was ecstatic. Only now that I have two daughters of my own can I truly appreciate the service we were able to provide. LENNY HALL A client had an older crawlspace house with the original diagonal 1x 6 subfloors, plus several previous additions both in T&G plywood subfloors over the crawlspace and in poured concrete, and the client was adding another one. It appeared that each addition was done without the rest of the house in mind. Having various surface elevations and wanting no transitions for the new wood floor throughout, we used a laser survey grid to get elevations. We used the same idea as sleepers, but in the form of end-grain 2x4 slices that were cut ahead of time from 1/8" to 1-1/2", bagged by thickness and placed on the slab areas, plywood deck areas, and the diagonal subfloor areas according to the laser survey in an 8"x 8" grid. The end-grain blocks became the support for the double plywood layer system to which the new wood floor was nailed. Moisture barrier materials were laid over the end-grain blocks under the plywood. SCOTT TAYLOR I was asked to determine why a solid wood floor was cupping in one area and not the whole floor. The general contractor hired several subcontractors to remodel a home in a suburb of a large city. The only way to determine the reason for the elevated moisture content just in that area was to remove the flooring. During the interview process with the installing contractor, I was told that there was a dip in the subfloor, so he used a cementitious-based leveler to create a flat substrate. This flat substrate was the only way he would install the wood floor. After further investigation and removal of the flooring, it was discovered that the leveler should not have been used because there was no way to achieve the manufacturer's nailing schedule (leveler would break apart if nailed into). The dry wood flooring ended up absorbing the moisture found in the leveler, resulting in the cupped floor. g

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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