With all due respect, KLS, the Spotnail gun that I own will shoot up to 1 1/2" staples. My other gun the Senco sls20hf, only shoots a 1" staple, but I have the order the staples ahead of time, no one with in 75 miles stocks them anymore. I prefer the Senco for products 3/8" and thinner, but thats a different story.

No, I know that is why I said if I had to do it again I would have gotten the Spot Nailer. The LHF only shoots 1” staples. The standard crown stapler shoots up to 2” so it can be used on 5/8 Bamboo and it will hold almost as well as the stand up.

BTW, I'm using my Power Nail model 200. It's working out ok. A little slow and cumbersome. One thing I do like. By having to use a mallet with it, it forces the flooring together and down to the subfloor better than a trigger pull stapler could. I haven't decided which is worse though; bending way over while standing up OR sliding sideways on my knees. I found myself alternating between these two methods so as not to get real sore from either.

I get a little queasy at the thought of a mallet actuated gun on engineered, but you know what you're doing. Seems the adjustments are a bit more critical, and I myself like working off the floor like that with a trigger gun and a tapping block. Guess you pick your poison, sore knees or sore back!

If it was a 3/8", I'd be concerned as well. But it's 9/16" and this nailer was made specifically for engineered; even the cleats are different. I'm not using the mallet to tap the boards together. I have an old Award longstrip tapping block that works great. I just slam it into the tongue and the boards go together; rarely need to use a hammer or mallet with the block. If I had a Spot Nailer, I'd have used that but I already own eight pneumatic nailers. You think that's enough? Here's the list:
(2) Senco finish nailers
(2) Bostitch M111 FS staplers
(1) Porter Cable brad nailer
(1) Power Nail Model 200 cleat nailer
(1) Porter Cable framing nailer
(1) Senco multi-purpose/underlayment stapler

Anyway, on the Power Nail 200, the shoe/boot affair only contacts the tongue and the face of the board; never the edge. So no worry about damaging that unless you set it down wrong. And you only hit it lightly; no need to whack the crap out of it. The boards are already together. After laying about 300 ft, I've got two small spots where there is board rub and a squeek. A slight deflection. Not sure what's up with that yet. I may need to pull a few boards. Perhaps the nailer misfired and didn't install a cleat. Or the cleat went in too far. Or a low spot I missed in the subfloor? Who knows? I'll need to investigate. I hate when that happens!

The lady called and I got that job so I ordered the Blue/gray Spotnails stapler and the 1 3/8 staples for it. Thanks to all.

Question please .... what tapping block do you prefer to use on a 3/8" engineered wood staple down?

I have several types already. All my 3/8" engineered so far has been glued down, this will be my first staple down.

Doing my first enginereed job next week , looks like i will be getting the spot nailer also .. heres a stupid question .. Do they make spline for that stuff to ?
Also i asume a piece of scrap is a poor replacement for a tapping block ..

I used a sheet of 1/8" wood paneling and ripped my splines. I still have a pile to use up. It would depend on on thick your flooring is. I also use scraps of flooring to tap in on glue downs.

Thanks ..

Like Gary, I have a big ole Award tapping block, plus, an even bigger, Oler, (is that a word) Kahrs tapping block. Its big and heavy, so it makes short work of difficult boards, and its long length make it slim chance that you'll damage the tongue your whacking on. I use 5/16 oak to make splines. The top nail flooring type. I've been hoarding the same ever so diminishing bundle now for almost 20 years.

Thanks SK ..

I have both of those tapping blocks, I'm good to go.
Do you always glue the butt joints on a stapled engineered or just this particular brand?

Thanks.

I hear creaking, just in a spot or two, but the WRONG spot or two almost every time I did anything wider then 3 1/4", and thicker them 3/8". So if its Anderson 5" hickory, 9/16" thick, I use white glue on the endjoints. I just installed some Gamma par, the colored stuff, in a friends house, and glued the endjoints. I nailed it down, and my previous experience had been gluedown. After doing a 1 foot wide strip, I walked it, some popped, I glued the rest. It's too easy to do, not too. I don't blast the groove full, just a little bit on the ends, and middle.

My 9/16" engineered is just 3" wide so I figured safe for nailing only. Well, typical of engineered, I got a couple of noises here and there, not bad mind you but us floor installers hear EVERYTHING. I even hear my kneepads squeeking and think it's the floor sometimes. My tennis shoes are getting worn and squeek as well. I'd have glued it all except for the time frame I was given to get this done. Now they want me to do all the baseboards and this weird ass (can I say that?) cabinet trim around these even weirder cabinets. Plus fix the carpet, etc, etc, etc. Then the job forman wants me to take take a cut in pay on the trim because they didn't figure it would cost as much as it does! Does it ever end

kls
whitch hand crown stapler are you talking about for installing enginered?