How to Prep Subfloor for Hardwood

Wood floors are as beautiful as they are durable and installing it yourself can save money , but you need to prep your subfloor or your new flooring could have problems .

We'll show you the steps to prep a plywood subfloor .

First , you need to know how much flooring and materials you'll need , measure the room length times width to calculate the square footage add about 10% for mistakes or warped boards .

Next , remove the baseboards , carpet and tax strips .

If you have vinyl , you can install certain flooring right over it .

No matter what type of flooring you install , your subfloor has to be clean , dry level and structurally sound .

For glue down applications .

You need to remove any wax , paint adhesives or oils with a sander for floating and nail down floors .

You just need to clean up dust and debris .

What about odors from pet stains ?

Well , the best approach is to use a stain remover , then cover it with a primer sealer .

But keep in mind some glue down adhesives won't adhere to the sealer .

So check the instructions after you've cleaned your floor , check the moisture level .

A simple moisture meter will work .

Just press the pins into your subfloor and check the reading .

Your flooring manufacturer's instructions will list acceptable readings .

If your moisture levels are too high .

Call a pro for help .

Oh , when working on plywood over concrete , check the levels of both floors .

After the moisture tests check that the floor is level .

It shouldn't vary more than 3/16 inch every 10 ft , sand any high spots and fix low spots according to your floor type , typically on glued down and floating floors , you can apply leveling compound for nail down floors .

You can repair by reinforcing the joists or building up the low spots with £15 belts or mps .

Your subfloor also needs to be strong and structurally sound , fix loose or creaky boards with wood or decking screws .

Of course , any major damage will need to be repaired too .

One more note for subfloor repairs .

Flooring typically looks best running along the longest wall in the room , but it should be perpendicular to the floor joists .

If it won't be , you can add another plywood layer to strengthen the floor .

Next , prep the doorways stack a piece of flooring on the underlayment and cut door casings about 1/16 inch above with the jam saw for doors , remove them and cut about 1/8 inch above .

When your subfloor is in good shape , you can put down the underlayment .

The type depends on your flooring installation for nailing solid hardwood or stapling engineered go with felt paper or grade D craft paper , roll it out , leaving the underlayment long at the ends , you'll trim it after you've installed the floor overlap .

The seams about six inches and staple down for floating engineered locking or laminate .

Use a two in one or three in one .

Typically , they have self adhesive scenes to join the pieces together for glue down floors .

The moisture barrier is usually part of the adhesive .

Some products even have the underlayment pre attached , but you might still need a moisture barrier .

One other thing , some engineered locking and laminate floors can go right over vinyl as long as it's not two layers thick .

Next step is to mark a starting line square to the room walls , however many walls are bowed or out of square .

So here's what you do , mark the center of each wall and snap lines between then measure from the center to the starting wall , subtract the expansion gap and mark this distance at the ends , snap a line between to get a straight line against the wall .

Now your subfloor is prepped for more great ideas and how to go to lowe's dot com slash how to or click .

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