Which direction you lay your solid hardwood floors can have just as much to do with the shape of your room or the direction of your subfloor joists. Since we’re talking about installing solid hardwood flooring, you are going to need a wooden subfloor to support the wood boards, so we’re going to assume, for the sake of argument, that you have the right subfloor for the hardwood floors you want.
Solid wood flooring should be laid perpendicular to subfloor joists
For maximum support, and to avoid your floors sagging and separating creating unsightly gaps and distorted floors, you need to run the floor perpendicular to the subfloor joists. Typically, in more modern homes, the subfloor will also be installed so that when you lay your floors, they will be running front to back in any room, starting from the main point of entrance. As you enter a room, you should be walking with the floor boards, not across them. Typically, this would be your front door, but if you have an open space and the most commonly used entryway is a side door or even the back door, then you would start your installation from there.
No, you may have an odd shaped room where laying the boards parallel to the joist system will flow better with the shape of the room. If you have a rectangular room or a shallow room and the entryway is on the long side of the rectangle, then laying the boards perpendicular can seem to cut off the room or make it look and feel smaller. If this is the case, you’ll need to talk to your flooring contractor about
Schedule a free consultation with a hardwood flooring contractor in Denver or Evergreen, CO
Fixing up the subfloor to allow for a parallel installation over the subfloor joists is a simple process, but an important one. In most cases, all you need to do is to install a layer of plywood over the joists to give your solid wood floors even support.
Your floors are only as good as your subfloor, so make sure you haven’t hired a contractor who thinks they can skip this step of strengthening your subfloor. If you’re not sure what your subfloor can handle, or what direction your floors should run to make your home feel and look it’s best, stop by one of our showrooms or schedule a free consultation.
