Any comments? I think I've seen it discussed before, but I don't see any organizations endorsing it's use with nailed or stapled hardwood floors.

That is what almost all of the wood around here goes over. It is as good as plwood. Much better than regular OSB.

Same here, I can't remember the last time I installed on anything but Advantec or one of it's clones.

I've found staples to hold better in this material. Inspecting the punch through from the underside you can see that the material causes twist in the legs of the staples making them hold very tight.

c.

For the record, your not suppose to use fasteners, that blow all the way through(punch through) the subfloor, where they can be seen below. That's too long.


You loose holding power if they blow through, and can actually be the cause of squeaks later.

Hmmmn...um Perrry--all 2" nails or staples will go though 3/4" CDX plywood by about 3/8" What's a guy to do?

Are you talking about face nailing with a 2" with ¾" flooring ¾" substrate?

If your blind nailing at the proper angle, It should be just about to puncture all the way through. If it is blowing out the bottom, change your angle, or buy shorter staples.

Ummm..Perry. I've never heard of such a thing before. Yes it's blind nailing. 2" staples or nails are used for wood subfloors over floor joists. 1 1/2" for plywood on slab.

On an additional note I looked at the NOFMA site a few days ago and never realized it's suggested to face nail into the floor joists when you don't have room to use a nailer or stapler. I wonder how many guys actually mark them(on felt paper) and nail into them?

Here's something for you guys to throw back and forth. Screw the starter and finishing rows? I don't see how the floor can expand and contract doing so.

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/floo ... tapled.htm

The link comes up #1 in Google for "installing hardwood floors"

Thanks guys for the info on advantech.

"Change your angle"

Perry, are you high? That might be the stupidest thing I ever read. It sounds made up. I understand that you don't nail,but dam'n,dude. Putting out bullshite is bad juju.

Ken, the easiest way to mark joists is by making little pencil marks on the wall/base. It makes a tremendous difference when stick nailing your walls. I always start and finish in the joists.

I've always wondered about some of the contradictions regarding expansion and nailing. This just compounds that but I am lucky enough to live in a very stable area and it really doesn't matter.

They make a few mistakes in that article, the first being not enough attention to moisture and acclimation. The average Joe in Florida is going to have big problems following that advice. "Move the wood indoors in case it rains".
Nothing like racking it out before you nail either.

I have pondered what Perry said. I was thinking holding power and angle adjustment. That is BS, but the squeak thing makes sense. 1-1/2 in staples will do just as good a job as 2 inch over a single 3/4 t&g subfloor. They won't pull the wood as tight,but you should not be using your nailer to pull the wood together anyway.

The squeak angle makes perfect sense if you ignore the fact that the fasteners are at a 45 degree angle to the force exerted by traffic. It sounds like an imagined scenario. There is a tiny bit of merit in the argument,though.

Ken,
I just read the DIY story. No comment. I have nothing nice to say about it.

I will ,however, share this sliver of insight. When I am selling wood,I explain to my potential client that any ignorant monkey can nail wood to the floor. Nailing wood is very easy for a person with decent training and experience.

The reason I am worth what I charge is because of my vision. I know which pieces to cull. I have seen plenty of crappy looking jobs that could have been beautiful had twenty boards in 1000 feet been thrown away.

After reading that article,I am reconsidering whether any monkey can nail wood to the floor. Dent puller? Holy freaking crap!

There are so many procedures wrong with that article that one hardly knows where to begin, so I won't. That said, they probably won't have any problems with the floor at least. I don't want to see how they sand it or what they end up sanding it with.!

Do your own little test.

Take a 1x4 and a couple of 8D finish nails.

Drive one in just so it reaches the thickness.

Now drive one, holding the board over something so the nail bust through.

Pull straight on each one, without wiggling it.

Those kind of articles have only one thing in common. They don't have to be the least bit accurate. Take a look at the right hand side of the page--it's called Google adsense. Slap together a website and sign up for google adsense. It allows you to advertise the websites you see listed in either the top two positions on Google's search pages or the ones off to the right. Once somebody clicks on the add they've made money. It's not known how much they make because Google doesn't publish such numbers. But each time someone clicks, for instance, black river floors(who happens to be in the #1 slot at this moment) it costs them somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00.

Adsense was a great idea when it was born but has become a problem in finding quality results. Thousands of webmasters are scrambling to build websites just for one thing--Adsense money. Ever wonder why it's harder to find what you want on Google thesedays? Or why it seems you have to click through trashy sites to fund what you want. Heck Hammerzone is a good one--you should see the rest of the trash out there.