Methods for fixing the floorboard
Fixing the floorboards with nails
Glue method
Clamping
Special self-tapping screws for floorboards
Installation recommendations for floorboards

When equipping the floors in the house, in addition to choosing the type of floor covering, it is necessary to be especially careful about the selection of the method of fastening the purchased material. For any building material, their own fastening methods are used, including for floorboards. Let's consider how to fix the floorboard using the most reliable and popular methods.

Methods for fixing the floorboard

The floor covering is experiencing quite serious loads, so it is necessary to approach the choice of the fastening method with all responsibility.

If some of the floorboards are not secured well enough, they will begin to loosen over time.

As a rule, this happens after a short period of time. The floorboards move, the initially flat floor begins to emit an unpleasant creaking sound, and often it simply collapses.

There are several common ways to attach floorboards:

• secret method, that is, the use of screws or nails;
• with glue;
• fastening with clips.

Fixing the floorboards with nails

In this case, the fastening of the floorboard is carried out on a wooden base, which can be solid or made of logs.

The first row of floorboards is secured with nails, which are driven into the base at an angle of 45 ° through the ridge. Then they are driven into place. Pre-drill holes for fasteners. This is done to avoid damaging the combs.

When fitting the next row, the nails must be hidden. All subsequent rows of boards are fixed by driving nails through the surface.

When boarding is being repaired and several floorboards are changed, care must be taken to ensure that all the floorboards end under the center of the crossbar. Otherwise, you can get an unstable coating.

Glue method

If the floorboard will be laid on a solid base, then it can be fixed with glue. To do this, the grooves of the boards are coated with an adhesive, you can use ordinary PVA glue, and then they are pushed onto the grooves of the previous row.

The adhesive should be applied in a thin layer in 50 cm increments along the entire groove. Adhesive must also be applied to the end grooved edges.

Clamping

Some types of boards come with special clips that fit into the slot on the inside of them. These elements are designed to connect the boards to each other. So how do you lay the floorboard using this fixing method?

To do this, you should adhere to the following technology:

• A waterproofing material is laid on the subfloor, which should be fixed against the walls with construction tape.
• In the slots of the boards laid in the first row, clamps should be driven in with a hammer. This is done in the direction of the tongue.
• The ends of the strips are coated with glue, and then the first row is laid.
• Wedges with a thickness of about 1 cm should be inserted between the wall and the boards.
• Clips are also attached to the second row of boards. The floorboards are locked in place by gently tapping with a hammer across the block along the edges of the row.
• The rest of the rows are stacked similarly.
• Then the wedges are removed between the wall and the covering.
• Skirting boards are being installed.

Special self-tapping screws for floorboards

Professional craftsmen use special floorboard screws to fix the floorboards. The use of such fastening material makes it possible to obtain a floor covering that is reliably fixed and with a fairly long service life.

Compared to conventional self-tapping screws, the cost of this type is an order of magnitude higher. However, in terms of their properties, they are more effective.

Special screws for floorboards have the following features:

• These fasteners are available in various sizes. The standard section is 3.5 mm, the length can be 35, 40, 45 and 50 mm. The size of the screw is selected depending on the thickness of the floorboards.
• This floorboard fastener does not corrode, as it has a protective coating.
• There is a cutter at the end of the self-tapping screw, which allows it to be screwed into the wood without pre-drilling holes. In addition, such a structure allows the screw to enter more tightly, which means that the fixation of the floorboards to the base of the floor will be more durable.
• The self-tapping screw has a special milling cut. It has an angle at which the fastener easily enters the wood without splitting.
• Self-tapping screws for floorboards have another structural feature, which is the absence of a thread in the upper part. This design allows the flooring to fit more closely to the base.

Here are some tips on how to properly lay your floorboard:

• It is necessary to fasten the floorboards to the base with screws in increments of 25-30 cm.
• Some masters recommend that before laying the floorboard and fixing it to the base, apply glue to it, which is used when installing the parquet floor.

  This option can be used if the waterproofing layer (for example, a polyethylene film) has not been installed. The adhesive fixation method cannot be used by itself. It is used only as an addition to the basic method of fastening by means of nails or screws.

  Why is the floor fixed with nails and not self-tapping screws?

  Without them, you will not be able to get a strong and reliable fixing of the floorboards (read: "How to lay floors from boards - step by step instructions").

• Along the entire perimeter of the room, there should be no tight abutment of the boards to the wall. Leave a gap of approximately 10 mm between the wall and the floorboards. It will act as an expansion joint.
• The screws used when installing the plank floor can be completely hidden. To do this, the caps of the self-tapping screws should be sunk into the wood by about 3-4 mm. The resulting holes can be hidden with pieces of wood that match their shape and size. It should also be the same type of wood as the floorboards. Most of the firms that produce high-quality sawn timber complete their products with similar plugs.

