Bostich manual Floor nailer.

[Jason Roehl]

Frank, I have several ratchet straps with L-shaped plates that are made for flooring. Much cheaper than that Cepco...but that does look pretty cool...I better tell my wife to hide the credit and debit cards...

[Ron Natalie]

Sorry to be late on the thread, but ditch the manual nailer. I was putting down maple in the dining room with one (albeit harder than most oak) and it was just a royal pain. I told my wife after two days of that I was going to work and she could call the rental houses and find a pneumatic one for me. $40 and four hours later with the pneumatic nailer the floor was down. You still have to wallop away on the pneumatic one to seat the board, but it has the advantage that once the thing starts to fire the nail the pneumatic drives it all the way rather than sometimes taking a couple of whacks on the manual one.

[Ron Kurzius]

Why don't you just hand nail it? Get some spiral floor nails and a good 24oz hammer and do it the old fashion way. Grab a hand full of nails and drive the first nail, use the head of the next nail to set the first one and so on.

[Larry Rupert]

I did most of my house with a porta-nailer. Wasn't bad at all, used 3/4" oak. I wouldn't want to have to do it in a hurry, it does take a little swinging. I think that the manual nailers give a much "tighter fit" between boards than the pneumatic ones. FWIW, Larry

Any used the none air powered floor nailer? I realize I can rent an air powered one but most of my projects move at glacier speed. I would be installing unfinished 3/4 Oak flooring into t/g exterior grade plywood subfloor. I watched some Youtube videos on it and it seemed to work ok.

This would be used just for three areas of flooring in my house. Maybe a total of 300 sqft.

This tool more trouble then it is worth?

Thanks,
Scott

[Alex Horvath]

I saw a really drawn out debate on a pro hardwood floor message board regarding nails vs. staples and the consensus is that staples are better for dubious subfloors like OSB. The staples do hold better (this was proven at some university) but sometimes they hold too tight which can cause the floor to crack especially in very humid environments. The nails were designed at a time when subfloors were mostly solid wood.

[frank shic]

jason, i found another use for the floor jack - helping to level my exaktor sliding table attachment on an unlevel garage floor lol.

[BOB OLINGER]

I've only used the manual Porta nailer. IMO, it works great; I've nailed down a couple thousand feet of 3/4" oak. With the manual, you have the option of increasing the hit to tighten up the flooring. Would appear a lot easier to handle than dragging hoses around. Lowes loaned the last one withe purchase of flooring - bought Bruce. I can't imagine any woodworker, pro or hobbiest not being successful with this tool.