Wood is Good

Hey - watch my toes!

Today we started nailing down our Bruce hardwood flooring.  The first three rows were drilled and face nailed to provide clearance for the pneumatic nail gun to operate.  But before we could start laying floor boards, we spent some time establishing our reference lines with respect to the longest walls in the kitchen.  We snapped chalk guidelines along both walls, rolled out some #15 felt and began the nailing process.

The first boards to be installed established the interface between the existing dining room flooring and the new kitchen flooring. 











The kitchen sub-floor is anything by flat, with more like a wavy surface.  Sharron pressed down on the board as I hammered in the nails for the start of row 1.

Amanda became quite adept at operating the circular saw to trim the last board for each row. 

We had a great team going, with Sharron and Amanda selecting the boards to be placed in proper sequence, Amanda trimming the boards and me nailing them in.  It was all I could do to keep up with the girls.























Here row 4 is being installed using the nail gun, which shoots nails from a magazine at a 45-degree angle just above the tongue on the front edge of the board.  A firm hammer tap shoots a nail out with a bang.  This is much easier to operate than the spring loaded mechanical nailer that we used for our previous floor installation work.  I had a 3-month case of tennis elbow from that exercise!

Tap - BANG!!!

We finished work early today to leave for a social commitment, but expect we will finish the kitchen floor tomorrow. 

 Happy crew members enjoying their new floor