How to Install Tongue & Groove Plywood
- 1). Measure the area to determine the center line of the room. Mark the center point using your chalk line. Place the first plywood panel with the good side up and the long edge running at right angles to the joists. Align the first board along the middle of the center joist and draw a line along the joist using your straightedge and pencil. Mark the center points of the joists at the exterior edges of the plywood. Remove the plywood panel.
- 2). Apply construction adhesive with your caulking gun along the center of the joists that will be underneath the plywood sheet. Place the plywood panel along the center line with the good side up and the long edge running at right angles to the joists.
- 3). Fit the Phillips bit into your variable speed drill. Tighten the bit. Drive the deck screws six inches apart into the center of the joists around the perimeter.
Drive the deck screws twelve inches apart along the centers of the joists that are now beneath the panel. - 4). Place the next board along the first with the good side up and the long edge running at right angles to the floor joists. Ensure that the tongue edge of the sheet will slip into the grooved edge of the first one. Mark the outer edges with your pencil and straightedge. Apply construction adhesive along the joists as in Step 2.
- 5). Align your tongue-and-groove edges and tap them together lightly using your rubber sledge hammer. Allow an expansion joint of four-one-hundredths of an inch between the panels. Screw the panel along the joists as in Step 3.
- 6). Continue installing the plywood until it is flush with the edges of your perimeter joists. Cut the panels as necessary to eliminate overhang.