Where To Use The Fasteners? Is There A
Pattern?
Let's take an example (illustration 1) that
will provide a better idea where to nail or
staple your hardwood floor.
Shown is
an example of the nailing pattern
for a standard 2 1/4" wide strip floor.
White dots indicate areas where fasteners are
used.
Room dimension is 6'10" which is kind of
rare but the illustration is a template used
on other pages that deal with
installing solid 3/4"
floors. Keep in mind it is not perfect to
any scale. Let's look at the first row
(furthest right in the illustration). Nine
fasteners were used which calculates out to
about one every nine inches, or in the range
of 8-10 inches recommended in the
chart above.
The second row has two shorter boards being
used where the number of fasteners has
increased to eleven. While 8-10" is the
normal nailing pattern, shorter pieces will
be a different story. That's why we mention
the need for more fasteners if the material
is shorter than standard strip flooring.
Keep Away From Ends Joints At Least 3 Inches
There's a reason why manufacturers recommend
nailing a minimum of three inches from each
end joint. Anything closer to the ends can
cause splitting which over time can also
create noisy, squeaky floors.
How
Many Fasteners Come In A Box?
It will depend on the length for solid 3/4"
floors. For stapled floors a standard
2" staple manufactured by Bostitch contains
7,728 staples (left top) Can you buy a
smaller quantity? In the staple department
we haven't seen any for the 2" length.
Standard
flooring nails, often termed cleats (left
bottom) in the industry, quantities are
different.1,000 can be purchased in smaller
boxes while a larger one handles 5,000. A
mega box option holds 15,000.
How Much Do They Cost?
Our web surfing shows the Bostitch staples
can run anywhere from 60 to eighty dollars
for the 7,728 quantity. Cleats manufactured
by Powernail run $ 14.00 for the 1,000 box
and approximately $ 60.00 for the mid range
5,000 count carton.
