[Greenbuilding] Hardwood Floor Orientation

[Speireag Alden]

Sgrìobh Ken Beiser:

>Have you considered face nailing the existing floor?  I have used 
>some cut nails that can even come with decorative heads (Maze 
>Nails).  These nails require a pilot for nailing old Douglas fir but 
>hold well enough that they cannot be pulled with a crow bar.  That 
>is one of the things I do not like about them since it will preclude 
>someone from being able to easily salvage my wide plank floors in 
>the future.

     This is one of the reasons that I used, and continue to use, 
square-drive screws everywhere, even where I could use nails.  They 
have all the advantages of regular screws, and then some.  You have 
to get a good bit (the soft ones at the building supply counter will 
twist off in ten uses).  But their advantages are many:

o    You can put the screw on the end of the bit and then wave the 
screwdriver about with the screw sitting on the end.  It better than 
doubles your effective reach off of a ladder, and makes awkward 
spaces much more possible with one arm.

o    It requires no particular strength to hold the bit in the screw. 
Screwing into hard materials is much easier and quicker.

o    If you can get the bit into the head of the screw, even if 
there's something like stucco fouling the deep parts, you can 
generally get enough of a grip to back it out.  Try that with a 
Phillip's!  This is invaluable for deconstruction and re-use.

o    When a bit begins to wear at the points, you can hold the face 
against a grinder and remove a tiny bit of material, and it's like 
you have a brand-new bit.

o    The right bit is extremely durable.  I drove over 1800 screws 
for my roof deck using one bit.  Then I re-ground it, as above, and 
it was a brand-new bit.  I haven't had to buy bits in years.

     So there you go.  I order my stuff from McFeeley's Square Drive 
screws, in Virginia.  They ship promptly and have never gotten one of 
my orders wrong.  (And I am merely a satisfied customer.)

-Speireag.

-- 
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the 
injury that provokes it.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)