I am going to be installing 3/8" plywood cut into 6" planks for my flooring. It will be laid over the subfloor and roll vinyl flooring. Which would work better for nailing 18g brad nailer or 16g finish nailer. I will be using liquid nails on the planks as well.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Why are those the only 2 choices? I wouldn't use either of those.

 

ok, what would you use then? These were the two things that I thought of first.

 

Laminate, engineered, tile, carpet, anything but strips of plywood.

 

You're putting strips of plywood over vinyl? Why?

 

Because that is what I want to do, sorry. I want a wood floor and this is an economical way to have wood flooring. Look on pinterest at this, looks good.

That was not my question.

Thanks, Lynn

 

Thanks for the input, however, my question was only regarding the attaching of the plywood to the existing floor. I was not looking for opinions on what to put down. Thanks

 

OK I will not comment on the decorator's choice / style. Thats your decision.

While I am not specifically a flooring expert, I do not think either nail / brad choice will work well. You will be surface nailing these strips down. When the floor flexes (and nearly all floors flex when people walk on them) the nail or brad will work its way out / backwards over time. Then you will have various nail heads protruding above the surface of the wood to catch your feet.

Also did Pinterest have any solution for wood splintering? Even expensive grade cabinet plywood has splintering issues. How about the rounding over of the just cut edges? There will be a lot of splinters coming off of those edges. I assume you were planning on putting down a floor finish (epoxy / urethane). That might help some, but curious to see how it would last with all those rough edges & unsanded surfaces.

Good Luck, reply back if it works or does not work.

 

OK, good luck with your project.

 

I know you don't want any opinions but THIS is what will happen to a plywood floor just rolling a standard office chair on it.

 

I hope you know what they say. Just because you saw it/read it on the internet, doesn't make it true! Same is true for shows you see on TV. Nothing is quite as it seems.
They're just trying to help you avoid a big mistake here. Whether you listen or not it up to you of course.

 

Personally, I think it is a bad idea. Regardless of what you want, this is not a good choice for flooring. There is no measure of logic that will tell me that this is a good direction to take. Pinterest is a reliable source for pictures, but not a reliable source for practicality. Plywood is meant to be screwed down or hard nailed as a subfloor or underlayment. It is not and never was meant to be a finished flooring.

If you are hard pressed to go this route, I would recommend full 4x8 sheets instead of planks. You would have a better chance of success. Screw down, vs glue and tack with brads. Brads will not hold with any power over time.

 

If you only want an answer on your question, I would use 3" course decking screws or ring shanked nails in a framing gun.