Flooring Nails: Product Guide

Substrates

Wood Substrates - Wood is a porous and resilient material. That is why it is so easy to drive a nail through it. However, because it is so easily shaped and changed, those nails are often just as easy to remove as they were to install. For carpet installers, this means carpet tack strip can become loosened and ruin the carpet installation. Not to worry – there are two factors that can drastically increase the holding power of nails in wood substrates! The first is the length of the nail. The principle is simple: the longer the nail, the stronger the hold. The closer the point of the nail gets to the bottom of the subfloor (without piercing it), the stronger the nail’s hold will be. The second factor that improves holding power is the shape of the shank. Halex recommends using ring shank nails on carpet tack strip installations as the rings catch between wood fibers and lock into place, creating a stronger hold on the substrate.

Concrete Substrates - Unlike wood, concrete is a hard and brittle material. Driving a wood nail into concrete could bend or break the nail. Concrete nails are made from high carbon steel and hardened so they can be driven into concrete without bending or breaking. The thicker the nail, the more holding power it will have, but if a nail is too thick, it may crack the concrete. Fluted shank concrete nails absorb the pressure from the concrete in the fluted areas and allow the concrete to grip the nail. As with wood nails, the longer the nail the better the hold, but longer nails are more likely to bend or break. For lightweight Elasticel (or Acoustical) concrete substrates, a spiral shank will provide the best holding power.