Lessons Learned

Admittedly, this entire process is a learning exercise, but in particular, here are a couple things I have figured out about subfloor decking:
- A sheet of plywood is not necessarily straight, even on a factory edge.
- If a part of the tongue or the groove edge gets damaged, you are better off if you just remove it. On the other hand, if you love beating things with a sledge hammer, I bet you could get two tongue edges together.
- Do NOT let your tubes of subfloor adhesive get wet. If the tube is still wet when you use it, you get the Pillsbury "canned biscuit explosion" effect as a seam ruptures under pressure. Or, if the tube has dried, it may seem to be working OK, but horrible things are happening on the inside, where you can't see it until its too late. Suffice it to say that only about half of the glue is going out the nozzle.
- There are differences between the T&G profiles from different manufacturers. I am using some standard grade OSB 3/4" T&G, and some "premium" stuff. They work together OK, but you would not want to randomly mix and match.
- If you don't have a helper to step on the edge to get it to mate, a box of nails works pretty well.
- Instead of hammering the heck out of a stubborn panel, it works pretty well to use a board. A piece of 2x6 about 6' long can deliver quite a whack. Just swing the board in an arc, sliding on the bare joists, keeping one end up against the plywood edge. (That way, when the board hits, you don't dent up the edge you are hitting.)
- Finally, when you are moving a sheet of plywood around, keep it down-wind from your body. Especially near the edges of the building.