The strength, reliability and service life of the flooring will depend on how to lay the floorboard. Therefore, the correct fixation of the floorboards is a very important point in the installation of the floor, therefore, it is worth approaching the choice of the method of fastening the boards with special care.

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Self-tapping screw or nail, what to choose?

Unfortunately, the question that became the epigraph to this material, what to choose during construction, screws or nails, is not idle enough and is known to many developers when no one could really explain what exactly is needed? This question is not only not idle, but also does not have an unambiguous answer at a time when some technologies will replace others. However, the advantages of joints on nails or self-tapping screws can be considered by choosing one or another fastener depending on the type of work.

Pros of nails

The main advantage of using nails can be considered the age-old traditions of their use, which revealed both the weak and the strong points of fasteners. By hammering in a nail, you can be sure that such a connection will last forever for a cut, pressing parts of the wood to each other, because the steel body of the nail is stronger than wood and is more likely to yield to vegetation than hardened forging or rolling. Even a connection that has been loosened over the years from swelling and shrinkage will remain reliable, meaning only a cut or shift, allowing the same house to change its geometry while sitting down, while remaining a solid structure. Self-tapping screws also withstand large linear loads, which, however, are inferior to the connection on nails. The reason for this is the smaller diameter of the screws and their increased hardness, therefore, fragility, therefore the slightest weakening of the clamping forces entails a complete destruction of the structure. In everyday language, nails withstand wave loads, but self-tapping screws do not.

What are the advantages of self-tapping screws?

The weak point of using nails is their unreliability from loads along the axis of the nail, the so-called pulling force, almost everyone successfully pulled nails out of the boards.

Fastening the floorboard, a description of all available methods

You can deal with this by driving in nails at an angle to the plane of the connection, or punching them through and bending them from the back side. Self-tapping screws in this regard have greater functionality, incredibly tightly pressing the parts to be joined together. But here, too, the tension in the metal of the self-tapping screws can cause the opposite effect, when, when the wood gets wet and swells, the caps break off, completely weakening the connection. By the way, when a tree swells, very large stresses arise; in the old days, even stones were mined in this way, watering dry wood driven into a crack in a rocky monolith.

Even if you decide to use self-tapping screws, most deviate from the technology of their installation, when you need to drill the pressed part, countersink the hole for the head and only then tighten the fasteners. We simply tighten the self-tapping screw without drilling and judge the size of the clamp by indirect signs, the deepening of the cap, completely oblivious to the fact that even a gap may remain in the joint. When hammering in a nail, we know that 23 of its length should be in the monolith, and 13 in the pressed part, which is also true for self-tapping screws, but few of us choose them not only in length, but also in size bare, without a threaded part.

From all that has been said, some simple conclusions can be drawn:

• self-tapping screws are still best used indoors, where there is less chance of moisture ingress and the loads are more defined and static;
• it is easier and more reliable to fasten sheet materials with self-tapping screws, for example, plywood, drywall, etc., pressing them against frames or other supporting, stationary elements;
• nails remain a more reliable form of fastening timber of external buildings, providing reliable and long-term operation, confirmed by time;
• in addition, where it is difficult to predict displacement, the same gate or light structure, nails will be more durable.

Type of nails and the choice of their size

When erecting wooden houses and temporary structures made of wood, any type of nails can be used (Fig. 1).

When choosing nails for building a house, the following factors must be considered:

• whether nails will be exposed to a humid environment;
• what materials need to be connected;
• what is the most suitable nail size;
• what is the surface to which the structure is attached with nails (paint, varnish, putty).

When working with structural parts exposed to a humid environment, galvanized nails are used. The same nails are used in structures located in the air or under a layer of water-based paint.
Different types of nails are used to fasten different materials. The length of the nail is chosen so that, when joining the wooden parts, it is 2.5 times the thickness of the material to be attached. In such cases, as, for example, in the fastening of roof coverings, the length of the nail is determined by the depth of its entry into the wood base. The minimum entry for grooved nails is 30 mm.
Untreated nails are used for fastening formwork, other temporary structures and parts of the frame that remain invisible (corks, underlays on the roof, etc.).
Connecting wooden parts with nails. Upon entering the wood, the nail pushes the fibers apart, which can lead to cracking. To prevent this from happening, nails should not be driven too close to the edge or end of the board (fig. 2), and the spaces between the nails should be large enough.

