Solid Oak Flooring Questions and any Tips?

[warren1979]

Hi,

Im about to start laying a solid oak floor in my lounge. Its a new build townhouse with the lounge on the first floor so so luckily im laying on a flat wooden substrate. I have a couple of things im not sure about and wonder if someone could point me in the right direction?

1. What type of nail gun should i hire? I have read tha the nail needs to be hammered in at a 45 degree angle in the tongue of the board but are all nail guns able to do this with ease?

2. What type of nails should i be using?

3. When it comes to the arcitraves whats the best way to saw them and get a good clean cut?

4. Any other tips that might be worth keeping in mind?

Thanks in advance,

Warren

 

[WoodYouLike]

why would you want to secret nail your wood floor onto chipboard? (Presuming your subfloor is made of chipboard - nailing into that could cause the chipboard to 'explode' due to the force and angle of the nails)

Lay a foam underlayment first, giving you also extra sound-insulation, and then install your wood floor floating, glueing all T&G's correctly. You won't damage your subfloor this way.

As for architraves: measure where your floor will 'hit' and saw that piece out with a "fein" or hand-saw. Make sure you remove enough from the doorpost too so your floor has an expansion gap even underneath the architrave and door post.

 

[warren1979]

To be honest i didnt take a really good look at the sub floor but it didnt look like chipboard- it was more of a very solid looking MDF. There was already nails in it and thats why i was going to nail it. Now that you mention it though i will double check it before going ahead.

Thanks