Hello, I'm curious to know what kinds of staplers everyone is using. Most of my experience with floors are with laminates or 3/4" oak floors. but recently I have started installing more of the 5/16 and 3/8 floors. In the past when installing oak floors of smaller sizes I would use the bostitch floor runner with 21 gauge staples. But on one job I was to install a 7/16 br-111 Brazilian Eucalyptus and the 21 gauge staple was having trouble penetrating the board. Some would sink but about half would just crumple and not even go into the tounge. So I had to stop the job and wait to buy a new stapler. I called br-111 and the highpro as-4090 was recommended so I ordered it and when it came i was able to finish the job. But a problem I have noticed with the highpro is that it does not sink the staples consistenly. On the same board I could have a staple that goes too deep, one just right, and one the sticks a 1/4" out of the tongue. Plus on cheaper floors it can just break chunks of the tongue off. I have tried adjusting the pressure from 45 to 95 but with no good results. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I don't know if this is the answer you want BUT, Powernail makes a model 200 (both in manual and pnuematic) designed for engineered floor nailing and can be used on thinner solids. It utilizes a special cleat that doesn't harm the tongue. I've used this nailer on a half dozen jobs nailind down 1/2" bamboo, 1/2" engineered, 5/16 solid. Occasionally a cleat will fold over or not set properly. I think the problem lies in that the nailers and staplers for the engineered floors use smaller and thinner fasteners and because of that, they sometimes don't work well. The Powernailer 200 definitely gets the floor tight "cause ya hit the plunger with a mallet (like all their nailers) but it's slower than a Floor Runner where you just pull the trigger. I think it holds better due to the barbed cleats than those skinny little staples. It's also expensive unless you get the manual version which I think would be fine considering, the thickness of the wood. It will not take much effort to drive those small cleats into engineered floors or thin solid. It also has a half dozen different shims to adjust the shoe height for different tongue profiles. Check it out!

I've never used anything from powernail, but I'll check out their website.I don't know if I could go back to a nailer that I have to hit with a mallet... I'm pretty spoiled with the floor runner. A friend of mine has a senco 19 gauge stapler. I'm going to try that next time I do a thinner wood floor. Any experience with Senco?
thanks for the reply.

I have a Senco SKS, that works great.


I have never installed a Brazilian Eucalyptus, but there are some spieces, are too hard or split easily for you to nail, unless you drill and hand nail.

Adjust your pressure accordingly!