AdvanTech® flooring --Beyond the Hype

[sbebuilders]

The house we're building in Woodside California calls out 3/4" CDX for the subfloor. It looks like it's going to be a wet winter here in the SF BayArea and I don't want to use 3/4" CDX in the middle of the winter for subflooring because of the voids and knots in CDX that create soft and weak areas inside CDX plywood panels or delaminate. With 6 CMST staps dadoed into the top of the ¾” T&G CDX plywood subfloor, ¼”,the ¾” CDX plywood subfloor is really prone to delaminating and or developing soft spots.


I'm trying to convince the Structural engineer that AdvanTech® flooring does not have edge swelling like the rest of the OSB subflooring products.

Dumas-Residence-Woodside

AdvanTech® flooring --Beyond the Hype
Does anyone have any proof that AdvanTech subflooring edge swelling is less than the rest of the OSB products or CDX plywood? Besides the Hype / Proof from the AdvanTech website.


Sim

[NOTE: I belive that OSB is completely inferior to CDX for wall sheathing, but not for subfloor. ]

[Dancing Dan]

Not sure what constitutes proof but it's all we use for sub-floor. It's a great product, tough as hell, no edge swelling that I've ever seen, holds up to wet weather, and it's got no formaldehyde.

Why the hell does your SE get to make decisions on product? If he gives you a spec, I'm sure Advantech would meet it.

Feel free to contact me if I can help more.

[sbebuilders]

Not sure what constitutes proof but it's all we use for sub-floor. It's a great product, tough as hell, no edge swelling that I've ever seen, holds up to wet weather, and it's got no formaldehyde.

Why the hell does your SE get to make decisions on product? If he gives you a spec, I'm sure Advantech would meet it.

Feel free to contact me if I can help more.

Dan, maybe before and after pictures of Avantech subflooring with a couple of inches of standing rain water on the subflooring? Or in your case a couple inches of snow on the subflooring.

The SE in California is like a King. No one gets to build or use anything with their approval.

Sim

[David Meiland]

Last house I built used 3/4" sturdi-floor and I bought 3 gallons of Moore long oil primer and painted the deck as soon as we finished laying it. Couple hours with a roller on a stick. Got great results that way with a frame that was rained on several times. Advantech is available here now and I might switch next time just to see what all the talk is about.

[Tim Uhler]

Sim,

We've used Advantech on a few houses and had great success with it. Right now it is about $23/sheet or so and LP Orange is about $15ish. We've had good success with the LP also. In my Picasa site, the "Bernies" job, got very very wet, but that floor did not swell at all. We ran dehumidifiers and when the inspector checked moisture content, we were nice and dry.

I know some guys in the past have posted about having a chunk of Advantech in a bucket of water and it not swelling. I meant to do that here, but just forgot.

It is a superior product to OSB or Ply. It is very dense and the floor feels more solid. It is very stiff.

If you are a first time user, you can get a rebate on it too, or maybe that is just the Zip. I'm not sure.

[Dancing Dan]

No, Tim, you're right - the rebate is for all Huber products.

I'll see what I have for pix. But I like Tim's idea - cut a chunk so the edges are exposed, throw it in a bucket, then throw it thru the SE's window to show how well it keeps its strength.

[Tim Uhler]

Here in the Pacific NorthWet almost no one uses Ply. The last time we used it, about 12 years ago, on a roof, it delaminated within 2 days and we had to remove quite a few pieces.

With OSB, we don't have problems unless it is just sitting in the rain. On the walls, not a problem.

[dmwyatt]

Here in the Pacific NorthWet almost no one uses Ply. The last time we used it, about 12 years ago, on a roof, it delaminated within 2 days and we had to remove quite a few pieces.

With OSB, we don't have problems unless it is just sitting in the rain. On the walls, not a problem.

Same here. I haven't seen a piece of plywood on a jobsite in many years.

[MarkMc]

Man, is Dick gonna be in a bad mood when he gets here.

Here where summer was well below "normal" temp and above in precip the projects I walked in Sept showed no adverse affects, nor did the better ply jobs for that matter. But I was seeing only dried in results and not always aware of total exposure duration/local condition.

[Lavrans]

Here in the Pacific NorthWet almost no one uses Ply. The last time we used it, about 12 years ago, on a roof, it delaminated within 2 days and we had to remove quite a few pieces.

With OSB, we don't have problems unless it is just sitting in the rain. On the walls, not a problem.

That's funny- I've only used OSB on one small addition, and none of the houses I've been involved in building on have used OSB either. Especially on roofs- I've got some ply that's been sitting uncovered on a little shed out back for 3 years now without delaminating. There is a piece of OSB that I had on the back, but it fell apart a year ago even though it was a wall section.

Perhaps you got some of that 4 ply? ;-)

[Allan Edwards]

I don't use OSB but I did go kicking and screaming when my lumber yard convinced me to try AdvanTech. I learned it is a good product and can be rained on several times without problems.

I've never used anything less than 1-1/8" subfloor, it is pretty standard here on custom homes.

[olllee]

I have been using advanTech for 5 years now and I would not go back to ply . I did a timber floor system with cypress ceiling boards last winter .I taped the seams where the Advantech went over the timber and cypress parts and the timber and cypress stayed perfect . we weathered several snow storms and several freeze thaw cycles and had no problems at all . I have not tried the LP Orange as it is not available locally. The Huber products that I have seen really work as well as they claim. I think we have used it on at least 30 houses in the past 5 years . Great product .
Sim I can email you some pics if you want.
Billy

[Dick Seibert]

Sim:

Like Lavrans I've never had a problems with plywood in the rain, I recall back in 75 having one piece start to delaminate, I took it out and brought it back to the yard to exchange I was so mad, I think the only piece of wood I've ever exchanged.

What about asking the SE if he'll approve diagonal DF #2 1x8s instead of plywood? As I recall when plywood first showed up on the jobsites we continued to use 1x8s in the winter for fear of it coming apart, but they just had CD in those days, not CDX.

[Andrew R.]

I don't use OSB but I did go kicking and screaming when my lumber yard convinced me to try AdvanTech. I learned it is a good product and can be rained on several times without problems.

I've never used anything less than 1-1/8" subfloor, it is pretty standard here on custom homes.

I spent years selling plywood instead of "hamster board". I gave in about 5 years ago.What are you paying for 1 1/8"? I have a job coming up that could go that way, nobody stocks that here. Your framers must be some big dudes.

[Allan Edwards]

I spent years selling plywood instead of "hamster board". I gave in about 5 years ago.What are you paying for 1 1/8"? I have a job coming up that could go that way, nobody stocks that here. Your framers must be some big dudes.

Most recent job, 1-1/8" was approx $28/sheet.