Usually straps and hangers and the joists and so on are attached with heavy nails about inch and a half nails, I used three and a half inch ardox nails, the same I used for nailing up the house framing because that is what I had. 8 gauge screws would do fine too although if driven without pilot holes they can be twisted off or weakened as you go.
Twisted inch and a half to two inch nails are acceptable for fixing down plywood decking but screws are probably better, less likely to pop and less likely to allow movement which can result in squeaks. In your loft that won't much matter and people also often lay a bead of calking along each joist before fastening the plywood down also to reduce the probability of squeaks. Last I saw, they are now constructing engineered floors using engineered beams and joists, much lighter and more rigid. They also apply glue along the top of the joists before screwing the decking down. The principle is that you should be able to lift the floor in a single piece from one corner. being engineered and using plywood, movement due to swelling and shrinking of the wood isn't a consideration. These floors are said to be much more rigid and you can span much longer spaces than with conventional construction and the engineered joists come with knock-outs which allow you to run wiring, plumbing and even air ducts through without compromising their strength. Coming back to your questions though, screws are probably easier for many blind people to instal into joist hangers but nails are adequate and faster if you are good with a hammer. Nails are fine for decking but screws have certain advantages and about as quick for sighted or blind although with a pneumatic nailer, nails would be faster but not quite so good at keeping from popping particularly with the relatively high moisture and subsequent movement in modern lumber. I just spent a couple of days visiting my son who moved into his new house just finished in May. I noticed that the second floor squeaks overhead. I didn't discover how that was installed and I don't know what the joist structure is but I do know that they have been taking ten liters a day out of the air with their dehumidifier in addition to what ever the air conditioner is taking out. Much of that must be coming out of the wood structure. Hope this is helpful. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Stansifer To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 11:16 AM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Fasteners Ok, help me out here, Am I better off installing my joist hangers with nails or screws? What is best for fastening the joists into the hangers? What is the best way to secure the plywood flooring? -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dan Rossi Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 7:51 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Fasteners Dale taunted: > Just right now there is a sale at houseoftools.com including an air > nailer designed for driving nails into joist hangers. The nose is shaped > to fit into the holes and it is designed to get into those tight places. > > Dan might be interested in one for his deck project. > BAS***RD! Teresa is going to kill me. Well, it was our eleventh month anniversary on Wednesday. Do you think I could get away with it if I called it a late anniversary present? Possibly an early first anniversary present? Isn't neumatic what you usually give for a first anniversary anyway? -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ If you would like to join the Blind Computing list, then visit the following address for more information: http://jaws-users.com/mailman/listinfo/blind-computing_jaws- users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ------------------------------------------------------ Teach Infowest Spam Trap if this mail (ID 113540863) is spam: Spam: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=113540863&m=a41f b819f51a&c=s Not spam: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=113540863&m=a41f b819f51a&c=n Forget vote: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=113540863&m=a41f b819f51a&c=f ------------------------------------------------------ END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
