Subfloor
user-1015969
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi Everyone,
I’m building a home in zone 4. My foundation is in and my ijoist and subfloor(advantech glued and screwed) are installed. My problem is that I cannot continue framing until spring of next year. Im worried about the subfloor and ijoist. I covered the entire floor with a brand new tarp but it leaks. I also put poly down in the crawl to keep ground moisture down. Im thinking of removing the tarp and painting the subfloor and sealing the joints. So number one do you think this will work? Two will this some how cause a vapor barrier problem later down the road? Thank you.
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It's best to go ahead and get it dried in. That said I built my house and during the winter and it wasn't until spring that it was fully dried in, and the advantech and I Joist held up fine. However I was also at the job site everyday it rained and got the bulk of the water off the floor to allow for faster drying, and I ran heaters to speed the process.
If the crawl is insulated and conditioned your plan won't cause any problems. If it is not insulated and conditioned then I still doubt it will cause problems, if you use a vapor permeable paint.
Will it work? Maybe. The places I found where the advantech was able to absorb water were it's edges and at holes. These are places where the paint is not likely to seal well.
I think I would go with something like plastic or house wrap, nailed with plastic cap roofing nails. and where the roofing nails go through sealed with a butyl tape so the nails go through the tape. Note the butyl tape needs to stick well to the plastic or house wrap. Also if you go with house wrap use one in which the vapor permeance is part of the base material properties, not one in which holes are punched in later. Tyvek Commercial wrap is a good one. The house wrap and plastic also need to be taped at the seams of course. Also pay attention to the corners, as those could easily wear through the covering.
Steve,
Your planning isn't very good. Letting your subfloor go through a winter is risky. Of course, Advantech is better than ordinary OSB -- but still...
The people I know who ended up in your position purchased a heavy-duty pond liner to protect the subfloor. That type of pond liner isn't cheap. Ideally, it will be installed on a sunny, dry day.
Ordinary tarps or 6-mil poly won't work.
Offered in the spirit of brainstorming, not solid advice: If I wanted to protect a sub-floor in that scenario, I'd think in terms of making a make-shift low-slope roof deck a foot or so above the floor and covering that with a tarp. I'd use cheap 1/2" OSB as decking, and assume it would get water damaged where it's in contact with the wet tarp, so it would go in a dumpster afterwards. But I've never done that, and it might be more expensive than Martin's pond-liner suggestion.
Steve. You might consider non-perforated Kleenwrap. You can leave it in place until you're ready to install your flooring.