What about from an angle leaning over the side of the wheelchair? Don't forget, from a sitting position, I'm close to a foot shorter than someone who is standing. As well, I'm fully capable of leaning over far enough to pick something up from the floor and I have a great deal of upper body strength, so leaning over if needed isn't a problem. I guess I'm just theorizing at this point. I'd never know for sure until I actually get my hands on a porta-nailer and actually try it out.
In my first response on the subject of operating a manual nailer from a wheelchair, I said that "I SUSPECT that this would be difficult from a seated position". I wasn't ruling out the possibility. As the old saying goes about "the proof of the pudding", so you could easily prove me wrong and, indeed, I hope you do. A lot of respondents in this thread like the manual nailers (vice the air driven ones), so perhaps I am wrong about them. However, my recall of these was that one really had to pound on them in order to tighten the floor and drive the nail. Moreover, when I watch flooring being installed on TV (in one of those DIY-type shows), the installers always seem to use air nailers.
When I installed my floor I was using my whole body for the task. I used my left foot to hold the wood snug to the already nailed flooring. Balancing on both legs, an arm to hold the pneumatic nailer and another with a bunch of chest thrown in to swing the mallet firmly to set the wood tight and actuate the nailer. It took a good while to do the floor as it was. My intial set of the wood consisted of a quick quality control look and then placement of the wood. A firm tap while the foot was resting heavily on the wood to place it fairly tight. I might have to reach 3 feet to the left to swing the mallet to set the end tongue tight. My dad did a series of wedges when we fixed some flooring in our old house. We nailed a scrap 2x4 on the floor. We drove a wedge of scrap flooring against the bowing floor and the 2x4 to force the bow out.
I guess I am saying it was a full body experience. If you are used to working in a chair then you probably know good tricks to work with what you have. I sometimes do not work smart. ;-(
Jim B.
I suspect that everything you've said is probably correct. I just happen to be one of those people that likes to do everything myself and don't like to ask for help (unless it's asking a good looking woman to reach something for me in the grocery store). I'm guessing that I can operate a porta-nailer satisfactorily, but that I'll have a problem keeping the wood in place while I'm nailing it down. I seem to remember a show on TV once where they were using a type of ratcheting web clamp to keep the wood butted up tight while it was being nailed down. If I ever do a floor, I'll probably end up getting some buddies to help me and then spring for some beer after that.
Maybe some kind of attachment to the chair to work as a "third hand", use the inertia of yourself in the chair to apply force, and then use the brake on the chair to hold things together while you nail?
3/4" of hardwood T&G flooring is plenty strong enough without any underlayment.
make sure the 1/2" ply that is there has a nice smooth level surface, or it will make a bunch more work for you during installing and finishing of the flooring, and may contribute to a squeaky floor problem later on.
I suspect those folks haven't tried the air version.
Barry
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