I had asked some questions at the beginning of the month regarding laying a mesquite floor. The first was whether or not to use an underlayment or not as the floor is glued down. I ended up nailing down 1/4" plywood every 6 inches per the APA recommendations. That was 3 weeks ago and my lower back is still recovering from being stooped over with a nail gun for several hours while I put in 3000 nails.
Especially for James Cubby Culbertson, I went through 15 gallons of Bostik's Best urethane adhesive. My overall impression is that after using that stuff, a nailed-down floor sounds like a piece of cake. My thoughts are that a) it's easier to work with when it's warm and b) it wouldn't be so bad if I could open a 5 gal container and just keep going until it was empty. But I would generally stop after several rows to make sure that they were pushed together tight. Then, the next day, I would have to cut away the cured product on the top. I would also agree that the Bostik's Best Adhesive Remover is a must-have product. It works like 10 times better than mineral spirits.
The bottom line is that the floor laying portion is now complete. I put down about 565 square feet and my father and I worked on it for two weekends and I worked on it by myself for another weekend. Since, apparently, my wife did not think this was difficult enough to begin with, she decided that she wanted it laid at a 45 deg angle. I was prepared for an additional amount of scrap with this, but even with it, I didn't get much. I figure I ended up with only about 3% scrap. I had planned for more, so if anyone is intereted in about 67 SF of mesquite flooring, let me know.
I'm now in the process of finding someone to sand and finish it. Most of the quotes I have gotten are in the $2/SF area. If anyone here knows of a sander/finisher in the western Chicago suburbs, let me know.
todd