After removing the carpet, I noticed that the subfloor was nailed with
bright nails, not
shank nails. The seams have no adhesive between the sheets either.

I'll be installing hardwood flooring, so besides having to sand the
transitions between sheets to make them level, would it be prudent to
replace the nails and fill in the gaps
too?

TIA

All nails have shanks, do you mean ring shank nails? They'd be good to
use, or screw shank nails. You can get them from 2-3" long. Will you be
using an air nailer, or manual?

nails all bend, unless your using a air nailer I would use screws, and
fill all voids, then sand as needed

"Augustine" wrote in message
oups.com...
After removing the carpet, I noticed that the subfloor was nailed with
bright nails, not
shank nails. The seams have no adhesive between the sheets either.

I'll be installing hardwood flooring, so besides having to sand the
transitions between sheets to make them level, would it be prudent to
replace the nails and fill in the gaps
too?

TIA

It sounds your turning this hardwood floor project into a major undergoing.
You are over thinking every aspect of the job. Why would you replace the
nails? there is no reason for it and wait until you see the mess that
makes.( how many question will that generate) The nails in your subfloor
were put in with a nail gun, nail gun nails have a coating on them that act
like a glue. Well there might be glue on the joist there might not be, to
late to worry about it. If there is a uneven edge joint add some nails and
try and pull it down and then sand it. You also said you want to put down
1/8" underlayment that's a waste of time, 3/8" plywood not partial board
usually not recommended for hardwood. In advance when you get on the
Concrete slab wait until you put a straight edge on that. I'm a firm
believer in do it your self, at this point I would suggest calling a
contactor and having the job done. While it's being done go on vacation
sometimes contractors get irritated and have been known to, lets just say
you should not be there. You have received some good advice to your post
about the floor but are determined to do it your way.

wrote in message
oups.com...
nails all bend, unless your using a air nailer I would use screws, and
fill all voids, then sand as needed


I agree, screws are much better for the subfloor.

On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:54:03 GMT, "newfysnapshot"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...
nails all bend, unless your using a air nailer I would use screws, and
fill all voids, then sand as needed


I agree, screws are much better for the subfloor.

A spiral-shank flooring nail is as good as a screw, except
that you'll never get the thing out again. A screw is a
marked improvement over a bright-common nail, but you shouldn't
be using those in a floor, anyway.

If OP is putting in a solid wood floor, lined with
rosin paper, then cracks and small voids in the
subfloor are a non-issue. Bumps, however, are bad.

there are also free floating hardwood floors

On 23 Feb 2006 12:35:08 -0800, "Augustine"
wrote:

I noticed that the nails were bright because when hammering a couple
down others came up as the sheet vibrated. After what you said, I
might just replace the nails coming up with ring shank ones.

Leave the existing nails in place, and just drive new
SPIRAL-shank nails down about an inch or so alongside them.
Pulling the old ones out is work to no purpose.
Who put the subfloor down?

--Goedjn.

NB. Spiral and ring-shank nails are different animals.

You can go to www.nationalnail.com, and type
"spiral floor" to see a picture of a spiral-shank nail,
or "ring shank deck" to see a ring-shank nail.

My limited understanding is that the swell/shrink cycle
of wood on exteriors can unscrew spirals over time, so
you use ring-shank there, but that ring-shank tears up
the fiber around the hole more, so you use spirals where
you can.

(What really amazes me is that there are people who make
their living thinking about things like that...)

I'm talking about the subfloor that the builder put... :-/

My concern is making sure that its movements are stabilized before
installing the floor.

Thanks.