Hello,

New to the forum and would sincerely love some advice. I just installed 2 1/4 wide 3/4 inch thick red oak floor in my living room. First hardwood floor install, but have worked with most trades. I usually research a while before a project. I'm beating myself up about the installation of the 2 transition pieces that meet the tile flooring. I face nailed the two pieces and didn't cut a groove in the 45 degree cuts to put a spline in. 3 pieces are slightly raised and creaking when I walk over them on the 45 degree portion and lastly I'm worried about the face nails showing after staining since that is a area that is visible.

I thought about tearing the transition pieces out and glueing new pieces so no finish nail holes will be visible and then buying a handheld router and cutting a groove in the angle cuts and putting in a spline to hold everything together. I used a 16 gauge finish nailer for the face nailing. Any thoughts?

Thank-you

Nicholas

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qFv4ra5iAe3W6Tsq8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4oqgMaMwusLag26VA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Ww9xbK9A5ofm4UG7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HhfC9ZgAqjdQUkpr9

If you can easily get the corner pieces out by setting the nails through to the sub-floor so the pieces are loose take then out. One or both ought to be taken out so you can put glue underneath. If you do have extra stock to replace them you will not need to use a finish nail to hold them down if you weight them down as the glue is curing. Use a five gallon bucket of water and put a piece of scrap on top of the area where you need the weight so you know there is pressure where it is needed. If you use a finish nail, aim for the soft part of the grain so a little bit of wood patch will blend in better. The nail hole patch will be darker than the surrounding grain if you stain it so the soft part of the wood grain will help hide the nail.
If you can't get both corner boards out without a lot of trouble use the caulking gun to press the glue under the end of the board where the channels aren and put plenty of glue near where the ends meet before placing the next board.
Be sure that the sub-floor next to the tile is fastened down well, too.

Thanks for the reply Pete! I don't think glue is going to work on the 45 degree angle joints due to Rosin paper being loosely tacked. I was going to pull out the transition pieces and then use a handheld router to cut a groove in the 45 degree angle cuts.
Then stick a spline and use a finish nailer through the spline to secure the boards to the subfloor. Then mate the 45 degree spline boards with the groove on the transition board. Lastly Transition boards glued back in place to floor with 5 gallon water buckets to hold in place till cured. Do you think this would work? Just kicking myself that I didn't think of the tongue and groove for the 45 degree cuts during installation and the finish nail holes showing.
I'm going to be using a dark walnut stain and the wife just wanted me to finish nail those three boards and hide the holes with filler and use colored pencils to simulate grain.

I would cut the resin paper back to let the glue hold without top-nailing. The channels under the flooring can be filled with glue near the corner and will hold. A little bevel on the very corner on the underside of the flooring will make an even stronger joint.

Thanks for your help Pete!

Floor install looks great!!!
Before ripping anything out how about trying to see if you can make a wood filler that won't be noticeable once stained. Experiment on some scrap wood. Mix some sanding dust (not sawdust) from your hardwood flooring with Hide glue. Fill some small holes and stain the test wood to see how it looks. If it looks ok then face nail the squeak areas. You could use trim head screws or hand nail with finish nails......predrill through the hardwood. The trim head screws or finish nails will have more of a head and hold better than the 16 gauge.

Thank you Jimmie, I appreciate the kind words! I thought about it and I found red oak filler and did as you said and it matched perfectly. Due to the finish nail heads being small and square, they blended almost invisible with the red oak stain. Thanks for both of your help, I really appreciate it!

Nicholas

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hSFifVsFm23Acw3v7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ECgoe6V8PV8wbtFX8

Excellent!!!!!