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Glue on top is a bad idea. Ridged nails (standard hardware item) resist popping up.
Beware nailing floors with a community hammer. In order to minimize damage, floor nails should be finished with a nail set (punch), using the smallest effective hammer.
I don't know about it's done, these days, but I watched for a whole day as a couple floor layers layed an entire hardwood floor when I was jes a wee tyke, back in the 50's. You never even saw the nails when done correctly.
As I recall, the hardwood boards were alternately lipped and the nail driven in at an angle so the next board covered the nails and presumably helped keep the nails in place.
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Oh so bad if you don't! (-:
I am not sure, but I think we're talking about just re-driving the nails that have come back up back down again. I get that sense because of the radiant flooring, which I believe is causing the wood to expand and contract and is exacerbating the problem. Installation of the radiant heat is probably the root cause of the flooring trouble because of the heating/cooling and possible poor installation. It certainly would make me very hesitant to drive nails or put screws into any place that didn't already have them. There's nothing quite as annoying as trying to fix one problem and ending up creating a much bigger one. BT,DT, too. )-:
If the OP is constrained to reusing the same nail holes there are different types of nails that have much better resistance to loosening than common nails. If you want extra holding power, go with a ring-shank or screw-shank nail. Tests show that modified-shank nails hold much better than smooth-shank nails.
Still, there are still some unanswered questions here, such as WHY the nail heads are even visible in the first place. As Notbob and others have noted, the usual method of laying a tongue and groove floor is to conceal the nails with each course. We also don't know what kind of subfloor they are nailed into. Or even if they ARE nailed into a subflooring. In my years of rehabbing fixer-uppers, I've seen stranger. Not much stranger, but stranger.
It's amazing the things you can discover if you tell a Realtor to give you the listings for the ten cheapest properties in an area. That's how I bought my first fixer upper - it was the best of 10 very, very distressed houses. VERY distressed.
I believe it was Clare that pointed out that a bad underlayment is going to continue to pop nails until that problem is fixed. Worse still, is that it may be practically impossible to fix without pulling up the floor. I agree with Don, glue is a bad idea that will become obvious when it's time to refinish the floor. Been there, done that, discovered that glue can "flower out" along the wood fibers and seriously change the way it takes stain and other finishes.
Screws were suggested, and they might be a good idea if the substrate will hold them. If the floors are moving around from the weight of walking because of a bad underlayment, even screws might even loosen. If that's the case, I might even consider long countersunk machine screws with washers and nuts on the other side of the floor at several strategic locations to keep the substrate and the oak floor from "tectonic" action. (-:
How wide is the flooring and is it just old 3/4"T tongue and groove flooring? If so, it should never have been face-nailed.
What's the subflooring and what's it nailed into? I suspect if it's a new house they probably didn't put in a sufficient subfloor and it's just nailed into a layer of MDF or the like.
I suspect in this case the only solution is going to be to take the floors up and re-lay them properly.
On 6/27/2014 4:59 PM, dpb wrote: ...
Alternatively, depending on the subflooring and what you can fasten into owing to the radiant heating issue, you _might_ be able to pull nails and go to a screw in the same location. Would then likely have to counterbore each for a plug to hide the heads or just give up and "go w/ the look"...
Does repurposed mean that the boards were not used for flooring before? That's what it does mean, but what do you mean by the word.
If they were used as flooring before, IMO they are not repurposed. It is the same purpose, just somewhere else. Tthey are used, or reclaimed, or salvaged, or second- hand.
How wide is each board? How long?
Does every board have a nail in it? Two? One at each end? Or what?
How long have they been nailed down and what percent of the nails are coming up? In the center of the room, near the edge?
Does each board have a tongue that matches the groove in the next board?
Was a nail set used to put the nail heads below the surface? Probably. What kind of heads did the nails have? Headless? Something else? Be sure to use a nail set all the time, so you get the head below the surface without damaging the floor
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BTW, here's a pretty good primer on using hardwood over radiant heating systems...we have no info on just what your system is for anything other than just generalities that using solid wood strip flooring is the ideal solution as previously noted--
On 6/28/2014 11:52 AM, dpb wrote: ...
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Which of course was intended to read "...that using solid wood strip flooring is _NOT_ the ideal solution".
Would counter sunk screws works for floorboards i.e. Not a hardwood floor but boards under a carpeted floor? The floorboards also move & creak a lot. Any suggestions to solve the noise would also be appreciated.
What kind of "boards"? How old is the house? (My sub-floors are 1 x 6 T&G set perpendicular to the joists. Douglas fir, I believe.)
There are special screws made for securing the subfloor to the joists when carpet is present. You screw down through the carpet and then snap the heads off as part of the install process. I've never tried them, so I can't vouch for them. There is more than one brand. Here's one example of the kit and spare screws:
Here's another product I've never tried, although I have used Simpson Strong-Tie angle plates with someone standing on the squeaky section to hold it down during installation. Same basic idea.
Sheet flooring or sheet sub-flooring?
What is it that you are suggesting that would "solve the noise"?
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