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Hardwood help

  • Thread starter droseraguy
  • Start date

droseraguy

Illinois
Just thought I would post this here to see if anyone has any ideas / tips. I've got about 600 sq ft of tigerwood 3/4" x 4 7/8" to lay. It will be nailed down with the airgun so that should be a help. There are some that suggest gluing the ends for warping I suppose ? This will be a long weekend so I plan on knocking alot of it out or knocking myself out in the process. Sockit too me guys !
 
Well...
I only know what friends have told me... the ones who do lots of woodworking.
Use sharp (new) carbide saw blades and drill bits whenever possible, and highly recommended. Regular blades will dull quickly and not cut well... causing poor cuts and take a lot of extra time. It will be like sawing a tree limb with a butter knife!

Also, to prevent nails from bouncing back, going in at an angle, partially or bending (yea, even when using an air-nailer) or most often, splitting the board/tongue... then it is recommended to drill pilot holes, although a big hassle when it comes to doing an entire floor.
At 3/4", I assume you are doing solid flooring of entirely Tigerwood. Do check to see if the Tigerwood is laminated over another softer wood, which would make pre-drilling unnecessary. If it were me, I would try nailing without drilling anyway, just to see what you have to deal with and save work that might not be necessary.

I laid a few rooms of solid Bamboo and have also done one with oak flooring (solid wood flooring with the flooring type mallet & air nailer) and overall it was pretty easy. (Wasn't my first time at woodwork however.)
I did an under-layer of felt paper, and also nailed and leveled the sub-flooring before starting. All the pre-work was well worth it, avoiding squeaks and laying problems. Everything was tongue and groove, so the only work was in creating angle cuts and better threshold boards than what is normally sold.

I assume your flooring is also tongue and groove, so I don't know why you would have an issue with major warping being a big problem. (Unless you have a humidity/water problem.) However I myself, used shellac and marine grade poly to seal the ends that I cut, just to be sure there would be no problem down the line. (The rest of the flooring was pre-sealed and finished.) Laying a floor is an awful lot of work to do, to risk having something like warping or moisture being drawn into the end of a board, making the whole thing turn to crap! I would rather go the extra mile as an insurance, seal the cuts and ends, than to trust that nothing will go wrong. (I use common sense over advice, and err on the side of avoiding problems with a little extra work when I can.)

The people I know who do woodwork are like me, however one said it shouldn't be a problem if the flooring wasn't exposed to extremes or direct wet conditions. They did all agree that it's important to wait and have the flooring acclimate in your house for a few weeks if possible, for the moisture content to match that of your subfloor. I sat with my flooring sitting around for a few months before I got around to laying it, so that was never an issue for me.

Look around on the net if you can, and if any one person suggests sealing the ends, I would do it without a doubt. Like I said, it is a small effort to save yourself a lot of work down the line. If it is pre-finished flooring, only the cuts you make will need sealing. That is what I did, and I feel better for it.
As far as gluing, I don't understand the logic behind it. I think I would read more about that before bothering. It was never recommended from what I have read on the Bamboo and oak, and the idea of gluing to the sub-floor seems like it will complicate things in the future, if ever the flooring needs to be redone or a problem arises. It will make changing out a damaged board near impossible, and will require destroying the floor and sub-floor to take it out. If an underlayment is put down (Like the felt paper I used), then gluing won't keep a board from warping and lifting any better than the flooring nails will! Doesn't make sense to me.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks for the info. Kinda what I was thinking about the gluing part. What's the point if the felt is the only thing it's bonded too and it's already tounge and groove. Maybe on the wall ends where the nailer might not quite fit ? It's been sitting here for a good 2 weeks with the box ends open as suggested so it should be acclimated. The crew will be starting tomorrow, do you remember how to get here or need directions ? I've got the industrial size tylenol so just bring your back and brains. ;)
 
Ummm, I'm busy that day! Sorry!

I used a regular floor nailer with mallet and air compressor, and a regular nail gun for along the walls where the floor nailer couldn't get close enough. The baseboard trim covers the wall ends and hides the cuts!
I can't imagine that the ends would be helped by glue at all, especially with an under-layment pad/paper. It would be senseless. However, if you are concerned (as I was) about the cut ends of the boards absorbing moisture and warping, I would recommend a single coat of shellac or poly, and I did that myself as I was concerned about the boards collecting moisture along the outside walls especially.... I don't know why, but I was. I did the sealing as I laid the board, a thin coat and then put in place and nailed. It wasn't messy at all, and went very quickly.

It isn't that difficult, but indeed a bit hard on the back after a while! And so long as the flooring was indoors before you bought it, a couple weeks in your home should be enough I assume. The problem gets when there is a large moisture difference between the boards and the sub-floor, as there will be shrinking/expanding at different rates, and that is when buckling, cupping and bad things happen!

Good luck! Sorry I will have to miss it!
I bet it will look great when you are done!
But that is the key-word... done!
Take care!
 
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