Took the plunge, made the cut in the hardwood floor for the expansion of our level hearth - and it looks great! Used a 7 1/4" round saw blade with 60 teeth and it made a really clean cut with no need for scoring the floor beforehand. But I'm noticing that when my husband pries up the boards, the underlying plywood is flexing where the prybar is grounded. Is that normal for subfloor? Wondering if I should pop a nail in there and see how far it protrudes on the other side to see if we have decking + subfloor....oh, yeah, just went and did that, and we're lucky if we've got a full 3/4" decking w/o subfloor (or would it be the other way around).
So, the question now is, do we need to put another layer of plywood under the 1/2" micore and 1/2" cement board and 1/4" tile? We WILL be walking on this, though it's not a high traffic part of the room except for the 40 pound dogs. It flexes under the force of the prybar's job, MAYBE a little under my weight (more than the hardwood floor does, I'd say, but pretty subtle even with bouncing up and down).
It'll be tough to edge this out if we do. Already the micore put us 1/8" above the hardwood floor, 3/4" plywood would put the tiles an inch above the floor - too high for beveled wood trim? Can we add support underneath by cutting 2x8's and nailing between the joists? If so, how close would they need to be to each other?
So, the question now is, do we need to put another layer of plywood under the 1/2" micore and 1/2" cement board and 1/4" tile? We WILL be walking on this, though it's not a high traffic part of the room except for the 40 pound dogs. It flexes under the force of the prybar's job, MAYBE a little under my weight (more than the hardwood floor does, I'd say, but pretty subtle even with bouncing up and down).
It'll be tough to edge this out if we do. Already the micore put us 1/8" above the hardwood floor, 3/4" plywood would put the tiles an inch above the floor - too high for beveled wood trim? Can we add support underneath by cutting 2x8's and nailing between the joists? If so, how close would they need to be to each other?