What Gauge Cleat For 3 4 Hardwood Floor

With staples you get what you pay for.

What gauge cleat for 3 4 hardwood floor.

Hardwood flooring installers have used cleats for generations nailing 3 4 solid hardwood planks to a wooden subfloor with 2 nails formed with an l shaped head. Due to well defined barbs powercleats have the best holding power in the industry. The higher the gauge number the thinner the nail. Diy enthusiasts want to know which choice is best in the cleats vs staples argument.

For boards 2 1 4 3 1 2 wide 3 4 thick place a 2 nail every 8 10 along the side tongue edge and 1 3 from the board ends. Nail showed very little lost and outperformed the 15 5 ga. Once you are about 4 rows from a wall you cannot use the big nailer anymore because you can t swing the hammer to actuate the air nailer. Jam or tenon saw.

After conditioning flooring 3 1 4 hard maple in cycling chambers from 80 rh to 20 during mutiple weeks and using same subfloor materials the 16 and 18 ga. The two gauges of nails typically used for hardwood floors are 16 and 18 gauge. Hardwood floor nailer specific to wood type manual or pneumatic. Certain cleat nailer models are specifically designed for use with thin engineered hardwood flooring like the primatech q 550 18 gauge cleat nailer which can be used to install 3 8 to 3 4 tongue and groove flooring.

You need this as well as the hardwood stapler and l cleats. Staple which had lost up to 60 of it s holding power on lesser density subfloors. Shf15 senco manual hardwood flooring cleat nailer use 1 1 2 long cleat nails when installing thinner 1 2 thick wood flooring. The 16 gauge 1 3 4 in.

Pros and cons of using cleats for hardwood floor installation. A 18 g finish nailer with at least 1 1 2 nails 3 finish nails 3 8 drill with 1 8 bit a nail set and construction adhesive. Use 1 3 4 long cleat nails when installing 3 4 solid wood flooring when 3 4 thick plywood is applied directly over a concrete slab so the cleat nail does not go through the 3 4 thick plywood hitting the concrete.