Regular nail gun for hardwood flooring?

[Mad Dog]

Hi folks,

I'm thinking of installing either bamboo or red oak planks in the room over the garage.

If I am careful aiming the thing, can I get by with a regular nail gun?

Ideally, it would be best to rent a proper flooring nail gun but the sheckles are low and I want to take my time doing this. I'm willing to chance it unless someone comes up with a good reason otherwise.

Cheers!

 

[taandctran]

take a look on craigslist for a manual one. both you have to hit with a hammer just the manual one more times... also ask around, that is how i found one

 

[Gotcha6]

Drop the sheckles & get the flooring hammer.:

1. Common nails will leave a head in the base of the tongue that will prevent proper alignment of the subsequent grooved piece.

2. Finish nails are too small in size to hold hardwood or any other flooring in place.

3. Crown staples are worse than finish nails for this application.

Flooring nails have a toothed shank that help hold them in place. They are also very flat so as to go in parallel to the wood grain and help avoid splitting off the tongue. They are also very rigid and less likely to deflect downward into the void below the tongue where the next groove will lay.
HTH.

 

[Splinter]

What Dennis said.

 

[Mad Dog]

Hmm, OK.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction - I didn't know all that stuff Dennis, thanks.

I'll also check out CraigsList - never thought of that one.

Many thanks!

 

[taandctran]

you can buy a gun off of craigslist and resals it for the same price when you are done

 

[Gotcha6]

Any pawn shops in your fair town?

 

[taandctran]

there may be a member that will let you use theirs for a couple of weeksm they are pretty durable, so there is little chance of messing it up

 

[Mad Dog]

Dennis,

Thanks for the idea on the pawn shop.
There's nothing on CraigsList or Ebay.
Even HF want something like $169.
The local rental place has them but I know this is will take me forever so that is out.

I have heard of folk hand nailing. I could get the proper nails (HD and Lowes have them for the nail gun) and hand nail them. Its only 300 sq.ft. and I'm fond of hammering. Or is that another crazy idea?


Cheers

 

[romanf]

The key to installing wood flooring is that it is a two dimensional process. In addition to nailing downward you need to push the wood backward into the previously installed board. This closes up the gap very tight. If you used a regular hammer chances are good you will damage the edges and then you will really have a problem.

Like it or not, the best solution is to get a real floor nailer. I assume you are using 3/4" real wood versus an engineered type product. If you are using an engineered product they do make a special stapler for those......

 

[gator]

Found this one on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Recon...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000T8TSME

George

 

[DaveD]

Just rent one of the pneumatic ones. You should be able to do it in a day if you do all the cutting/prep ahead of time. I would think the rental place should sell you smaller quantities of the nails to cover your job too.

Do all the floor prep ahead of time (before you rent the nailer) and lay out and cut all the hardwood flooring and lay it on the floor. Give yourself about a 4" gap to get the nailer in to start with and have at it.

Be sure to leave gaps around the perimeter. You want to whack the nailer pretty good because that also sets the boards tight. Use a scrap piece of flooring to tap the edges of the boards tight.

 

[greenMachine]

My brother in-law and I did about 300 sq. ft. in about 10 or 11 hrs spaced over 2 days. This was the first time either of us had ever done hardwood floors and we did all the cutting during that time so someone more experienced could do this in much less time. You can rent a nailer for something like $35-45 per day. This would really save you a lot of time and frustration. I have heard that a manual nailer can often leave the nail partially nailed in. Even the pneumatic did this a couple of times when not hitting square. When this happens you will be pounding the nail in for 10 minutes with a nail set. We just took turns having one person set the board while the other pounded it in.

 

[Mad Dog]

Jeez - I think I'll go with carpeting!

No, seriously, let me contemplate all that that has been said so far.

Many thanks for the input - I'll let you all know if anything significant happens.

Cheers!!

 

[taandctran]

me and my wife layed 325 sq feet of red oak. if took us around 2 weekd from start to finish. but we did ours in sections and took our time. it was unfinished so we had to sand and stain then finish.

 

[Mad Dog]

Wow,
Glad you mentioned the sanding!
I was not expecting that aspect - I thought a quick coat of varnish and Bob's your Uncle.
Going to go back to pre-finished bamboo - which is a bit more expensive.
Thanks for your posts.
Cheers!

 

[FlyingRon]

Rent one. I put down a fairly good sized maple floor in my dining room. I had a manual flooring nailer and it was a pain in the butt on the maple. I was two days in to the project and only halfway across the room when I told my wife to call around and find one for rent. I finished the other half of the room in four hours.