Will be installing 3 1/4", plain sawed, unfinished hickory in my home. Room is 14' wide and is over a conditioned basement. My first question is a 3/4" expansion gap sufficient for this application. Then my 2nd question is; 14' room width and 3 1/4" flooring means I will not end with a full 3 1/4" wide board for last row. Do you normally just rip the last board to fit or do you start with a ripped board and also end with a ripped board so that it is equal on both sides. Thanks very much for your help.
Butch

IMO, a 3/4" expansion space around the perimeter of the floor is more than adequate. One thing to consider. In reality, expansion spaces do very little. Flooring expands in the direction of the tongue and expansion and contraction have to do with the environment of the building and the species of wood used. If one acclimates the flooring properly and maintains moderate temperature and humidity levels, very little movement should take place.

You could start at one wall and work across the room and rip the last board to fit. This is standard installation practice. Or, you could start in the middle and work toward one wall and when done with that area, reverse the tongues a lay the other half. This will give you even rips on both sides of the room. I do not think having even rips against the walls is that important UNLESS your are bordering the room. Starting in the middle will require face nailing the last rows of flooring on BOTH sides of the room, whereas starting on one side will require face-nailing on only one side of the room, something I think is preferable.

Gary Wrote...
"Starting in the middle will require face nailing the last rows of flooring on BOTH sides of the room, whereas starting on one side will require face-nailing on only one side of the room, something I think is preferable."

Gary can you elaborate? I am no pro but am trying to learn all I can about hardood installation. I was under the impression that face nailing is always required at the starting row (or rows) until the nailing tool can fit as distance to the starting wall increases. Then the same problem occurs at the last row (or rows) when the nailer no longer fits as you approach the finishing wall.

You didn't specify which row (starting or finishing) would not need to be face nailed when starting on a wall as opposed to the middle of the room. Can you explain?

Thanks, ZT

I bow to Garys experience , he has installed a lot more wood then i have , But i did stay at a Holiday
Inn last night .. As Gary stated the wood will expand towards the tongue of the board due to the angle of the staple , that is why i like to start near the center of the room as much as possible ..
Once you chalk a line on the floor where you want to start , I screw a 1x3 along the line pulling it back and forth to keep it on the line if necessary .. now you can blind nail from that board .. I usually leave the board down till i reverse direction to protect the edge of the starter board ..

When you start against one wall and work the opposite direction you do top nail right up against the wall where the wall expansion trim covers the top nails. Then you blind nail the board too, with your stick nailer. You use the stick nailer to blind nail until you get out far enough for the flooring nailer to fit, without the ammo magazine hitting the wall.

Then across the room you will get to the point neither the flooring nailer nor the stick nailer will blind nail anymore and you will have 2 or 3 rows left to get to the wall. Those all get top nailed and filled, (or you can glue them down, with prefinished wood to avoid the exposed top nail holes.

You would be better off with an unfinished engineered Hickory.

Thanks Austin,

I didn't know about using the "stick nailer" but I think I do now. I'm assume the "stick nailer" is a pneumatic finish nailer and nails are shot at 45 degrees at the tongue as a floor stapler would do. Is that correct?

What size nail (or brad) do you recommend for this on 3/4" HW? Length and guage?

Stick nailer is referring to a pneumatic finish nailer. IMO, the best ones use the DA21 type finish nails. That would be Senco and DeWalt. They are 15 gauge and 2" in length. Bostitch has their own style of nail that works great but they're hard to find and only fit Bostitch nailers. Some are tempted to use 16 gauge and some guys swear by them. To me, they are too skinny and do not hold nearly as well. So, for 3/4" solid wood flooring, use 2" 15 gauge finish nails if using a pneumatic nailer. If hand nailing, use either #6 or #8 finish nails.

Thanks again Gary. I do have a Senco finish nailer and will go with the 2" - 15 ga. where needed.

Thanks again to all on this board who take the time to help others. ZT