Here’s a question that has even my contractor scratching his head, a couple questions…
1.) Is it wise to install Ipe flooring when it’s is very cold?
2.) Is it possible to install “successfully” with a flooring nail gun?
I am constructing a camp in Vermont. There is only a shell and no heat. I have Ipe flooring (3.25″/ .75″ T&G) yet to install. I have had the wood for a couple years now and it has been stored in the cabin for over a year so I would say any moisture is long gone. We guess the wood is so dense that there probably isn’t much expansion or contraction to worry about either. Our belief is it’s OK to install now.
My contractor was able to use his nail gun to penetrate a sample of the wood WITHOUT a pilot! (Must be one heck of a gun and nail). Is it wise to use this approach and again when it’s very cold? What problems could arise when it get’s nice and warm this summer?
Thanks, Mike
Replies
Will this be interior or exterior installation?
Interior, on top of a plywood subfloor.
Thanks
Mike
I think yer on yer own on this one dude..
Excellence is its own reward!
dude
Like Thats so 1980 :)View ImageGo Jayhawks
I don't know if the use of a nail gun is OK with Ipe or not -- hopefully one of the flooring guys will chime in.
If you are worried about shrinkage and expansion (and you probably should be), you should see http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/shrinkulator.htm.
That site, and some of theother pages at woodbin can be very helpful with questions such as these.
For what it's worth, if you allow the humidity in your ipe-floored room to vary a lot, you'll need to allow for lots of expansion. A 2-3/4" board will swell almost a tenth of an inch with a wide change in humidity.
Personally dude, I prefer to hand nail flooring. lookes neater to me and the number of splits is less.
For hard timbers I clip the points off the nails so they are way less likely to spilt the flooring, for larger areas or very ornery woods, predrill.
Wood Hoon
I don't know if my experience is applicable, but when I lived in VT frozen firewood was much easier to split than "warm"
_______________________
"I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." Oscar Wilde
Where did you get T&G IPE ? Good luck putting down as an interior floor? I just put some on my front porch and you have to cut, coat w/ Penofin wax, Pre-drill, and screw this stuff down. Unless it is pre-sanded you will find ALOT of variation in the thickness and width.
Bob
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
Pro-Dek
I bought the flooring from a dealer who unloads extra inventory that is typically from Mall construction. It's completely plained and sanded already, and all from the same lot. I don't think I'll have thickness differences. I gave a piece to the contractor and he said he was able to put a nail through it no problem. I've not heard that to be the case, so either he got lucky with that pience, or he's got one heck of a gun and nail combo!
I can gun thru IPE too, but it splits. The product is also very susceptible to checking at the butt joints if you do not wax the ends immediately after cutting it.
Be careful and good luck.Bob
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
By the way, great looking deck!