Must Laminate Flooring Be Installed Perpendicular To Joists

Another consideration is floor joist direction.

Must laminate flooring be installed perpendicular to joists.

If your laminate flooring is parallel to the joists it will simply follow the dips and peaks of the subfloor. Disregard all the yokels talking about aesthetics or what you think looks best. The nofma specifically states this in their instalaltion guidelines for nail down hardwood flooring as does almost every hardwood manufacturer. What you have with 5 8 is not near adequate or stable enough to support you floor and everything else you will put on it.

Often the subfloor can be slightly unlevel due to high points running along the joists and low points halfway between the joists. If raising the floor height is not a problem you can install a layer of 1 2 inch plywood over the existing 3 4 inch plywood. Hardwood flooring is to be run perpendicular to the joists for structural integrity of the flooring system to prevent rolling or waviness between the joists over time. I agree that if you have less than 3 4 of you should definitely run the flooring perpendicular to the joists or at a 45 degree angle.

When you lay a floor in a second story the boards must not travel in the same direction as the joist. This provides added strength to the floor and helps cut down on bowing in the laminate. However if you have 3 4 plywood or osb you can change the direction. Floor boards even laminate ones shrink and grow as the seasons change.

Just make sure the subfloor is flat and the proper thickness e g. Most flooring installers will lay the flooring parallel to the long length of the room to avoid the ladder affect. I see that the only suggestion that the manufacturer gives regarding direction is that it is parallel to incoming light. The joist might be forced away by the pressure of the single board and in addition the support will not be given to all boards equally.

Most directions recommend running laminate flooring perpendicular to floor joists. That said some times it s not possible to do this. If you can feel some deflection you have two options. If for some reason room layout this is undesirable i would screw another 3 4 layer over top.

I see everyone recommending you should install hardwood perpendicular to joists but i wonder if that rule relates to laminate as well. Some people say laying the laminate perpendicular to the joist will provide some structural support and help prevent future squeaks. The other option assuming you have access to the open joists from below is to install 2x4 blocking between the joists 24 inches on center. Others say that the laminate.

I m going to install 12mm laminate.