I see a few posts which suggest installing wide flooring is done differently than regular flooring.

At what width is flooring considered wide? I'm looking at some 3/4" beech 4" wide plank. Is that considered wide? Is it too wide for the typical nail down install?

Thanks guys! =)

John

IMO, no. That floor can be successfully nailed only. However, beech is similar to maple in that it is not very stable. It will be more susceptible to shrinkage during dry seasons and slight cupping during wet seasons. It is best to control interior relative humidity to an average of 45 to 50%. Typically, a 4" solid 3/4" T&G floor can be nailed down just fine, especially if you have a 3/4" or thicker plywood subfloor.

I don't have 3/4 plywood. I currently have a 5/8th OSB T&G subfloor 16" oc. I'm adding 3/8th CDX ply on top to beef that up.

Does that make a difference?

You'll be fine. Either glue the CDX to your OSB and use screws/staples OR just staple the living daylights out of the CDX.

Thanks Garry!!

I'm gonna screw the ply to the OSB, on a 6 inch grid inside the sheet, 4inch perimeter around the sheets.

I suppose now's a good time to buy stock in screws... I'm doing 1200 s/f... so that's about 6200 screws.. sigh

I'm looking at using a quik-drive screw gun with 1" screws so I don't ruin my knees/back.

LOVE LOVE LOVE my quick drive. It is kind of strange breaking a sweat screwing subfloors down (well from rinning behid the quick drive anyway)

But @ 90 bucks a box of screws, you may want to staple it down (and gllue of course)

OUCH! I'm looking at the price of screws, and it's nuts.

Are ring-nails OK? I'll have 3/8" plywood on top of 5/8" OSB. Is it OK to poke thru the back of the OSB? I've heard it's best to avoid that.

I'm open to buying a tool to make this easier, but don't want to spend more on screws than I am on plywood.

Thanks for the input so far.

welll usually I see the 18G staple gun combo kits with a compressor on sale for >300 (usually with a few guns lol)
and probobally gonna take 25000 staples (so >100 in staples) I would guess 2-3 boxes of screws so looks cheaper for staples.

Me personally, I wouldnt use nails (of any kind) they just dont hold as well.

I use a 16 gauge construction stapler from Senco. The staples have a 7/16" head and you can get staples as short as 1". I find it works very well for installing underlayment. You could rent a stapler and compressor for the day after all the underlayment (CDX) is cut and tacked in place.