The nail down technique is suitable not only for engineered hardwood flooring, but for any other type of material. The main thing that you have to have is a wooden subfloor base wholly or partly installed, as to put nails in the solid concrete will be problematic.
Actually you can install an engineered hardwood floor with glue, but this article focuses on the technique of installing it by the nail down method.
Since engineered hardwood floor is a very flexible due to its structure, it easily changes its shape. That is why this type of floor requires perfect leveling. If you fail to level the floor correctly, your client will feel all the subfloor’s flaws that will spoil his mood every day, year after year. If the client refuses to invest in leveling, try to explain to him why he should do it.
In fact, engineered hardwood flooring nail down installation is one of the easiest and fastest floor installer’s projects. Let’s list the advantages:
You do not need to care about lock’s quality as nails firmly consolidate every laid wooden board. Typically, wooden boards of this material are a little wider than other types of hardwood. With this width, you save time on layout boards, and the installation goes much faster. Because of the boards’ flexibility, the weaknesses are less visible during installation. Compared to the glue down installation, where all your attention is focused on making the job clean, nail down installation has no equal.
Having the opportunity to work with nail down installation more often, you have a chance to earn a good salary, since the speed of installation grows from one project to another!
Many of you will be rushed to look for work with nail down installation. Do not rush to do this, as I have some news for you. When you’re working with any kind of solid wood, you can use the nail gun with a regular nail length. The whole thing is completely different for an engineered hardwood.
The fact that this type of floor has a different thickness means that for its installation nails and staples of varying length are required, so you need to use the different guns! Since floor installers should be able to work with different kinds of material, he should have all the tools needed at the time of installation. This means that you’ll have to buy them with your own money. And as clients and contractors are not interested in where you get nails and staples, you have to pay for them out of your own pocket.
More practice – and you will achieve great success. In fact, no matter what method installation you use for the engineered hardwood flooring, glue down or nail down, the skill comes not only from what you know but also on how often you do it.
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