hello,
I am trying to install maple 6/4 T&G loft decking in a log home. I’m using a pnuematic nailer and the nails are splitting the tongue. This makes it almost impossible to put the flooring in properly.
Is there a special tool that I should be using? Is there a flooring nailer that works on 6/4 stock?
thanks,
Bob
For a stable, flat, and squeak-free floor, you'll find that most new products are OSB.
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Replies
I routinely use a framing nailer firing 3¼ or 3½" nails to install 2x6 roof-decking as flooring. This stuff is made of red pine, though. As softwood goes, it's pretty tough, but it's not maple, that's for sure.
Maybe you need to angle the nail more into the meat and less right through the tongue. I fire the nails right into the angle at the base of the tongue, but angled back at about 45 degrees. The only time I see any splitting is if I don't back off enough laterally on the nails at the ends of each board; if you get too close to the end, it'll split for sure. Try to fire the nail from about an inch and a half away from the end, angled towards the joist and also angled back. Like cutting a mitre and a bevel at the same time, 45 degrees in one plane and 45 degrees in the other.
I suppose you could run each strip of nails across a bench grinder to blunt the tips of them before loading up the gun. Blunt nails tend to split wood less often, because they tear their way through the wood fibres--thus creating a hole--instead of wedging them apart.
Hope this helps. I don't know if any specific flooring nailers can handle 1½" thick boards; I've never needed to find out.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
....also remove the plastic base plate. This will drop the fastener about 1/4". I'm suspecting that you have the pressure set high because the fastener has to travel so far to hit the tongue.Ditch
No baseplate on my framing gun--I'm using a Paslode clipped-head stick nailer; just big nasty teeth to grab the studs. Have to watch where you plant those teeth when you use it to lay finishable flooring. My Senco gun has a more gentle mouth on it, but it's down for parts at the moment....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Lower your pressure. Start out around 60psi and adjust from there. You should'nt need more than 80psi.
Ditch
Bob, I installed quite a bit of 6/4 and 8/4 tongue and groove flooring. I found the best way was to predrill with a 3/16" bit and then we hand nailed with either 16d or 20d galvanized nails. Use galvanized they hold better but have more of a tendency to bend . You could use a palm nailer instead of hammering but predrill first. We even predrilled pine let alone hardwoods like maple.
mike
Paslode does make a rubber tip for your nailer... works great.
Also, I have seen non-split nail literature somewhere... the nails ends are blunted to help prevent splitting.