what nails to use- 1/8" wood floor
Hi I want to lay tiles - somebody had put down (luan wood ?) it is very thin sheets of wood. He repaired plywood below that and evened all out with this application. Some areas he never tacked down and I want to secure it. What type of nail do I use? Thank you in advance Lucie
The situation I think I see is that the guy nailed lauan underlayment all over the floor using finishing nails, then never put anything else on top of it. You now are attempting to put vinyl tile on the lauan. If that's the case, continue reading; if it's not, let me know. I would start by purchasing a few tubes of polyurethane construction adhesive, five pounds of 1-5/8" deck screws and five pounds of 3" deck screws (you'll see why in just a sec), and a big can of Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty. You'll also want some sandpaper; get the hook and loop (H&L) kind if you have a random-orbit sander with an H&L pad on it, like a Porter-Cable 333. You'll need a drill with a screwdriver bit in it, a putty knife, a caulking gun, a chalkline and a hammer, and a helper for part of this operation. Finishing nails don't have much holding power, so if you were to find a place along the edge of a sheet that's sticking up a little you could just grab the sheet and lift it right off the floor. Lay the sheet on the floor with the nails pointing down and jump on the middle of it. All of the nails will push up enough that you can pull them out with a claw hammer. Before you put the lauan back, look at the plywood subfloor. You should see where the nails are, which is also where the joists are. Make little marks on the wall in line with the rows of nails. Next, put some adhesive on the back of each sheet of lauan and put it on the floor; if it's cut to a shape make sure it goes back where it came up from. Make sure you get a good continuous bead all the way around the edges of each sheet. You and your partner now get to snap a chalkline on top of each joist. Drive three-inch deck screws into these lines right into the gaps between sheets. Make sure the heads sink just a little below the surface. Then put screws about a foot apart all along the chalklines. Finally, drive 1-5/8" deck screws halfway between the chalklines. You used the long screws to keep the floor from squeaking at a later date. One of the big reasons floors squeak is that the nails holding the subfloor down are starting to pull out, and the wood is rubbing against the nails when you walk on it. By using screws, you keep this from happening. (If you really wanted to do this right, you could pull up the subfloor, run a bead of construction adhesive on each joist, and screw the subfloor back down--but that's a big job so I won't ask you to.) Next, mix up some Rock Hard Water Putty and use it to fill in the countersunk screwholes and the gaps between the sheets of lauan. Lauan is used because vinyl flooring will show any little imperfection in the subfloor; rock hard water putty will make the subfloor as perfect as you possibly can get it. Let it dry for a day and sand it. Now lay your vinyl. It will look great. -- --jmowreader
Remember that I called for very long screws--three inches. I'm not just trying to screw down the lauan, I'm also trying to screw down the subfloor. -- --jmowreader