• Slabs should be level to ± 3 mm in 1.5 m.
• Install 0.2 mm polyethylene moisture barrier
• Use hand-driven spikes for solid fixing to the slab
• Fix plywood sheets to the slab with hand driven 50mm x 6.5 mm spikes. A minimum of 20 spikes to be used per 2400mm x 1200mm sheet, equally spaced and with the outer spikes 75 mm to 100 mm from the sheet edge. It is recommended that sheets be staggered by 900 mm so that fixings do not line up from sheet to sheet when a brick pattern is used.

To minimise possible squeaks, use a cushion of polyurethane flooring adhesive between the two floors if staple fixing at close centres is being used. Apply continuous bead of adhesive at 90° to board length, midway between fixing points. In this case, staples may be spaced up to 450 mm apart.

You can use cramping machine for top nailed boards. For secret nailing, you can just use the specialist fastening guns to cramp the board tight. Not only we need to ensure the full contact between the boards, but also full contact between the boards and the floor frame or substrate (plywood or chipboard).

According to the regulation, we cannot be use secret nailing for wide boards. Instead we need to use top nailing. For top tailed boards, ensure that no more than 900mm width of flooring is cramped at a time.

For top nailed boards, keep the nail lines straight and punch them a minimum of 3mm below the surface of the boards. For secret nailing, hand punch the nails to seat the boards on the substrate (plywood or chipboard) firmly. If the end nailing at the butt joint causes splitting, pre-drill the nail holes to 80% of the nail diameter.

Edited by user Sunday, 1 November 2009 1:14:21 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified