Flooring woes

[PlicketyCat]

We have 1x6 T&G white spruce floor planks that I really want to face nail. 1) I'm not the best blind nailer, 2) I hate nail guns, and 3) I think face nails will look great in our rustic cabin.  So what's the problem?!?  I live in the middle of nowhere and my nearest city has virtually no selection of hardware! The closest semi-suitable nails I can find are 8d ring shank or 8d spiral drive, but these are both galvanized and flat head rather than countersunk. Galvanized aren't exactly attractive and I worry about discoloration (not in a good way), and flat heads are just going to trap dirt and grab socks.

So my options appear to be 1) order steel square nails from out of state ($$) and have them shipped to me ($$$$$), 2) use the galvanized nails and put a crap-ton of polyurethane down on the floor to seal everything (there goes the oil finish), or 3) suck it up and rent the flooring nailer to blind nail/staple them.

Any other ideas?

If I order the steel nails, roughly how many lbs would be required for 700 sq ft? They're pretty expensive so I don't want to order way more than I need, but don't want to short myself either.

[Radar67]

Learn to blind nail by hand. Your cabin is not that big and it wouldn't take long to nail it. The key is to leave the nail up some and use a nail set to finish it off.

[PlicketyCat]

so if I blind nail by hand, would I just use smooth-shank casing/finishing nails?

[Radar67]

Yes, 8d brite finish is what I would use.

[logman]

I used steel cut masonry nails on my timber frame floors in Md.  They aren't that expensive especially compared to the wrought iron ones you are probably looking to order.

[ljmathias]

I used the cut nails on the pine stairs in my youngest son's house (just finished a while back) and I think they look great- the heads are unique, rectangular in shape and with a distinct rounded top.  The cut nails hold much better than wire nails (I read somewhere).  Couple of considerations: I pre-drilled to eliminate splitting (worked), used only the nails without the thin veneer of rust they get just waiting to be used (rust hasn't been a problem after with poly finish on top), and they look so much neater than other nail heads showing.  If they won't show, then it doesn't matter so much but I'd think twice about ring-shank or twisted: if you're going to that trouble, why not use square head screws?  You can get them in black pretty cheap and you can always back them out if you need to adjust or replace a board- ring-shank nails, not so much.  I've yet to build anything that I didn't have to adjust or replace some parts of - just my way of adding my own special touch to projects.   

Anyway, good luck and keep us posted (like with frequent posts?) with lots of pictures...

Lj

[mmhailey]

Here is the thread to a floor I put down almost 2 years ago. I think it looks better today, that it did when we put it down.  I was using 1 1/2" vs. what sounds like 3/4" in your case. However I think you should be able to set your nail gun to properly sink the nail in the tongue of the board. 

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,31053.0.html

I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, and actually I am starting a project soon, where the floor will be the exact same. The secret I think is the PL400. Don't use a substitute.!!

If you don't own a nail gun buy one, and learn to use it.  IMHO a nail gun is noisy, dangerous, but it allows one person to accomplish tasks that hand driving nails sometimes takes two or three people. Don't get me wrong. I still hand drive nails. But only when the specific task requires it.

Remember too. Once you blind nail and glue the boards, if you aren't happy, and you have some cupping you can always come back and face nail at a later date.

Just my two cents, from a fellow Alaskan.

[Raphael]

you can usually rent (or borrow) a flooring stapler, that's what I did to blind nail my 1x6 cypress floor downstairs.  Upstairs I sprang for the wrought nails in my ceiling and 2x8 SYP flooring.

[Thehardway]

I would use the ringshank galv. and countersink them with a nail set to keep them from catching socks. You can then put some filler or wax in the recess filling with dirt.  I wouldn't be concerned with discoloration, especially when used with white spruce and sealed with anything.  Discoloration if it were to occur would be much worse with a plain iron nail than a galvanized one.  You would see discoloration primarily with high tannin woods like oak, or cedar.  The galv. ringshank nails will not pull out or back out. You may want to blunt the points to keep them from splitting the wood when you drive them.  Another option might be decking screws but they are typically more expensive as well.  Plus side is they can be re-used.

[PlicketyCat]

I thought about using the copper deck screws since they'd almost match the wood color, but I was worried about the drive hole filling up with muck... but I guess that's not really a problem if I wax & oil or poly the floor. So, I might think about that again since we have several cordless drills and batteries.

The problem with the nail guns is running the compressor on the generator (no grid power up here) and fuel is expensive or getting the ones that take the cartridges (also $$). We have a finish nail gun because I always manage to ding my trim with the hammer or bend a nail; but not a framing or flooring nailer, so buying a set of those would add a bit to our construction cost and limit us to only one person being able to "work" at a time... and not being able to hear each other over the compressor, which is really dangerous out here in the bush.

I'll look for the square masonry nails next time I'm in town, they might work and be less expensive than having steel cuts sent to me from a forge down in the Lower 48.

I was really hoping to get some good grip since the floor joists beneath are rough sawn and air dried and I'm worried about them contorting a bit and causing the kiln-dried floor planks to pop up... so maybe gluing and screwing is really the way to go.

I will definitely be posting frequent updates with pictures just as soon as it gets dry enough for us to actually start building. The tundra is complete muck after the thaw and all the rain, so we haven't been able to get anything done but materials acquisition... and half of those are still sitting up at a neighbor's property because we can't get them back to the building site down the trail because the mud swallowed the truck the last time (that was a fun 4 hours with winch and hi-lift jacks I tell ya).

[submarinesailor]

the trail because the mud swallowed the truck the last time (that was a fun 4 hours with winch and hi-lift jacks I tell ya).

What, no pictures?? ;D ;D ;D

Bruce

[PlicketyCat]

ahh Bruce, I think my husband would have killed me if I'd run back to the tent to grab the camera .  He was frustrated at me for getting the truck stuck farther up the trail, thought it was my fault for not knowing how to drive in the mud... but that was easier to get out because there were more big trees to winch off of and the ground was a little more solid. But this time we were in a patch with virtually no trees and he was driving. At least he now understands that muskeg is not like normal mud... it's more like quicksand. You can be driving along and everything is fine, then the vegetation layer on the top breaks through and you sink into a bottomless pit of muck. The "ground" is literally floating on top of a suspension of ultra-fine glacial silt and spring melt that is trapped by the ice and permafrost underneath so it can't drain. It's totally a non-newtonian fluid... like Jell-O... and it moves while you're walking on it