"Tanner-'op" wrote in message
...
Andrew Mawson wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sat, 6 Sep 2008 18:40:34 +0100, "George \(dicegeorge\)"
wrote:

Is there any reason why my old floorboards are nailed, other
than
that it's quicker?


Historically boards were nailed with flooring brads through the
tongues( or was it the grooves) to hide the nails .

SNIP


That's pretty recent history - historically there were no tongues
and
grooves and floor boards were nailed with 'cut nails' - a method
that
persisted from (at least) Roman times to late Edwardian times. Cut
nails are still available - their wedge shape makes a good fixing.

AWEM

Andrew,

That's what "flooring brads" are - cut nails by another name!

Tanner-'op


If you put a cut nail (by any name) through the tongue or groove of
any normal thickness floor board all you'd do is split it. They are
normally put about an inch in from the edge of 6 x1 or 5 x 3/4 plain
boards in my experiance, and tongue and groove boards are fixed using
oval or round 'lost head' nails.. concealed nailing through the
grooves uses a thin nail (relative to cut nails)

AWEM