I will be starting an install of 500sqft of Brazilian Teak 3" over 3/4 plywood subfloor and 5/8 plywood underlayment. (thanks for the last advice on getting rid of the Particle board, It took awhile to get up being glued, but it was not to Bad.) Will staples work on this installation of Cumaru and what length are recommend.

Thanks,
John..

Staples will work, keep them in from the but ends to avoid splitting the toungs. There was a post recently that said they had trouble with dimpling using staples on cumaru? Seemed to be an adjustment issue really but I live in the south were cleats are the prefered fastener so dont know about the staple itself causing the dimpling.

I think I will use staples and I will make sure I am three or so inches away from the end so the splitting problem will not happen. How about length of staples any suggest what would work best?

Thanks,
John..

If it is a 3/4" solid use 2" staples. If you encounter any tongue splitting you will have to stop and make some adjustments like air pressure or modifying the the foot plate to slightly change the angle of the staple.

I have never installed it but it is a very hard wood and recommended to pre drill and hand nail.

I am in the process of installing Teak as well and have split some of the tongues. My question is, what does this do and why worry about it? Is it ok if a few get split or do you have to pull up any boards that have split tongues? Thanks

Jason

spliting the tounge off can lead to a squeeaky loose floor if it gets bad enough.

Split tongues can cause the butt ends of the next row (as well as the edges of the next row) to move up and down in the floor because there is nothing to hold them down. I usually yellow glue the next row to the broken row where the split is .On prefinished you need to be careful to wipe up excess glue so it doesnt dry on the finish.


Steve

My experience with exotics has been that dam near no mater what adjustment one makes to either machine , air pressure etc. if stapels are used spliting a tounge in the middle of a board is not a big suprise. hell even cleats can split the stuff. If you do split one glue for sure but I have to ask cause i am not sure really. Does typical wood glue hold on exotics. I seem to recall a carpenter telling me once that the poly glues were best for that. I could be wrong maybee someone here would know. Hum what would the oods be of that . LOL Anyhow good luck with however you choose to go