On 7 Mar 2007 13:13:36 -0800, "RicodJour"
wrote:

Goedjn wrote:
On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:00:09 GMT, "Toller" wrote:
"George" wrote in message
Toller wrote:

Yes, face-nailed oak floors. That is odd? I guess haven't looked at
floors much; how is it normally done?

Blind nailed if tongue and groove material or screwed and plugged if
square edged material. Face nailing is pretty unusual.

Its square edged and face nailed.
The house is about 25 years old, and while it is not much by today's
standards, when it was built it was considered to be a premium house. Guess
they cut a few corners.

Depends. Face-nailing plank floor isn't WRONG, it's just way more
common on older pine floors than modern oak ones. (using
box nails to do it, however, *IS* wrong.)

Actually, face nailing is wrong. It's never a good idea. The only
time it is done is when someone doesn't have T&G flooring available -
either because they got a "deal" on square edged board or don't
understand how a wood floor moves - or because they don't understand
the need for more expensive and slower-to-install screws. The
"wrongness" of face nailing can be somewhat offset by using cut nails
or, better yet, deformed shank nails such as ring shanks and the
like. Cut nails sever the wood fibers and provide better holding
power. And obviously screws are better than nails - as long as you
use the right sort of screws.

The holding power of a nail is based on a bunch of factors - type of
nail, coatings, shank size, type of wood and depth of embedment. For
any given nail and framing situation, the depth of embedment is of
primary importance. A face nail's maximum embedment is the thickness
of the subfloor (joists only occupy ~15% of the floor). A nail that's
driven at a 45 degree angle, like the typical nail in a T&G
installation, has an embedment 1.4 times greater than the thickness of
the subfloor. Which means it will have 40% more holding power. And
that's not even taking into account the difference in force the floor
exerts on an angled nail as opposed to a face nail.


Old-style plank floors are usually laid over diagonal 2x dimension
lumber subfloors. Given that the ones in my grandmother's
house have lasted for 200 years or so, I gotta conclude that
the technique works. I'll admit that it probably won't work
as well over pressboard, but those should have less movement
in the first place. It's also not the look that most people
think of when they hear "oak floors".