Installing Solid Hardwood - Wood Subfloors Page One

Installing hardwood floors by traditional nailing methods has changed considerably over the years with the advent of pneumatic fasteners. Now the choices have included stapling. We're often asked which one is better. It sure beats that poor fellow in the

black and white photo that used to handle the whole project by hand! Yikes! My hat is off to the guys that did this kind of work. Today the consensus points towards staples but some professionals go the other direction; more below.

Proper Subfloor Is A Must!

Insuring you have a suitable subfloor is the most important ingredient for any successful installation when laying solid 3/4" hardwoods. Failure to heed this vital prerequisite will lead to spongy, creaking, and popping sounds. Nails or staples need a proper bite, otherwise they will loosen over time. 

Types Of Suitable Subfloors

Types Of Tools. Manual

Installers have their preferences on what tool is used to fasten solid hardwood floors. In the good 'ole days, prior to the sixties nearly all floors were actually nailed by hand using nails similar to concrete cut nails. Painstakingly and back breaking work by any means, the 60's brought on the manual cleat nailer shown below. This tool made installing solid floors much easier and quicker. Not to mention adios to the days of all those bloody thumbs when nails were missed when pounding in with a hammer.

All hardwood floor nailing tools work by engaging the plunger portion of the tool with a mallet specially designed for this type of work. Common manual tools were often difficult to use if you didn't have the proper physique or strength. In order to get the nail seated properly in the tongue portion of the floor, a pretty good whack with dead on aim was needed. Failure to do so causes problems with nails that don't go all the way into the hardwood planking.  

Types Of Tools. Pneumatic

The early 90's brought on air assisted flooring fasteners with with the Bostich MIIIFS stapler (shown below) being the front runner. Pneumatic became the tool of choice, working from air pressure with a connected compressor. No longer did it take one million calories (or so it seemed) to nail 1,000 square feet because manual tools were very labor intensive.

Pneumatic fasteners require only a small tap on the plunger to get a nail or staple (black round gizmo shown) engaged into the hardwood, but does depend on the air pressure setting on the compressor used. Some hardwoods require different settings and it's best to test first before running into mistakes that can cause installation problems later.

Pneumatic Staplers And Nailers

Yes, there are pneumatic nailers and staplers, but which to use? Some professionals have noted staples actually fasten the floor too tight, creating potential squeaking effects, while others are more comfortable with the time tested flooring cleat nails that allow a more natural expansion and contraction hardwood floors need. This seems more prevalent in areas where moisture levels are higher such as the Gulf states.

What Types Of Nails Are Used?

In the golden days steel hardened cut nails were used. Now depending on what tool you may be using there are cleat nails, manufactured with a barbed like appearance on the bottom that helps hold the flooring into the subfloor. Staples on the other hand obtain their holding capacity by resin on the bottom of all staples. Once the staple is engaged by a pneumatic tool, friction caused by the force going through hardwood and subfloor heats up the resin and acts as an adhesive.

The Mallet?

The mallet shown has two distinct parts besides the handle. The white portion is hard rubber used to engage the plunger and persuade adjacent boards into place before actually hitting the plunger. Have a board that is bowed a little? That's what the rubber part is designed for.

Opposite of the white rubber part is a chunk of metal working as a counter balance providing weight and more force while moving planks or strip into place, and should never be used on the plunger. In some cases it may be advantageous to tap end pieces tighter before actual nailing or stapling, but to be used as a tool to drag pieces into place should be avoided, especially with prefinished material

How Long Does It Take To Install?

Much depends on the width of the board you are installing. Other factors coming into play is what the overall layout looks like. For a standard 400 square foot room, furniture moved, and ready to go; common 2 1/4" strip flooring will take 10-12 hours for an experienced installer. If you're hiring out, be careful with those bragging artists that claim the job can be done in half the time. Some have been known to skip nail. Skip nailing is fastening every other row only.