When carpenters install plank flooring, they often have to cope with warped planks. Some use a prybar to bend reluctant boards, others use pipe clamps. I keep it simple and use a wedge made from the decking itself.
As shown in the drawing, I make a diagonal cut through a scrap piece of decking that is about 1 ft. longer than the on-center spacing of the joists. The tapered piece with the tongue on it becomes the block, the other the wedge. Next, I nail the block to a joist just in front of the warped board. Then I drive the wedge, grooved side against the tongue of the bowed decking, into the space between the block and the floorboards.
When the warped floorboard is wedged snug against its neighbor, I blind-nail it in place. To allow blind nailing next to the wedge, I sometimes have to remove the top part of the groove from the wedge.
Stephen Reddy, Monterey, MA
