Manufacturer Reviews

We have two separate pages on this subject with links also seen near the bottom of the page. However a few items not discussed are tricks to keep a floor straight while nailing against angled walls.

When nearing these areas and stapling very near the end of each piece cut on an angle, we have no support between the board and the drywall. The straight alignment wants to run off because of this. Inserting small temporary wedges in these areas (discussed on previous page) will provide the support needed and the layout will not bend. 

Wedges do not have to be used at every board end. This phenomenon (yikes that's a big word for an installer) occurs not only with fastened hardwood floors, but glue downs and floating ones as well.

Finishing Off The Finals Rows Against the Wall

There comes a point when the stapler will not fit near walls and we resort to the finish nailer again. If you've kept some longer straight boards for this area you'll see how much easier it is to finish off the area opposed to using random boards that are not straight. Through the larger open areas it becomes much easier to get a tight fitting floor because there's leverage in tapping them into place with the rubber side of the mallet. Pneumatic staplers also exert a good amount of force keeping those boards together too.

For stubborn boards there are several options. One can either do it by hand with a long handled screwdriver, or invest in a tool called the power jack, shown on our tools pages. When nailing the final courses do so by blind nailing or nailing into the groove at a 45 degree angle. At one point it will necessary to top nail the last few rows.