Homeowner Forum / Construction / April 2006

This post follows an earlier post on running hardwood parallel to the
joists.  I've decided to run the 3/4" hardwood perpendicular to the
joists to avoid possible issues.  My other problem is that I have 3/4"
OSB as a subfloor which I am hearing isn't ideal for nailing hardwood
to.  It's in good condition and I'm wondering if glueing and screwing a
1/4" ply down to the OSB would make a better subfloor to nail into
(better nail gripping).  Is it worth the extra $$ and work to do this?

Also, from what I can see in the bundles of hardwood, the lengths of
the boards are substantial, 18" to 7' with a high percentage of the
boards being more than 3 feet long.  Does it make sense to mark all the
joists on the roofing paper to make sure I hit each joist with each row
of flooring ensuring that at least 1 nail from each board will be sunk
in a joist.

Last thought: is there anything that can be done (easily) from the
underside to help with nail gripping (assuming that the nail will
penetrate far enough) since I have easy acces from the underside?

Thanks