The susceptibility of a tree to cracking when hammering in nails depends on its moisture content.

Laying a wooden floor on logs

It is easier to hammer a nail into wet wood than into dry wood. Although the raw wood will hold up the nails and close to the edge, cracks will appear when the wood is dry. Do not drive in nails at the edge of thin and wide boards, as contraction stresses will cause cracks in the place where the nails are driven.
Nails should be positioned in the shaded area. The distance from the edge depends on the thickness of the nail (fig. 3). The size of the nail is indicated as follows: 75 (length 75 mm) x 2.8 (thickness 2.8 mm).

Fasteners for floorboards

You have decided to make a wooden floor, but you do not know what kind of fasteners to use for the floorboards, then take self-tapping screws to fix the floorboard.

Features of self-tapping screws for floorboards

For fixing the floorboard, self-tapping screws are much better than a regular nail. After all, an ordinary nail of that and look can slip out of the board during its operation.

How to fix a floorboard

But the self-tapping screw screwed into the board will hold up very well.

But self-tapping screws are different, and not everyone can hold firmly in the tree, for this it is the screws for the floor coverings that are suitable. At the tip of such a self-tapping screw, there is a special tip - a spatula, which is somewhat similar to the cutting edge of a feather drill. With the help of such a tip, the self-tapping screw is screwed into any kind of wood, regardless of its density, and there is no need to re-drill the wood first, it will not get stuck in it.

The wood fibers begin to weave into the helical groove, which is located on the screw shank, and therefore it does not shift under the influence of loads, both transverse and longitudinal. To unscrew a self-tapping screw of this type, you can only use a screwdriver installed on the reverse.

For floorboards, self-tapping screws with a special countersunk head are used, its diameter is three and a half millimeters, and the length ranges from thirty-five to fifty-five millimeters. This self-tapping screw will not split even a thin floorboard and will be able to pierce a fairly thick flooring.

Also, it is worth paying attention to the coating itself. The coating provides a guarantee against corrosion and the visible part of the head, as well as the rod, which is hidden in the board. The screw is covered with a base of copper and zinc, and it is applied with a micron layer, as a result of which every millimetric of the screw is covered.

How the self-tapping screw is attached to the floorboard

After we figured out the varieties of self-tapping screws, we move on to the process of installing the floorboard.

Overlappings between floors can be made of concrete slabs or structures from beams, then they are sheathed with finishing and rough materials. For the rough layer, you can use planed boards, the thickness of which should be five centimeters.

After laying the subfloor, a heat-insulating layer is made, for which a polystyrene film is used, its thickness should be one and a half millimeters, and after that we proceed to the installation of the floorboard.

To attach the finishing floor, as well as to make the subfloor lathing, it is the floor screws that are used. You can fasten either through the boards so that the self-tapping screw pierces the plane of the flooring in a pre-drilled hole, and then they hide it with a "hatch" of the same color, from the same wood, or through the edge of the crest lock, which is available from the side end of the floorboard.

But the best thing is to use the through commit method, it is much easier and the job will be done much faster.

Fastening the board in practice, how it looks

After the thermal insulation is laid, it is necessary to arrange the boards along the wall and lay them with their butt ends. We do this so that a gap is formed between the very first row of the floorboard and the wall. this gap is then covered with a floor plinth.

Now the boards of the first row are laid along the wall and mounted with an emphasis on the masonry located at the end. We put the next row with a break, the seam must be covered with a whole board from the previous row. After about the fourth row, all the boards need to be knocked down and moved to the wall, and now we make secret holes, fix the boards with self-tapping screws and glue the attachment points. We screw in self-tapping screws every forty centimeters, but at least two screws on one board.

The correct fastening of the floorboard in the video below:

Galvanized self-tapping screws for Hobotec solid floor boards, pointed, are easy to install, designed for joining wooden components. This type of fastener is made of hardened steel with zinc and antifriction (wax) coating. Hobotec self-tapping screws ensure fast, neat joining of wood elements, secure fit of elements and high pull-out resistance. The innovative configuration of self-tapping screws for solid floor boards (coarse pitch, drill bit, effective protective layer) minimize the risks of cracking and cracking during assembly and during operation of the elements assembled with their help.

Application

Reliability of connections is ensured when using fasteners of the required parameters. The length of the self-tapping screw is selected based on the thickness of the material that needs to be mounted. It is not recommended to use fasteners with a working surface length equal to the thickness of the elements being fastened. The length of the screw must be longer. The diameter of the fastener is selected based on the load requirements. The larger the diameter of the self-tapping screw, the higher its ability to withstand the load. For especially massive boards, fasteners of the maximum size should be chosen.

