Face Nailed Flooring

Face nailing leaves the fasteners visible on the finished floor this is seen in older rustic homes and can be used to accent a period floor.

Face nailed flooring.

The proper way to face nail is to countersink the nails with a nail punch and fill the remaining hole with coordinating wood putty. Mark the locations of joists on perimeter walls so that the starting runs and finishing runs which require face nailing can be nailed into joists. The design of. I then use the flooring nailer to shoot the staples into the tongue.

When completed both blind nailing and top screws and plugs hide the fasteners from view. Any flooring with straight cut edges meaning boards without interlocking tongues and grooves must be face nailed throughout the whole floor not just along the edges of the room. Masonry cut nail has this look. I am going to nail some temporary blocks on the back of the first row to keep them from moving.

The saving in labor is significant. Face nailing is the common practice used to nail the first few rows of boards in place because it is difficult to maneuver hardwood floor nail guns close to the wall. Mark each joist location with a string line no chalk and drill pilot holes for the cut nails. There will be no face nailing for the first row.

Staple down 15 lb. Make a simple guide to space the nails about 1. A traditional plank floor was face nailed with handmade nails. The hole size should be close to the narrow dimension of the rectangular head of the cut nail.

I need to reverse the direction as you can image. The slip tongue is used and i will use flooring nailer again to nail the reversed one. Hairline gaps however are a natural and expected part of the traditional appearance of a wide pine floor. Asphalt paper or red rosin paper over the sub floor lapped 2 4 at seams.