Solid hardwood flooring facing nail gauge

[LCSteve]

So I'm first time installing 3/4" solid hickory tongue and groove floorings soon throughout my downstairs. While doing some research and aligning with the tools I already have I'm trying to figure out what I need. I know I'll "need" a flooring nailer, yeah I know I could use hammer and nail or a 15/6 ga finish nailed positioned exactly at 45º but proper nailer will save time over 1100sq ft. My question is around the starting row and ending several rows where the flooring nailer won't reach. I know I'll need to use a finish nailer on the face for those but my predicament is that I own a decent Hitachi / Metabo 15 ga finish nailer and a 18 ga brad (I've been using finishing nails in for years). I've read that 16 ga is pretty standard for a 3/4" in solid floors. I feel that my 15 ga is just too large for the facing nails and I'm concerned that 18 ga is too small as well. Should I bite the bullet on a 16 ga finishing nailer or would the 18 ga with 2" finishing nails be sufficient? The manufacturer documentation identifies "Pneumatic finish nailer with 1-1/2˝ or 2˝ (4-5 cm) nails • 6-8d finish nails" nothing about the gauge.

Thanks in advance.

 

[billconner]

I used finish nailer agsinst walls but drilled and used spiral flooring nails on rows I couldn't use flooring nailer. It's the mallet swing that stops you. I had a couple of wall touch ups.

 

[duneslider]

Is this prefinished wood flooring? If it is prefinished I usually use my 16ga finish nailer for any face nailing and I try to put the nails through blemishes in the wood this way it hides better when I put putty in them. I try to keep face nails to a minimum when doing prefinished products. I put in my starter rows with plenty of glue and get as many toe nails in as possible, then throw a few bundles of wood on the starter rows and let it set for a while while I work on other prep, racking out the wood, maybe some pre-cutting, etc before I start nailing with the floor nailer. I try to not go too crazy banging the floor nailer the first couple rows, then I bang them in as hard as I can.

If it is sand and finish wood then I use the 15ga nailer as it is stronger and works better. I still try to put face nails near blemishes.

 

[LCSteve]

Is this prefinished wood flooring? If it is prefinished I usually use my 16ga finish nailer for any face nailing and I try to put the nails through blemishes in the wood this way it hides better when I put putty in them. I try to keep face nails to a minimum when doing prefinished products. I put in my starter rows with plenty of glue and get as many toe nails in as possible, then throw a few bundles of wood on the starter rows and let it set for a while while I work on other prep, racking out the wood, maybe some pre-cutting, etc before I start nailing with the floor nailer. I try to not go too crazy banging the floor nailer the first couple rows, then I bang them in as hard as I can.

If it is sand and finish wood then I use the 15ga nailer as it is stronger and works better. I still try to put face nails near blemishes.

Thanks for the feedback, yeah it's prefinished. I ended up buying a 16ga finish nailer as after a couple of hours of research the manufacturer got back with me and told me to use either 15 or 16 on those face rows.

Unfortunately I didn't get to put any flooring down this weekend as planned as when I pulled the 12yr old crappy floating floor in the first room we found the entire subfloor was shot from water damage. It was bad enough that without the cheapo floating floor on it I fell through the floor into my crawlspace. Got the whole room replaced and part of the adjacent kitchen with new subfloors. I pulled some random spots of the floating floor elsewhere and figure I have about the same amount of floors left to do this coming weekend.

I always thought our floors were bouncy because the builder used 2x8 stringers turns out that wasn't the reason. I needed to scab one stringer for piece of mind and installed blocking through the whole area too in order to firm it up for sure.

Always something with these projects.

 

[engineer2]

I always put extra screws in the subfloor first. Usually one between each nail. Also measure room squareness.
When you run out of room to swing the mallet, take the rubber bumper off the nailer. Sometime that gets you another row.
If you are hand nailing the last row(s) predrill the the tongue to avoid splitting it. If you can't get 45°, the finishing nail may interfere with the lower part of the next board. I just notch it out with a utility knife.
On the final row I keep the face nailing hidden under the baseboard shoe.

A flooring jack is quite useful:

O

 

[Forgottonia]

You'll need a compound saw to cut a piece to length at the end of every row. Stapler for the underlayment. An air compressor to run your pneumatic flooring nailer.

You might want to have a pry bar with a thin flat end and either a large ball peen or small (2 lb) sledge hammer, and a flooring mallet with plastic hammer head. It's likely you'll need to pull a piece or two up, or knock them into place if they're out of alignment.

 

[billconner]

Thanks for the feedback, yeah it's prefinished. I ended up buying a 16ga finish nailer as after a couple of hours of research the manufacturer got back with me and told me to use either 15 or 16 on those face rows.

Unfortunately I didn't get to put any flooring down this weekend as planned as when I pulled the 12yr old crappy floating floor in the first room we found the entire subfloor was shot from water damage. It was bad enough that without the cheapo floating floor on it I fell through the floor into my crawlspace. Got the whole room replaced and part of the adjacent kitchen with new subfloors. I pulled some random spots of the floating floor elsewhere and figure I have about the same amount of floors left to do this coming weekend.

I always thought our floors were bouncy because the builder used 2x8 stringers turns out that wasn't the reason. I needed to scab one stringer for piece of mind and installed blocking through the whole area too in order to firm it up for sure.

Always something with these projects.

Is your crawlspace floor exposed dirt? If so, StegoCrawl.