I'm doing a hardwood flooring with 5/8" thick mahogany solid wood on a
couple of rooms. Because the rooms are not flat (both have a couple of
steps) it took 8 days to finish the flooring and renting was as expensive
as buying one. (checked HomeDepot $35/day and another rental company $30/day)
It looks like Porter-Cable FCN200 seems to be very popular, but over $300
made me hesitant. I seriously considered Bostitch MFN200 Manual Flooring
Cleat Nailer, but after a lot of questions to Bostitch and a couple of
dealers, I found out that it can be used only fo 3/4" thick floorings.
So, I went with this pneumatic floor nailer.
I ordered the one that can be used for cleat nails only, but what I
received was for both cleat nails as well as staples, which was a nice
surprise. People said cleat nails would be more strong in terms of holding
the panels to the sub-floor and I ordered bostitch nails at amazon.
Shipping was pretty quick - delivered in 2 days from the order - and the
tools is very solid. 3-4 panels had the nails bent between the panel and
sub floor, maybe because the nailer was not placed correctly. Otherwise,
it worked pretty well.
It has several pad that can be used for different thickness of the
floorings, which was really good for me.
Overall, at this price, this cannot go wrong at all and much better
solution than renting one. Akuzuki Top Quality 2-in-1 Pneumatic Hardwood Floor Flooring Air Cleat Nailers and Stapler
I just finished my hardwood flooring project using this nailer. It turned out fantastic. This nailer is solid and durable and during the installation of about 1200 sqft, never had a single issue of any kind.
I got this instead of renting one from a local improvement store. I knew I would spend more renting given my time constraints. I used it to lay about 200 square feet of red oak. I had two misfires, but they were my fault. I ran through 1600+ nails without a jam otherwise. The build quality is not the same as the $4-500 name brand units, but it's not bad, and for me it doesn't matter how the nail gets into the board as long is it gets there. The depth in red oak was perfect, I only hand set a couple where the angle was getting awkward in a corner, and I couldn't strike the head properly.
It was leaking air at first, but tightening down the bolts with the supplied wrench took care of that (several tools are supplied). There were no torque values indicated, so I used "common sense" torque to avoid warping anything. The shoe on the bottom is maybe not perfectly square, but it was never an issue. It would probably benefit from forcing on a bicycle handle grip for comfort, mine was wrapped in a foam tape.
I intend to use this tool for two more rooms, and I feel like it was a good value. It paid for itself in the first room for me, but again, I had only a couple hours per day window to work. I would recommend this item to anyone who wants to take their time without rushing a rental clock. It performed as expected, no complaints. I used 2" Bostitch L nails, but it can handle staples as well.
No problems with the order, the shipping was quick, everything was included.
4 stars instead of 5 due to build quality imperfections, having to tighten up bolts which should have been tested at the factory.
I just received the nailer and used it for the first time this weekend to install 5/8" T&G Bamboo flooring in my son's kitchen. What I received was the dual staple/cleat nailer. After putting on the right foot plate, it comes with 2, I test fired a 2" cleat nail and found it to be too long and risked tearing off the tongue of the flooring board. I went looking for 1 1/2 inch cleat nails locally & when I couldn't find anything but the 2" size, I purchased 1 1/2" staple. I loaded the nailer with the stapes and started the job. The nailer worked great! You need to test fire a few staples to get the right air pressure and tune you "strike" force, but after that it was effortless. I had used a manual nailer previously to install about 500 sq. feet of oak flooring and there is no comparison. The Bamboo was about twice as dense as the oak and using the pneumatic nailer, the bamboo went down at least twice as fast and with less pain! The thing you want to be careful with when nailing down dense Bamboo is that it is so dense and if you are close to the end of the board or edge, you will split it. Pre-drill for yore first 2 rows and the use the nailer. Instead of nails for the first 2 rows, I opted for 1 1/2" headless screws (you can get these at any home store). They worked great & you don't have to worry about dimpling if you use a nail & miss. I'm not done with the project yet, but so far I recommend the nailer whole heartily.
I am a wood-turner that until now has never installed hardwood floors. I had the occasion to help with an installation at a dance studio and decided from that to install a hardwood floor on an addition I had planned. While searching for a pneumatic floor nailer I found this one, and after reading the reviews decided to give it a try. I was happy I did. It performed much better than the one we used for the studio and at a portion of the cost. I would like to also mention the delivery time was great. I saved more than what it would have cost me to rent one for the job and I have it to help friends and family. What a deal.
I'm not sure what I was expecting at half the price of a name brand competitor, but when it came with a carrying case with a spare base plate I was already impressed. The nailer worked flawlessly and is solidly constructed. The bottom plate is slightly longer than other floor nailers I've used so you may have to hand nail an extra row of flooring to get started, but otherwise it's well worth the money. - Recommend - Hardwood Floor Nailer - Highly Recommended - Pneumatic'
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