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I have a couple flooring jobs coming up (3/4″ unfinished) with at least 3000sq. ft. and need to purchase a nailer. My question is to go with a pneumatic or manual and any brand preferences? Do the Pnuematics give a better end job or just save time/energy. Also, some of the flooring is really tight at the joint. Would a stapler help in that situation? Thanks for your input!
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I currently have both a Porter Cable and Power Nail
Hand nailer in my house. I recently rented a
Pneumatic PowerNail(er). They all seem to provide
the same result. The pneumatic nailer was
much less effort. I'll be renting it again, well
worth the $25.00 a day. I've only laid about 2Kft^2
of flooring. My body thought the pneumatic nailing was a breeze. It wasn't nearly as pleased with the Hand nailer. I'm not sure what you mean about "tight at the joint", but I had no problem getting the flooring to go together, and near the walls I used my paslode finish nailer (Which was awesome...).
*Get the air. Have used the bostich stapler. Very good tool, some maintainance with lotsa use. If you stick with manual, one arm with be longer than the other.
*Ah, that explains it (the longer arm and the lean to one side) ....the Porta Nailer syndrome. Never have used air ...... do you need an oiless compressor or will an oil compressor do fine?
*Any compressor is fine. Not much air to run it. Probably could compare to a finish gun. You can shorten the long arm by using it to hoist a cold one. Drink with the other hand and you're screwed big time.
*Rent the air one.Do not do floors part time... Guys that do it fulltime have backs that can handle the job.Trust me... your back will be killing you when you are not even to 400 sqft!near the stream,Report back on your progress and your back spasms.
*I race a canoe, which tends to make one side larger than the other. The long arm on one side just meant that I always nailed with my left hand. I also recommend Naproxen (Alieve) as the best sore muscle medication. I'm no pro, but putting in floors is physically very easy, and reasonably straight forward. Even the floor finishing goes smoothly. Patience, attention to detail (as always) are crucial to a job well done. While I can't lay the 800-1000 ft^2 that NOFMA says a floor layer can put down in a day, I'm also not on the clock. More importantly, because I'm not spending money on a layer or finisher, I can spend the money on exotic wood detail strips, borders and designs which look really neat but are simple to install.