regular nailer for hardwood floors

[mkochsch]

can I use a regular air nailer to lay in a hardwood floor or do I absolutely have to use a flooring nailer?

[bob]

If you are laying 3/4" solid hardwood, suggest you rent a pneumatic flooring stapler. It does two things for you: 1) it automatically drives the staples in at the correct angle just above the tongue, and 2) when you whack it with the mallet, it drives the boards tightly together. No way can you do the latter with an ordinary air nailer. I laid a kitchen floor, and can tell you that even with the top of the line flooring (Robbins), the boards are not straight. There will be some bow (is that the word for side to side curve?). As an added bonus, you can move very quickly across the row of boards with a pneumatic floor stapler. Whack - whack - whack and you're done. I rented one for $50/day. Needed it two days to do 400 square feet. (I had a lot of trim work). You could buy one for about $400 and then try to unload it on ebay when you're done. If you live in central Alabama, I'll give you 3/4 of a box of 2" staples. You can only buy then in boxes of

5,000 for about $45.

Bob

[mkochsch]

Thank you Bob that sounds like excellent advice.

[Mike Coonrod]

You will need that nail gun when you get close to the walls. Also, I would never do it without a flooring stapler either and be sure to get the pneumatic one too. I did 800 sqf in a long weekend, it took my hand the better part of the next week to feel normal. I had my wife and kids involved too. If I did it again, I think I would just buy one so I didn't have to work so damn hard. I did not like the the manual stapler.