Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 17, 2000 11:44pm | #1

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   David,
   You will need to use a flooring nailer, either pnuematically or manually (ugh) driven. These can be rented at a lumberyard or home center usually. Use your finish gun to start the flooring about 1/2" from the wall.Keep all of the nails hidden in the tongue unless they will be under the baseboard. Once you have room, start with the nailer and bang it out. When you get to the other side, stand up straight (0h my back!!) and pull out the finish nailer again. If the fir is milled well it should go together easily, if it requires a little persuasion, cut some wedges from a piece of flooring. Since this install is on the second floor all you need to put under the fir is builders paper, if it were above a crawlspace I would put a layer of #15 felt paper under the builders paper. Stack the flooring on the far side of the room from where you will be starting with a space between layers of bundles. I would let this acclimate for about 2 weeks. If you have not sanded floors before, I would reccommend that you hire a pro for this one.You can do alot of damage real fast with a floor sander or an edger.Finsh with a waterbase polyureathane unless you are going for the yellowed with time look, in which case you can use oil base poly.Vertical grain fir is beautiful stuff and will serve you well as a flooring material. I've seen 100 yr old fir floors that look like new with just a light screening and some ureathane.Good luck with your project.
   Scott

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   Guest_ | Feb 19, 2000 05:56pm | #2

   *Please follow Scott's advice on using the flooring nailers. Case in point: I looked a new installation recently in a dance studio. It was supposed to be floated(engineered) over concrete and the installer had no clue as to how to start the job while keeeping it straight(very snug t&g fit) So they deceided to install sleepers and used a finish nailer. They didn't hold in many areas(3000sf) and now the floor is releasing everywhere making all sorts of strange noises and isn't easy to walk on.

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   Guest_ | Feb 20, 2000 06:41am | #3

   *I purchased vertical grain T&G fir flooring for my porch. Do I need to seal the bottom of the boards? Is it necessary to finish the tongues and grooves wet as the boards are being put down?

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   Guest_ | Feb 20, 2000 05:05pm | #4

   *FBK,Seal all sides and try no splices if possible. Seal and cap ends. Don't know that it's necessary to assemble wet. Run flooring with the fall in the porch. Keep up on the finish and you should enjoy a long life on that porch. best of luck.