From us you can buy self-tapping screws for a massive floor board of the characteristics you need in a convenient configuration.

A self-tapping screw is a fastening element that consists of a rod with an external thread and a head. When the product is screwed into the required part, an internal thread is formed, which allows for the most durable connection of the workpieces. When choosing a suitable self-tapping screw for wood, it is necessary to take into account not only the specific type of product, but also its length.

Classification of mesites by wood by color

Manufacturers produce many types of fasteners used to work with wooden blanks. The main characteristic feature of such products is the wide thread. However, there are self-tapping screws with fine threads, and most often they are used to work with hardwood.

Depending on the color, hardware is:

• Black, used primarily for roughing work. This is mainly due to the fact that these products have a rather low resistance to corrosion processes, and at high ambient humidity, rust forms rather quickly on them;
• Yellow and white. Products of this group are plated with brass or zinc, which contributes to an increase in the service life of the fasteners. Both options are quite expensive.

Rules for choosing the length of the self-tapping screw

When choosing hardware for working with wooden parts, you must follow a simple rule. The self-tapping screw must enter the main workpiece to a depth of 1/3 of the thickness of the attached part. If two wooden blanks are additionally fixed with corner elements, in this case, the hardware should go to a depth of up to 1/4 of the part to be attached.

Based on this, certain conclusions can be drawn:

• Self-tapping screws up to 35 mm long are ideal for fastening plasterboard structures to a wooden base, and in addition, they are perfect for working with wooden frame cladding and OSB;
• The hardware, the length of which is 51 mm, is ideal for working on a two-layer sheathing of a wooden frame with plasterboard plates. It is recommended to carry out such an operation in those places where there is increased permeability;
• If hardware is used with a length of 75 mm or more, then you must first drill a small hole in the wooden base. Otherwise, microcracks may appear, and the fibers will be damaged;
• If there is a need to use self-tapping screws with a length of 100 mm or more, then additional difficulties may arise. And therefore, to avoid them, it is enough to drop a little machine oil into the pre-drilled hole.

The Stroy Plus company directly cooperates with leading manufacturers of fasteners, and therefore guarantees that all products presented in the catalog fully comply with the requirements of GOST. By contacting us, you will get the opportunity to purchase self-tapping screws at affordable prices. And if in the course of work you have any questions, our managers are ready to give you recommendations. Call us, or write, and we will help you not only save money, but also save your time.

Self-tapping screws

Recommendations for preparing the base for mounting floorboards

The floor board is installed on a previously prepared base made in the form of a frame made of beams and logs. Beams and logs are most often located at a certain pitch. The beams have a large cross-section, are rarely installed and rest on external and internal walls. Lags have a smaller cross-section compared to beams and are either self-supporting (i.e., resting only at the point of attachment to walls or partitions), and installed on an existing base (across beams or on floor slabs).

Having raised various sources, you can find information that for residential premises the design load on the floors is 200 kg / m2, for common areas - 400 kg / m2. The main problem when choosing the section and material of self-supporting logs and the step of their installation is the lack of information on the operational load and the limited choice of board sizes (in most cases - 50 * 150mm and 50 * 200mm).

The option of mounting a lag on an existing base is quite obvious. Here, the main task is to reliably fix the log (plywood) to the supporting structure, use sound-insulating material between the logs and the base, and choose the correct size of a self-tapping screw for fastening the parquet board to the plywood. The section of lags installed on a rigid base, as a rule, is not calculated and is selected based on the level of the finished floor. When installing a parquet board on plywood, take into account its thickness. Typically 15 or 20mm birch plywood is used. For mounting on plywood with a thickness of 15mm (economy version), self-tapping screws with a length of 35mm are usually used, and for mounting on plywood with a thickness of 20mm (professional reliable version) - 45mm.

Thus, when building plank floors, attention should be paid to:

• prevention of static deformation (so-called "operational deflection");
• noise insulation of the floor (solved by using effective materials that absorb unwanted vibration);
• reliable fastening of the floor covering (choose the correct type and size of self-tapping screws).

Based on many years of experience in construction and finishing work, it is possible to recommend using dry planed wood with a minimum number of knots for the manufacture of floors. An ideal but more expensive option would be a dry laminated veneer lumber or LVL overlap.

For noise insulation of the floor, the distance between the lags is chosen so that the anti-vibration material is installed between the lags tightly with little deformation.

To determine the thickness of the floorboard, we suggest using the following formula:

minimum floor board thickness (mm) = log pitch (mm) / K , where

K is the coefficient that converts the thickness of the board into the step of the base (K = 20 - for decking, K = 15 - for internal wooden floors.

