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Putting in car decking - uneven floor joists

Started by John P., November 14, 2021, 05:49:05 PM

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sumday

Now why do you gotta bring grits into it? What's not to love about em?

Tom King

Squeaks are often boards rubbing on nails.  It might be worth running some screws down in your subfloor boards, to see if it makes a difference.

Don P

Good point, you got everything to gain by just running up the nail lines with screws ahead of the finish floor.

firefighter ontheside

The noise my floor makes is totally from the flex of the t&g boards rubbing together.  I'm not concerned about trying to stop it at this point.  I've had it for over 20 years and it wouldn't be home without some noisy floor boards.
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John P.

I'm not terribly concerned about squeaking myself - this is a functional space, not a home. However, if there's something I can do while installing to prevent/reduce squeaks... I'll try it if reasonable.

John P.

I read this on another website:

Quotesummer is a bad time to lay this stuff if you care about gaps appearing during the winter. However--if you lay 2x6 decking nice and tight in winter when it's bone dry, you must leave expansion gaps on both sides of the room or the next summer the flooring will shove the walls apart or buckle or both. Figure 3/64" per plank expansion in a temperate region that sees cold dry winters and hot humid summers.
When I did my roof 2x6, it was about this time but the weather was perfect out (I was wearing t-shirts in November), butted everything tight and haven't any apparent ceiling problems. How much should I worry?

Temp/humidity in the barn is about 50F/50% at the moment, but I can dehumidify it down to 40% as long as the temperature stays warm enough. Long-term goal is to keep the space around 40/45% when I have a heating source installed.

John P.

Bought a small pack of GRK RSS #10's, 2-1/2". Tried screwing a scrap piece of board down - it countersunk a bit, not enough, and then proceeded to strip out of the wood joist. I tried a R4, 3-1/8"... that one worked quite well. Not sure if it's the length or the way the R4 has those cutting teeth under the head. Seeing as how I have a leftover box of the R4's, I think I'll just use those. The main reason I don't care for the R4 is that to get the boards tight without backing out, I often have to countersink into the wood quite deep. I figured the RSS would let me pull them tight with minimal countersinking.

Don P

Usually I can run in, see the board rise as the screw bites into the main member, back out a little, then run the screw home. correctly prebore and countersink, another drill to pick up. McFeely's at one time had screws that were unthreaded and reduced shank for the 1-1/2" under the head. That meant the threads were in the main member and the side member was free to float, pretty much the same as preboring.

Winter is the preferred time to install acclimated flooring or paneling. Although in theory you should allow an expansion gap the only time I've seen buckling is when liquid water has gotten in and under the floor. If doing a floor in the summer try to get it in as dry as possible and do not acclimate it, Bring it in and install it or it will gap the next winter if acclimated to humid summer conditions.

John P.

Quote from: Don P on November 18, 2021, 05:01:23 PM
Usually I can run in, see the board rise as the screw bites into the main member, back out a little, then run the screw home. correctly prebore and countersink, another drill to pick up. McFeely's at one time had screws that were unthreaded and reduced shank for the 1-1/2" under the head. That meant the threads were in the main member and the side member was free to float, pretty much the same as preboring.

Winter is the preferred time to install acclimated flooring or paneling. Although in theory you should allow an expansion gap the only time I've seen buckling is when liquid water has gotten in and under the floor. If doing a floor in the summer try to get it in as dry as possible and do not acclimate it, Bring it in and install it or it will gap the next winter if acclimated to humid summer conditions.
Perfect! Then I'm all set. That's the technique I'll use, in/out/in. At the speed these are being installed, they'll be acclimated all right. I probably won't get to fastening them until next week, doing a stain test with some aged linseed oil+thinner. Planning on shaving the joist this weekend, testing the finish, and ordering two gallons if it works out.

John P.

I shaved the joist - took about 1/8" off - might take a little bit more when I go to screw the boards down.

Also cut 3 additional rows of boards, and a bit more sanding. Also tested out the linseed oil with some scrap. It seems unnecessary, but it feels like the right thing to do.

John P.

I got 10 feet installed! Pretty significant for me, as I've had a lot of issues to deal with, and my normal pace for this stuff tends to be slow:



Are there squeaks? Yeah. Does it bug me? Not really - this will be a functional space, with just one user (me) so I don't anticipate a lot of nuisance noise.

kantuckid

In my home it's all hand nailed 2x6 roof decking and one loft floor on log joists-but in my current project roof and one loft I might use screws and cordless tools as easier on a remote build. My solid subfloors squeak but non-issue unless you sleep in the basement.
Rustic buildings can be OK staying sort of rustic?  ;D
I'm nearing the end of making my own 2x6 decking- all before this project was either- had it milled from my own rough EWP lumber or make it myself from Western white pine or spruce KD box store lumber. The homemade stuff is serious work at my age-so I now enjoy 3 days a week of shoulder PT then come home and abuse myself some more. Love it too. 
I use a Jorgenson steel I-beam clamp with an acme screw crank-not the squeeze clamp I see in above pic. to tame the warps.  
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

John P.

Good catch on the clamps - I don't yet have any of those steel clamps - the quick clamps leave much to be desired. However, the stock I'm working with is fairly straight and flat. I bought KD that was then milled, so far had to "reject" one board as it was 1/8" narrow on one end. I'll probably use the good half for one of my half-boards.

The screws - best choice I made. They aren't "pretty" from the top but are easy to drive, can be taken out, and they snug the board down tightly.

kantuckid

Tip of the day on squeeze bar clamps-they are far from all being equal!
 I tried HF and they let off overnight and got returned to store as junk.
 Bessey is great as is Wolfcraft and some Dewalt and Irwin, buy the HD or none. The tiny micro clamps are not for woodworkers-maybe a model airplane as extremely weak.
 With a perfectly true glue joint most clamps suffice but I like acme threads with I-beam bars, hands down. 
 My first clamp I grab is the UK built Record clamp sets that slide on oak that you drill for adjustment-they are light and strong enough for any good joint to clamp up. Faults are pricey import and steel pins fall out if you tip em the wrong way. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

John P.

Thanks for the clamp tips! I've only bought Irwin as I thought they were made decently and they do hold overnight (and then some) - but when it comes to putting tons of pressure they can slip. One day I will have some Bessy-style clamps for glue ups, but priorities first :P

Need to design some stairs and figure out where to put them:



I'd prefer location A, but the knee wall means at the top I have to duck a little bit. Feels like it would get old quickly? 

These two stair "designs" are not to scale - I plan to make an alternating stair-tread stair ("Jefferson stair") to reduce the area it takes up.

Don P

What is a screw? An inclined plane in a hard left. Opposed wedges and a pusher stick trimmed down every row can do anything a clamp can do. 

I usually make the wedges out of a scrap of the flooring by cutting a long diagonal across a scrap around a foot long. Trim off the tongue on the wedges and use the groove to engage the tongue on the flooring.

I've also just screwed a 2x in front of me on big areas and used opposed wedges between that 2x and the work.

In other words my clamps are usually at home or somewhere else when I need them. I remember what an older carpenter told me, you can clamp anything with a wedge.

kantuckid

The only Bessey's I have are squeeze clamps, not any of the others. Wolfcraft's seem to be a hard item to find-mine came off ebay and German. I really like them in 24", 36" & 48" for frame glue-ups. On roof decking I use cut-off T&G pieces and pull from blocks fastened down. I have a few odd Jorgenson squeeze/spreader clamps but that company seems to be kaput somehow-they are also VG clamps. There are several Asian off-brands on Amazon I'd avoid-read the reviews as they'll back off. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

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