Secret nailed wood floor

Wood flooring can be laid by secret nailing direct to joists or onto a plywood sub floor. This is not recommended for thinner engineered and solid overlay wood floorboards, which are best glued direct to the sub floor or floated onto underlay as appropriate.

It is also possible to nail onto existing floorboards but any loose boards must be screwed down securely.

With boards of 20mm thickness or more it is also possible to fix directly to the joists. Most solid and engineered wood flooring has T&G to all four sides. The disadvantage of this is that end joints do not very often occur at the point of the joist. These have to be supported by a noggin in order to meet current building regulations, or alternatively the wood flooring ends can be cut so that the end joints meet on a joist. This requires the joins to be butt jointed or the T&G re-cut by router.

However it is possible to have solid oak flooring produced to order in long lengths with T&G only on the long edges, which cuts down on wastage. Alternatively, first ply the area with a thin 5mm or thicker plywood before fixing with adhesive or secret nails.

For the first row of boards face the groove towards the wall and then pre drill holes towards the back edge and screw the boards to the sub floor. These fixings will later be covered by skirting or Scotia trim, or driven below the surface and filled as appropriate.

Fix the front edge by driving in the nails at approx 45-degree angle every 10-12 inches and about three inches from the board ends. Continue with the subsequent rows in the same way, ensuring that the T&Gs of the boards are fitted together correctly and are tapped in with a tapping block where necessary. Ideally use a porta-nailer or similar equipment to position and then secure the boards with a nail.

Ensure that sufficient overlap of the board ends of at least 12 inches is achieved to ensure strength in the floor, and then finish the last row by using the same face nailing technique that was used on the first row.

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> Secret nailed woodfloor
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