Laying the grooved boards for the upstairs underfloor heating approaches. Mostly the floor joists run in a convenient direction but one large room has *ladderwork* between the dormer trusses.
I will need to put in supporting noggins at a minimum of 600mm intervals and particularly where boards join. I don't have a nail gun and hiring might be expensive at my current slow rate of work.
The noggins can be staggered so simply nailing through the joists is possible. Is there a best way? Screws? Joist hangers? Long nails?
On the matter of joist hangers... why don't the manufacturers check to see what timber is commonly used for these jobs and supply something to suit?
The traditional way is nailing, but my nailing is not very accurate. So I think I would screw, since it is so easy with an impact driver. But it needs to be at 45 degrees to the thing you are screwing into to get a good grip. I'm old fashioned and still drill clearance holes through the first piece, in most cases. OK maybe not when screwing board down to joists. I'd make the noggins a tight fit between the joists, then drill a pair of 45 degree holes (non-overlapping) at each end of the noggin, ideally one from each side. Then use something like 3 inch number 10s.
I can offer a handy tip for drilling these holes. If you can live with 1/8" holes, a drill bit in a dremel type tool is incredibly fast & easy compare d to a regular drill. 30,000rpm rather than 2,000. You cn also buy chucks f or them to allow a range of bit sizes.
Personally, I prefer clearance to mean clearance, this maximises the tension that you get across the joint, and it is friction between the joist and noggin which provides the shear strength as much if not more than the screws. 1/8th isn't enough for number 10's. But I agree a dremel is fast, and this would be fine if you were nailing (pilot hole ensures the nail goes where you want it to).
Although the chipboard is 22mm thick, the pipe grooves are around 18mm deep so the board loses at lot of stiffness across the width. The noggins need to carry this and I am concerned that a few screws or nails will lead to long term movement and *squeaks*!
Checking out a corded Dremel these only run to 175 watts. Given such tools can "carve, grind, polish, cut and sand with ease" they're clearly versatile tools which can prove indispensable for people capable of appreciating all their capabilities.
However they're only 175 watts as opposed to the 500 - 2000 watts available with a far more robust corded drill. which is expressly designed for such jobs And so IMO, even without Googling "overheating Dremel" in using them for repeat drilling, IMHO there's far too much danger of stressing what is possibly an indispensable little tool for very little additional benefit.
Without even Googling anything I'm pretty sure that when drills only came with two speeds the lower speed was for wood. B&D weren't\aren't mugs so if they thought people could speed things up why would they recommend they drill wood at the lower of the two speeds provided ?
In addition to stressing the motor, at a guess the first
1.000 of those 30,000 revs will actually drill the hole, while the other 29,000 are going to be devoted to blunting the drill bit, polishing the sides of the hole to an unimaginable degree, then causing a burning smell and possibly whisps of smoke to emerge from the hole when the drill is withdrawn.
But apart from those slight reservations....burned out motor floorboards catching fire, what's not to like ?
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