I tried to do a search but didn't find an answer, so pls excuse if this is old stuff.

How do you estimate the number of nails needed for a job? In this case 5" Brazilian cherry.

You need a fastener every 6-8" With a fastener 2" from each end. For me, a 3 ft. board gets 5 fasteners.

So figure how many boards are in each row, and then how many rows.

A common rule of thumb is 1000 nails for 200sf of 2 1/4" strip on a 10" nailing schedule. I like to put the nails a little closer than 10" - say 6-8" and 2" from the ends is good.
If your boards are 5" wide, and you choose to nail 6-8" apart, you should be OK with about 1000 nails per 200sf.

Thx Don. That seems to agree with what I figured. The problem with Floorguy's method is that you need to know the number of strips, and with random length material you would have to count the number of strips in the boxes. No offense Floorguy, but that doesn't work.

Here's what I did ... I was looking for confirmation. There are 2.4 lf of 5" boards per sf, so for a 500 sf floor (what I am looking at this time) there would be 500 x 2.4 = 1200 lf of boards. Assuming an average of 2 nails per sf that would be 1200 x 2 = 2400 nails. Your estimate of 1000 nails per 200 sf = 2500 nails, so we essentially agree.

Hi E Hilton,

I am currently in the middle of a 800sf install of 3 1/4 hardwood. Checked my actual nailing usage last night and found that I have used 4000 nails to do 560sf so far.

That works out to 4000nails/560sf = 7.1 nails/sf.

Now if your boards are 5", you will need less nails. I would calcuate that you require 7.1 nails/sf x 3.25"/5" = 4.6 nails/sf.

Therefore, for a 500sf install that works out to approximately 4.6 nails/sf x 500sf = 2300 nails - which is in good agreement with your calculations.
I would order 3 boxes of 1000 and you should be good to go!

Note that I hand drilled and nailed my starter rows and finish rows - so I did not account for this in the above calculations.

Question- Why is the exact amount so important?

One $49 box of 5000 Powercleats will nail about 750' of 2 1/4" with a 6-8" nail schedule. 1000' with a 10" schedule(it says so right on the box). Multiply that by two for the 5" and there you go. Quarter boxes are available.

It's a little importasnt to me (not terribly so) for two reasons. I don't do enough right now to warrant buying the 5000 boxes, and I either have to buy them through the mail/internet or drive 60 miles each way. So it's convenient to have enough for the job without a lot of leftovers.