Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Underlayment for T&G flooring.

We are going to put down some hickory T&G flooring this winter. What is the preferred underlayer for putting this down over OSB?
The old standard was roofing felt or “tarpaper”.
Is there a better product to use nowadays?

What’s under the floor, basement, living space, or possibly damp crawl space.

Poured concrete basement with rebonded cellulose insulation and a fan that draws off the basement floor and exhausts outside.

FWIW, I still see installers using felt/tar paper, but also see some using a thin layer of isolation foam.

Is it a floating floor or nailed, glued?

Roger, I plan on nailing it down. Although if there’s a better way I’m open to suggestions.
I’ll be pulling up carpeting.

I still use 30# felt/tar paper.

Nailing will work, there is an underlayment, that we use sometimes for floating floors, it's made from recycled tires and will deaden any hollow clunk clunk sound when you walk on it. I can't remember the brand name off the top of my head but could find out tomorrow.

Is this old school 3/4” T&G Hardwood planks or veneer ?

Edit
Where are you purchasing the flooring from,

Fortifiber, Aquabar “B” 7 mil.
Comes in 3’ rolls, 170’ long. 500 sqft a roll.
Used to just use 15lb felt, but flooring supplier recommended this if it’s over a crawl or unconditioned basement.

Go to manufacturers website. They typically specify their reco based on installation.

Over OSB, in my opinion, staples hold better than cleats. It might split a few tongues using hickory, but who cares. Also stick 4” or less, I’ve had bad luck with hickory cupping using 5” several times, enough that I’ll never lay it again above a 4” plank.

Best idea if you think you’ll ever use the warranty.

Rosin paper
I've used it before and it worked well.

I've used aquabar a few times with good results. The smooth surface makes it easy to slide the flooring into place.

I used 30# roofing felt under mine 25 years ago, they may have something better now.

No warranty.
This is 6 year old reclaimed 3/4” solid hickory T&G that was pulled from our daughter’s friends home after a water pipe break. None of this got wet, but because it’s unavailable now, the insurance company had to replace all 2200 sq ft of it. We picked through the pile and got 900+ sq ft of it.
It is 4,5 and 6” width. We cut the staples off flush on the bottom with a cutoff wheel as I attempted to pull a staple and said fuuuk that after struggling with getting it out without tearing the tongue off.

for my basement, I put Delta-FL down first with the OSB on top of it.
A "waterproof" layer so that I didn't have to worry about putting a wood floor down in my basement and water coming up thru the floor

Certainly the old method was Rosin or tar paper. I've used both back in the day. Later moved to gluing down with good subfloor adhesive, be it PL or urethane.

Anymore, my installers use Wakol products. They "paint on" a moisture barrier/primer, then trowel down glue for 100% coverage. Absolutely the finest way to put down a high quality staple-down 3/4" hardwood floor IME.

https://www.wakol-usa.com/mobile_us/Flooring-Adhesives/products

Thanks Brad, that’s another method to think about.
Our basement is unfinished and heated/cooled.
Is there a big need to waterproof/seal in this case?