When laying oak flooring, there are a number of fitting options available to you. How you fit your floor is dependant on your environment and the type of oak flooring chosen. One method is the adhesive method which was looked at in more detail in a recent blog post. Another method is the floating floor method, although this is only suitable for engineered oak flooring.

Traditionally oak flooring was laid using the surface fixing method. This method involves nailing through the top surface of the board, at even spacing into the floor joists below.

Nowadays with the introduction of tongue and grooved oak boards the secret screwing / secret nailing method is the most commonly used method of fitting.

This particular method involves driving a fixing through the tongue of each board into the subfloor or joist below. As the tongues are hidden by the groove of the next board, this means the fixings are also hidden. This produces a fixing free finish, hence the name "secret".

It is worth noting that with wider solid oak flooring boards and when using this method, additional surface fixing may also be required.

When using this method, our screw of choice are the Spax Screws. These screws have been designed specifically for the fitting of solid wood flooring. Using the secret screwing method with other screws normally requires drilling pilot holes. With the Spax Screws no pre-drilling is required, meaning it will take you half the time to lay each board.

As always, if you would like to discuss any of the points raised in this post with us further, please give us a call.

2 Comments

What is the recommended spacing for these fasteners?

Edward Kirton September 30, 2018 at 4:52am

Hi Edward,

Normally you would aim to insert a fixing at every joist (approx every 350mm - 450mm).

Peak Oak October 1, 2018 at 10:08am

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