Hi all, thanks for having this Forum.

I'm a rank newbie DIY trying to install recovered red oak. As you can see, I don't know how I will the upcoming rows. I have an 18ga. 2" nailer but I don't know if the 18ga. nails are big enough. I may have to go to the pawn shop and get a 16ga nailer. The wall you see is not currently supported by the floor so I'm planning to run the flooring continuous hardwood into the next room and later extend the wall down to the floor for it's permanent support.

So what are my options for continuing this floor.

Thanks Jim

Below is a link to the image mentioned in post 1 Thanks

http://thewebplace.com/images/flooring2.jpg

Use the finish nailer to fasten the flooring as close as possible to the wall. Use sub-floor adhesive to secure the rows that you can not nail. When you can see the tongue of the row that goes under the wall you can use the finish nailer.
You may be able to rent a floor stapler and use 15.5 or 16 gauge staples which hold better than finish nails. The floor stapler will make the job much easier. The 18 gauge nails I use to hold the board until the glue sets. I only use 18 gauge next to the walls, where the glue is what really holds the boards in place.

Hi Pete, thank you for your advice. It sounds excellent. I'm sending a PM because I want you to recommend a "sub floor adhesive" by brand name. The market leader is "************" is that the kind of product you are talking about? Did you see the photo I linked to? The picture shows a "floor stapler" Is that the kind you mean? Thanks again. Jim

I was at Lowe's this morning and they have a product made by the Most popular brand which is labeled for "sub flooring" is that the one I'm looking for? Thanks, Jim

I missed the photo of the floor stapler. It ought to shoot 15.5 or 16 gauge staples.2" is common, but some guns for engineered flooring shoot 18 gauge, inch and a half staples.
Poly-urethane sub-floor adhesives will work. They are supposed to prevent failure from creeping, which could happen with a wood glue like Titebond11 which is not made for sub-floor and will have a more brittle adhesion that could "pop" from stress instead of flexing.

Hi Pete, my stapler shoots 16ga. I'm laying down 3/4" X 2-1/4" Red Oak that I salvaged from a demolition. Some of the wood is not perfect. My wife and I were new to the task of pulling up the hardwood so there are some boards with a missing lower spline of the "groove" side. Fortunately I think we will have enough without using those. I'm replacing about 25% of a kitchen floor that had been rotted out by an air handler that didn't have good drainage. Even the tops of the joists were damaged so I had to marry another joist board to the damaged ones.

I'm glad you said that 18ga. is fine since you are basically just holding it in place until the glue dries. I didn't really want to go out and buy a 15-16ga. nail gun.

I went ahead and bought a 28oz. tube of the brand name sub floor adhesive so that should handle it for this job.

Speaking of the adhesive. Are there any favored methods of applying the stuff? I mean like zig-zag or a straight single bead down the middle? Should it be a light application or heavy? Fifty percent coverage or more?

Thanks for sharing your experience. You don't know how it helps. Regards, Jim

Pete, suddenly I have lots of choices. Tuesday morning I had breakfast with a friend. I had no idea that he had flooring experience, but I mentioned my dilemma and before I got to tell him about your great solution he said that he had the same problem and he came up with a solution. He discovered screws that you can screw down the boards and then reverse the bit and the screw head breaks off leaving a clean tongue with no junk. He gave me the "kit" of screwing attachments and a few screws so I will probably try it out. And today I was in a pawn shop and they had a clearance table. Well, I checked it out and found a Senco 15ga. nail gun for $25. Well as you know from previous posts, I was trying to avoid buying a 15-16ga. nailer. I tested it on their compressor in the pawn shop and it worked perfectly. Even the countersink depth adjustment worked as it should. Well being a Senco and at that price, I couldn't resist temptation. Now that I have a 15ga. nailer, is there any way that you could suggest that I would be able to make use of it on this project?

And, what do you think of the screws?

Thanks, Jim

Those screws are a real timesaver. They look no better than a top nail, but hold the best. The screws are much more expensive than nails.If you nail into a joist, however I think that they hold comparatively.
The senco nailer will hold much better than the 18 ga. nails, but you can use the 15 ga. anywhere the 18 ga. were being used.
The problem with top nails is that they will need to be filled. Sometimes the filler looks good on a freshly finished floor, but the wood will change color over time as it is exposed to light with the filler not changing color with it so it stands out. Not a real big problem, but don't be surprised.

Hi Pete, thanks for all that information. I'm not sure where the top nails would come into the picture. I was under the impression that the screws would go into the boards in the crease above the tongue where the staples are going, but maybe I misunderstood the application. I wouldn't want to use anything I would have to fill. And same with the 15ga. nails. I was thinking that they would go on the side just above the tongue.

Like I said earlier, I think I have enough undamaged boards to finish the job, but if I have to use the boards with the missing lower spline on the groove, I might be forced to use top nails on them.

Please try to clear up my confusion on the use of top nails.

The screws that break off are used for fastening loose boards to the sub-floor through the surface, not through the tongue. Top nailing is needed where you can not use a nail gun to drive a nail into the tongue because you are too close to the wall. You may use glue, but you would need to hold the boards down into the glue as it is drying. The 18 gauge nails would hold the boards as the glue dries and don't leave mush of a distraction, if you nail into the soft grain, which will be the darker pattern of the grain.