Subfloor
material and problems
The
material placed on top of the floor joists may be plywood, Oriented Strand Board (OSB) or
particle board. In any case the joists have glue spread on them and then the 4' x 8'
panels of subflooring are nailed in place. At the time the subfloor goes down the
bottom of the home has been assembled and is resting on its frame and wheels, but has
nothing to force it to be square or straight. Since the floor panels are known to be
square the house itself is squared up by forcing the joists and side edges to line up with
the floor panels. This involves sledge hammers and come-along's and can make for
some ugly edges. However, if all else fails and there is still some overhang, a
router will fix that :). The floor panels are nailed to the joists and edges with
powerful air guns that will drive 4" or 6" nails at a rate of one or more per
second. Needless to say, not all nails get driven straight or into the
joists. In addition, the depth to which the nail is driven depends on the setting of
the air gun. To much power and the nail is driven well below the surface, to little
power and the head sticks up. This can make for interesting problems for the carpet
and vinyl crews
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