Tongue and Groove Beadboard - which nailer?

[Jay Pique]

I'm putting in some tongue and groove beadboard and I was wondering if I could just use an 18g brads, or whether I should go with a 15g finish nailer. The gooves are awfully small, as the thickness of the boards themselves is only 3/8ths of an inch. (I'm planning on nailing through the grooves as opposed to face nailing.) thanks jp

[RicodJour]

You don't nail through the grooves you nail through the tongues the same way it is done with flooring.

R

[Chris Lewis]

This kind of beadboard is awful fragile for doing that. You'll blow the tongues off.

I installed about 50 linear feet of this beadboard as wainscotting a month or so ago over a decently flat drywall wall (if it's not flat, you might want to pull it down and go over plywood).

Two quick swipes of PL panel adhesive on the back of each board, and then I airnailed 18ga at the top and bottom to make sure it didn't slip. The nail holes are covered by the baseboard and chair rail.

If the wall is a bit wavy, 18ga narrow crown staplers may be better holding the ends of the boards to the wall - better grip on the drywall. I compromised by driving two nails at an angle when the board had a tendancy to separate from the wall.

In a few places, I face nailed in the middle of a board, but a swipe with wood filler makes that go away.

Looks fabulous.

[marson]

I did a bead board porch ceiling by blind nailing with 18 gauge brads and it worked great. if you feel you need more holding capacity, you can use two.

[Jay Pique]

Oh yeah. I'm going to try a couple through the tongue, with adhesive on the back, and a brad or two at the top and bottom. If the tongues start breaking down I'll face nail and patch. Thanks to you all for your responses. jp

[Jay Pique]

UPDATE: I used a bead of PL down the middle, nailed it at the top and bottom with two 18g brads each, and through the groove 3 times unless it needed more to sit flush with the wall. No problems with the nailer breaking the boards at all.

JP