In our opinion, this formula is universal and, taking into account the “creak” correction, can be extended to plank floors installed indoors. We have the following:

A floorboard 20mm thick is a parquet board and in most cases it is mounted on a plywood base 15mm thick (economy version) or 20mm (professional version).

Consumption of self-tapping screws for fastening floorboards

When initially calculating the consumption of self-tapping screws for fastening a floorboard or parquet board, the following parameters must be taken into account:

• thickness and width of the floor board;
• distance between lags;
• sizes of self-tapping screws "for hard rocks" and self-tapping screws "for soft rocks".

Wood is perhaps the best type of material for flooring, which is "suitable" for environmental friendliness, aesthetics, and practicality for literally everyone. In addition, such a coating can be easily mounted (and dismantled) - in the process of fixing, special self-tapping screws are used for the floorboard or chipboard.

And in this article we will consider such "floor" screws, touching on the flooring assembly diagram, where these hardware products appear.

Self-tapping screws for fastening the floorboard - features

The self-tapping screw for the floorboard "works" much better than the usual nail, which strives to slip out of the timber under the influence of operational loads. The self-tapping screw is held in the wood almost "tightly".

However, not all screws demonstrate such stability, but only special self-tapping screws for the flooring. The tip of such a hardware product is equipped with a "spatula" - a tip, the shape of which resembles the cutting edge of a feather drill. Thanks to this tip, the screw can be screwed into wood of any density without preliminary drilling at the mounting point and gets stuck in it.

The wood fibers are woven into the helical groove on the self-tapping rod and do not allow them to move under the influence of lateral or longitudinal loads. It is possible to dismantle such a screw only by the moment of rotation, turning the screwdriver on the reverse.

As a result, the fastening of floorboards with self-tapping screws of this type is carried out very quickly, and the board itself remains stationary until the coating or beams are destroyed.

Moreover, as "sex" self-tapping screws, hardware products with a countersunk head are used, the diameter of the core part is 3.5 millimeters and the length is from 35 to 55 millimeters. Such a screw will not “split” a thin floorboard and will pierce a sufficiently thick flooring. Moreover, for the most gentle installation mode, both the pitch of the screw thread (1.8 mm) and the angle of the groove (40 degrees) were selected. Therefore, it is simply impossible to split even the thinnest and most fragile floor covering with such a self-tapping screw.

The coating of such a self-tapping screw also deserves special attention. It guarantees anti-corrosion protection of both the conventionally visible part - the cap, and the rod hidden in the board. A coating based on copper and zinc is applied to the self-tapping screw with a micron layer (using the method of electrolysis spraying), therefore, every square millimeter of the product is covered with this protection.

Scheme of fixing the board with self-tapping screws

We have already figured out what screws to fix the floorboard with, so let's move on to an overview of the flooring installation technology.

Interfloor and basement ceilings can be assembled on the basis of concrete slabs or beam structures, sheathed with a finishing and rough layer of sawn timber. As the first (rough) layer, a 5 cm thick planed board or an oriented strand board about 2 cm thick is used.

An additional layer of thermal insulation is rolled out on top of the rough coating (a polystyrene film 1-1.5 mm thick), on which laminate, parquet, linoleum or floorboard are laid.

For fixing the finishing coating, as well as for fixing the "sub-floor" slab to the lathing, use the "floor" screws of interest to us. Moreover, fastening is possible both through the board, when a self-tapping screw pierces the surface of the coating at a pre-drilled point, which is then sealed with a "hatch" made of the same wood, or through the lower edge of the crest-shaped lock cut at the side end of the board.

However, the direct fixation method will still be more reliable, and the operation itself will be much faster.

Well, in practice, the process looks like this:

• On top of the heat-resistant coating, along the walls, boards are placed, laying them on the end. Thus, a gap is formed between the first row of boards and the wall, which will then be closed with a plinth.
• Next, the first row of boards is laid along the wall, which is mounted with an emphasis on the masonry located at the end. The second row is laid with an interval - the transverse seam should be covered with a whole board from the previous row. Etc.
• After 3-4 rows, the boards are "knocked down" together, moving them to the wall. After that, you can start drilling countersunk holes and fixing the board with a self-tapping screw, followed by gluing the sadness of the attachment with a veneer from the same wood. Self-tapping screws are screwed in with a step of 30-40 centimeters, but at least two pieces per board.

After the completion of the operation, the finishing surface is shaded with "stain" and opened with varnish, which will fill the gaps between the boards and finally fix the veneer "hatches" over the countersunk holes.