I am installing mixed width pine (6" - 10") and will be staining it. My husband thinks face-nailing (with the hand-cut type nails) will give too rustic a look for our house. (Not that we are anything like elegant, but he wants to try to move us up rather than down). I was thinking of blind nailing at the tongues and countersinking/filling elsewhere.

Is there a better way? I can't glue because the cellar is damp.

If I use the above plan, what kind of nails should I use for the countersinking? Or do I need to use screws & plugs?

Or should I convince him that the face nails won't show so much on a stained floor and it will be very elegant?!?!

So glad I stumbled on this site.

What exactly do you mean by that statement? It is throwning red flags at me!!!!!!

If it is what I think it means, I se a very cupped 6 & 10" floor.

it's an old house and one wall of the cellar is fieldstone/earth (below grade). So when there is considerable rain, some runs in on to the floor. And even when there is no rain, it's still somewhat humid. I have fans that come on when the humidity gets too high, which does help.

However, it's no wetter than the house I used to live in, and I put wide boards above such a cellar, with no problems (in ten years).