I have a question about nailing schedules on wide plank floors. Here are the particulars
The floor I’m putting down is on the second floor of a new addition on a 1737 colonial in the Hartford CT area. The flooring in the original part of the house appears to be 14-16†wide pine planks based on removing the multiple layers of flooring in a corner of one room. However, the small exposed area doesn’t give any indication as to the spacing and frequency of nails.
So in order to be consistent, I selected eastern white pine planks in 13â€, 15â€, and 17†widths for the new room. The room is 14’-6†x 22’-6†with the planks running along the longer dimension. The planks are tongue and groove, to be blind nailed and face nailed with cut 6d common nails (from Tremont Nail Co). The finish will be stain followed by tung oil.
The subfloor is ¾â€ ply. The floor joists run along the 22’-6â€dimension with an LVL cutting through the middle of the joist run. The floor was engineered for a L/960 stiffness.
My questions:
1) Tremont suggests no more than 3†spacing between the nails across the board face. It looks like a lot of nails, but I obviously don’t want the boards to cup. I need some suggestions as to the nail spacing across the board.
2) The distance between the rows of nails is suggested to be 30-32†along the board length. Starting at one end (along the wall) one would expect to see a row of nails in line along the ends of the boards. Every 30 inches or so another row of nails would be visible, but if the board ends near or between one of these ‘grid-pattern’ rows, is the proper thing to do to nail at both the end and on the grid, or respace the nails for that board so that they’re balanced, but on less that a 30†spacing?
For example if the board length is 82†long, should I nail (from the board end) at 1â€, 31â€, 61â€, and 81â€, (and be consistent with the overall floor grid), or respace to 1â€, 27â€, 53â€, and 79†(26†spacing) and be balanced on the individual plank but no longer be on aligned with the remainder of the floor?
Art
Replies
how about pulling up a bit more of the 'multiple layers of flooring' in the other room and acertaining the nailing pattern that exists?
I'd be amazed if there was a nail every three inches - metal was dear - iffen I had to guess, I guess 3-4 nails per board - and these will be in a line atop the joist - probably 24" centers or so -
secure your new floor thru the tongue (you'll get conflicting advice on the necessity of glue), lay out lines for your nails (I calculate 174" across your floor; ~24 centers mean 7 spaces which means 8 lines of nail if there is a line an inch or two inside each wall), and put three nails across your 13" boards and 4 across the 15" & 17" -
break the ends of the boards on the nail grid and nail each - be sure to drill holes for the nails at the ends of the boards -
that oughta get the discussion started -
I just face nailed mine. No T&G. Butt edges. I spaced my "Tremont" rosehead nails about 32" apart in the length and about 4-6" in th ewidth.
The teick is to use PL glue under all the boards as well.
The widest plank I put dowm is 22". The boards are random widths from about 8" up to 22". Its been over a year and zero movement. I nailed and glued to Advantech T&G. I tung oiled the kiving room floor and I HATE IT.The entire rest of the house I used three coats of A Matte poly which I love. Looks totally warm looking. No plastic look at all.
The tounge oil is wayyyyy too fragile and I applied about half a dozen coats. Never again!
BE well and have fun
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thanks for the help on nailing schedules on the wide plank floor. Here's what I did:as suggested, I divided the overall lengths of the rooms into an integral number on the 24-26" spacing range (two rooms and a hallway). Where I could the T&G boards were blind nailed, then face nailed across each board on the 24-26" spacing using 3 nails on the 13" wide boards and 4 nails on the 15" and 17" wide boards. Used construction adhesive as suggested. Also checked the moisture content of the boards. As of today, the end grain reads 6% and the faces are reading 10%.The finish will be stain and tung oil - (my wife hates the look of polyurethane). Hopefully, as this floor will be in our master bedroom, the wear and tear won't be much of an issue.Here's a picture before finishing, and I'll let you know if anything moves in about 9 months or so....Art
let's try again on uploading the picture....
ya - and I woke up last night realizing I miscalculated - your boards run the long way so you've got ~264" - - at ~24 inch centers that'd be 11 spaces or 12 rows of nails -
Andy's got a house a bit older than yours that he's redoing, so there is the voice of direct experience -
what will make boards cup is a moisture differential between the tops and bottoms - say a conditioned room over a damp basement - doesn't sound like your situation -
Andy's right. Glue the crap out of it. I started having anything over 3" glued down over 8 years ago and none of the floors have ever moved. No cupping either. He is right about the Tung oil too. Way too fragile. Needs to be redone in short time intervals.
The CM