Floorboards - nail or screw?

[<me9]

arent's house was (late) Victorian and had original T&G floors and cavity walls. Spoilt be not having an effective DPC.

[Bob Eager]

Probably Andy Hall. He'd have nothing to line up neatly when screwing something together. It isn't the same with cross heads!

[Rod]

Spotted a market opportunity. Stick on slotted heads. :-)

But I actually took the question to be referring to a preference other than the obvious looks/aesthetics. And I think that will be almost no-one who uses any form of screwdriving machine.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oak floorboards on display screwed down with slotted brass screws with the slots all lined up...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mine has no DPC - but no damp. The floors are above ground level so any rising damp stays in the cellar. There's also a high skirting board with no plaster behind it - even more of an area for any moisture to evaporate off.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Me too - they just look plain wrong in a Victorian house if on show - like say door hinges or door furniture. If you like cross heads so much do you swap all your electrical fittings ones for them? ;-)

But for construction work they're ideal.

[Richard Perkin]

"George \(dicegeorge\)" wrote in news:g9uf84$2e29$ [e-mail]:

It really depends on the 'look' you want to achieve for the finished job.

If the boards will never be seen again, then posidriv cross head screws will be fine. On the other hand, if the floor is visible (eg stained and waxed or varnished or sealed) then cross head screws (especially bright plated varieties) look very out-of-place, particularly in a period property.

I have renovated several Victorian / Edwardian houses. I use 8 x 1.5" slotted countersunk brass wood screws. Bought in bulk (boxes of 200) these are affordable, although more expensive than steel screws. Don't buy from the sheds or you will end up v. poor - use a local fastener company (try a local trading estate) or buy online from

As mentioned elsethread, get yourself a combined drill + countersink bit, and adjust it to the depth required. Position the boards, drill the holes, then finish by driving in the screws with a drill/driver. I've put in many thousand of screws in old boards - and my experience is that slotted brass woodscrews give a 'proper looking' finish.

And yes, they will come out again - in my experience, easier than cross head screws which tend to 'cam out' when attempting to extract with a power tool.

Hope this helps

[Richard Perkin]

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Agreed. I have replied elsewhere in the thread with the same answer, including a link to where to get them in boxes of 200 at a v. reasonable price.

Kind regards

[The Medway Handyman]

I imagine there is a knack to driving a slotted screw with a drill driver?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The little Makita impact one is brilliant for slotted screws with the right blade - the kicking action seems to be less likely to damage the slot than steady torque.

[Rod]

I have been using mine over the last couple of days for removing many such screws. (Ones that I had put in myself quite a few years ago. :-( ) It is, IMHO, absolutely fantastic at undoing all but the very tighest/biggest screws.

Certainly worked better than my drill.

[The Medway Handyman]

I find mine great for those painted over screws holding door hinges. Quick scrape to remove the worst of the paint, plenty of pressure & out they come.

Putting slotted screws in I think might be a little harder.

[Richard Perkin]

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in news:%6Xwk.54557$ [e-mail]:

Just use a low speed. With the right blade (the largest that will fit) there isn't a problem.

Agreed. I picked up one of these jobbies on eBay (new) for a very reasonable price after the discussion here a few weeks ago.

Works extremely well - before the rains came, I was painting the external rear wall of the house and used it to remove all kinds of old rusted in slotted screws. Without exception, they came out like magic.

The problem with the Makita impact driver is that there is no speed control. So unless the screw 'bites' almost immediately the result is usually a damaged screw - and it doesn't matter if it's slotted or crosshead...

Kind regards

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup - I had to take out some large screws which were covered in paint and would usually have been a real pain, either by hand or with a ordinary drill. But it just whizzed them out.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But that's really no different from an ordinary cordless drill used as a driver. You need to make sure the bit is engaged before applying the power, otherwise there's a chance of damaging the head. FWIW for undoing screws you can use plenty of pressure - unlike when putting them in.

[boltmail]

My take would be to nail them - sometimes nails are better than screws, and this is one of them. You can pry up nailed floorboards much faster than unscrewing all the screws you would use. Visible screwheads in a floor look rubbish. You can fill a nail-hole, and still get the boards up again.

The only time I would use screws on floorboards would be to eliminate a squeak that nails can't solve, or on a wide-board hardwood floor, where the boards are too wide for secret nailing - and then it's really tedious plugging over all those screws.

Nails are a better solution in quite a lot of joinery situations, because of the ability to pry them out without much damage, they are much better suited to (reversible) 'invisible fixing' than screws.

They are also better than screws in other situations where shear strength is important. The humble nail is an underrated fastener.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And they often split. Especially if nailed with cut nails.

[boltmail]

=A0 London SW

I don't think I've ever split a board which hasn't already had a split in it - and I've relaid the floors in most of the rooms in my house, which is Victorian, i.e. nailed with rusty old cut brads which have been there for over a century. As long as you ease the end of the board up with care to start with, once you have got it up enough to get a pry bar under both edges, they either pop out, or pop through.

With 100+ year old screws, you'd be looking at a new floor.

[<me9]

It's probably ok with square edged boards, but I'd rather remove screwed down T&G boards than nailed ones.

[boltmail]

Maybe - but on t&g, it should really be secret-nailed - which is a lot easier to get out, again, than secret-screwed would be. If they have to be fastened through the face, I wouldn't find visible screw holes/heads a good enough finish, so they would need to be screwed and plugged - and that's not much fun to get up again, even with the shellac instead of glue trick. You can't use filler or you'll never get the damn things out again.

Given a choice, I'd always go for the nail-holes which can be filled on softwood. I'd look at it as being the same principle as nailing rather than screwing architraving/sash-beading/skirting boards etc - it's just (generally) a better fastener for the job.