Which do you think is better for a hardwood floor Staples or Nails?
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ok to ad to my post. i went out looking to buy a hardwood nailer [stanley bostich] all I could find were staplers. after looking in 5 different places i ended up buying the stapler. i'm not a hardwood guy, just the occasional floor. I've rented many times and allways used the nailer. I can still take it back.I cant decide.
Depends on the substrate and the flooring material, but in the new construction I do, I use plywood subfloor and since both my nailers (manual and air) are not staplers, I have to give my nod to nailers.
I guess I would lean toward a stapler if going into OSB, because, in my experience, OSB provides less withdrawal resistance than Plywood (despite what the literature says), and the way a staple turns out as it penetrates, intuitively I assume that a staple will hold better.
Having said that, there are a lot of old floors in service held with nails that are in good shape.
Another factor is the flooring material itself. I've done Doug Fir, Western Hemlock, SYP, Maple, Black Walnut, bamboo, Eastern Maple, Madrone, Pacific Yew and Cherry over the years. Most of the aforementioned was 3/4" or 5/4" with the Bamboo typically 5/8." I've never had a problem with splitting using a nailer (with a common-sense nailing pattern (stay 4" or so from the edges).
And nails do hold well.
I'll be curious what others have to say.
(Get good kneepads and do your back excercises!)
ricky, here's another recent thread about nailers & staplers..
worth the read..
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=51096.1
Ricky,
I like cleat nailers, Porta-Nailer comes to mind...... when these go in they don't come out. they are a flat barbed peice of metal and have much holding strength.
james