i have a question in reguard to installation of hard wood flooring. since i had no nailer for tongue and groove 2 1/4 x 3/4 unfinished oak i drilled hole on angle and drove 6d x2″ finish nails and c’sunk every 8 to 10 inchs. the base mat’l was planking over the floor joists. question is will the nails keep the floor tight ?
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Wow, that's a lot of work. I'd rather have seen you use trim screws if you were going to do it that way.
I'm not a pro by any means, but my guess is your floor won't be as tight as a traditionally laid floor. But what you can do is just wait and see if it squeaks. Hopefully it will just be in a few spots and you can fix by putting a screw through it and plugging the hole.
MERC.
Those nails do not have the holding power of the barbed cleats that are usually used with a flooring nailer. No one but flooring installers own those tools, so you go to a rental yard and rent one, along with a compressor, and buy the cleats from them too. At this point you'll have to wait and see.
Since this was the system used for many years before nailers were invented there's no reason at all why it shouldn't be satisfactory.
There are easier ways, however!
IanDG
Right. And those are the floors with all the problems, eh?I've got a house full of them, I couldn't care less about a few squeeks. People are freaks about that though.
People are freaks about that though
Now, isn't that just the case?
In a 50 year old house, the creaky wood floors are "charming" or "add character." But in brand new house, they're just a sign that "the #### no-good contractor ripped me off, again - like they all do" . . .
But then, I like my creaky floors.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
What're you going to tell the guy then? -- rip the lot out and start again?
IanDG
in referance to sweaks, under the floor was #15 felt. hoping that this would minimize any sweaks.
Felt will reduce or eliminate squeaks from the flooring rubbing against the subfloor. Unfortunately, that's probably a tiny minority of potential squeaks. It won't help with the floor boards rubbing against each other or a board rubbing up and down on a nail.