Most flooring installers will lay the flooring parallel to the long length of the room to avoid the ladder affect.
Laying solid oak flooring on joists.
However if you have 3 4 plywood or osb you can change the direction.
First renail the existing plywood subfloor so that the old nails are tight and add new nails to achieve a maximum nail spacing of 6 inches.
It is also advised that long length boards 6ft or 1 83m are used.
Probably the most traditional method of fitting is to lay oak flooring onto joists.
While it is perfectly feasible to fit solid wood flooring or engineered flooring directly to joists in certain instances it may be a good idea to consider laying a plywood or chipboard sub floor first as an alternative.
Cover the floor with an acceptable moisture inhibitor such as 15 to 30 lb.
Nowadays oak flooring is laid in a number of situations and environments.
Either solid wood flooring or engineered wood flooring can be laid directly onto joists if the planks are at least 18mm thick.
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.
For strength run the strip flooring perpendicular to the joists.
We recommend measuring and snapping a line or using a string to guide installation of the first row.
Asphalt saturated felt or silicone vapor shield.
Mark the walls to show the location of the floor joists.
Here are just a few of the reasons why.
If the subfloor is stiff enough there is no reason why solid nail down strip flooring can t be run parallel to the joists.