I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
perhaps only 90 sq ft. Since I am rarely able to dedicate any
meaningful amount of time per day to such projects it will likely take
me a couple of weeks of working here and there when possible.
Therefore, I probably won't do the several rentals of a pneumatic
nailer and need to resort to the savage caveman ways of a hammer and
countersink. Thanks.
Geo
Scorp wrote:
> On 7 Oct 2005 10:18:24 -0700, "Geo" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
> >to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
> >3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
> >perhaps only 90 sq ft.
>
> I lived too long on my fir 3/4" ply subfloor, went to put down the oak
> flooring and those nails went through the oak and stopped at the
> compressed fir ply...took the nailer back to the rental place and got
> a stapler, that was way worse, those wire staples just buckled...
>
> So I laid about 1000sf by hand, wasn't really bad, wife selected and
> predrilled the oak, I nailed and set...
Regarding the original question though, what kind of nails did you use?
> Steve Jensen
> Abbotsford B.C.
> [email protected] chopping out the mortise.
> Surfing along at 19200 bps since 95.
> BBS'ing since 1982 at 300 bps.
> WW'ing since 1985
>
> Nothing catchy to say, well maybe.....
> WAKE UP - There are no GODs you fools!
Scorp wrote:
> On 7 Oct 2005 10:18:24 -0700, "Geo" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
> >to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
> >3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
> >perhaps only 90 sq ft.
>
> I lived too long on my fir 3/4" ply subfloor, went to put down the oak
> flooring and those nails went through the oak and stopped at the
> compressed fir ply...took the nailer back to the rental place and got
> a stapler, that was way worse, those wire staples just buckled...
>
> So I laid about 1000sf by hand, wasn't really bad, wife selected and
> predrilled the oak, I nailed and set...
What kind of nails did you use?
> Steve Jensen
> Abbotsford B.C.
> [email protected] chopping out the mortise.
> Surfing along at 19200 bps since 95.
> BBS'ing since 1982 at 300 bps.
> WW'ing since 1985
>
> Nothing catchy to say, well maybe.....
> WAKE UP - There are no GODs you fools!
Geo wrote:
>
> I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
> to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
> 3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
> perhaps only 90 sq ft. Since I am rarely able to dedicate any
> meaningful amount of time per day to such projects it will likely take
> me a couple of weeks of working here and there when possible.
> Therefore, I probably won't do the several rentals of a pneumatic
> nailer and need to resort to the savage caveman ways of a hammer and
> countersink. Thanks.
You need a flooring nailer--it doesn't have to be pneumatic but it's the
only way appropriate. That much can be done in an afternoon--wait until
you have one and go rent the nailer.
[email protected] wrote:
>
> On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 09:15:16 -0500, Duane Bozarth
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Sum Yung Guy wrote:
> >>
> >> I see the issue. If you want to work a little
> >> each day then renting isn't practical.
> >...
> >
> >But 90 sf? That's <is> only a few hours' effort at the outside.
>
> it is for someone with a good back and knees. if the 90 Sft. is 3
> floors up and the wood and saw are in the basement ....
Then take them up...if you don't have a portable saw, then either rent
one or use a hand saw. For that size an area (less than 10 x 10 ft),
it's simply not a problem imo.
W/ a floor nailer, the amount of time actually on one's knees is
reasonably minimal....
On 7 Oct 2005 10:18:24 -0700, "Geo" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
>to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
>3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
>perhaps only 90 sq ft. Since I am rarely able to dedicate any
>meaningful amount of time per day to such projects it will likely take
>me a couple of weeks of working here and there when possible.
>Therefore, I probably won't do the several rentals of a pneumatic
>nailer and need to resort to the savage caveman ways of a hammer and
>countersink. Thanks.
>
>Geo
I think the project will be very difficult without a nailer.
unless you are very good, I suspect that you will break off a lot of
tongues.
I rented a Port-a-Nailer,manuel, not pneumatic and my son and I put in
about 220 ft. in about five hours. we alternated pounding the nailer
and kicking the boards in place. Hardest part was that the nailer
jammed every now and again.
Even if you have to rent it a couple of times the rental in my area is
just $20/day. They have a pneumatic asist unit for $40, would've
probably sped up the job.
On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 09:15:16 -0500, Duane Bozarth
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Sum Yung Guy wrote:
>>
>> I see the issue. If you want to work a little
>> each day then renting isn't practical.
>...
>
>But 90 sf? That's <is> only a few hours' effort at the outside.
it is for someone with a good back and knees. if the 90 Sft. is 3
floors up and the wood and saw are in the basement ....
I see the issue. If you want to work a little
each day then renting isn't practical.
If it were me, and cost was an issue, I would
buy a floor nailer/stapler used (like on ebay or
the local newspaper), use it until the project
is done, and then sell it to recover the money.
If you buy a tool used and keep it looking good
you can usually get most or all of your money back
selling it when you are done. If you get lucky
you can sometimes make a few bucks.
On 07/10/2005 1:18 PM, Geo wrote:
> I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
> to what you all recommend for flooring nails.[...]
> [...]need to resort to the savage caveman ways of a hammer and
> countersink.
I was in this boat this past summer (which seems to be now over, sigh),
albeit for slightly larger area of about 200 sq ft. I just went out and
bought an inexpensive 2" flooring stapler. Cost me $179 CDN on sale; I
already had a suitable compressor. (That's about $150 US). Worked like a
charm. I'm sure the pros wouldn't touch something of this quality with a
10-ft sledgehammer, but it did the trick for me, with nary a hiccup.
I've now passed it on to my daughter and son-in-law and by the time
we're all done with it it'll have easily paid for itself in terms of a
couple of rentals. It's similar to this one (mine came from Princess Auto):
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90399
Maybe you should ask around in your area to see if anyone has one you
could borrow? Just the mere thought of hand-nailing even half of what I
did makes my knees ache. I'd have been walking like a caveman on my
knuckles, after that.
On 7 Oct 2005 10:18:24 -0700, "Geo" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I will soon be embarking on a wood flooring project and am curious as
>to what you all recommend for flooring nails. The floor itself will be
>3/4 tongue & groove sitting atop 3/4 sub floor. It's not a large area,
>perhaps only 90 sq ft.
I lived too long on my fir 3/4" ply subfloor, went to put down the oak
flooring and those nails went through the oak and stopped at the
compressed fir ply...took the nailer back to the rental place and got
a stapler, that was way worse, those wire staples just buckled...
So I laid about 1000sf by hand, wasn't really bad, wife selected and
predrilled the oak, I nailed and set...
Steve Jensen
Abbotsford B.C.
[email protected] chopping out the mortise.
Surfing along at 19200 bps since 95.
BBS'ing since 1982 at 300 bps.
WW'ing since 1985
Nothing catchy to say, well maybe.....
WAKE UP - There are no GODs you fools!