The QuikBrace™ is the essential tool for all flooring services
Whether you are a DIY handyman, Builder, Carpenter or work for a professional flooring services company, we all face quite common challenges that frustrate us when laying floorboards. The process of laying floorboards is time consuming, and usually takes two people. We all know that floorboards can bow, gaps can appear between boards, glue can be messy, hammers and chisels can cause damage to floorboards, and floor clamps take time to set up and maintain. These events are long lasting headaches when it comes to laying floorboards.
What if all of these hassles could be minimized, and in some cases eliminated, by one single tool? The QuikBrace™.
The QuikBrace™ is light weight, easy to use, can be operated by one person and results in fast, accurate floorboard installation every time.
If you are a professional flooring tradesman, the QuikBrace™ is a must have tool.
The QuikBrace™:
- Saves time and minimizes hassle on the job site
- Saves money – reducing labor costs in half and increases productivity
- Improves quality of the finished job – the compressed air power secures boards tightly and securely – no gaps, with an arguably better, faster finish than when you use floor clamps
- Increases your capacity to take on more work
With these results, by using the QuikBrace™, your customer satisfaction will likely sky rocket
Trouble shooting tips for squeaky floorboards
These tips come from years experience in flooring services and are designed for use by DIY handy men, Builders Carpenters and professional flooring installers.
If floorboards are re-sanded, but not properly prepared, this can result in squeaky floorboards. Squeaky floorboards also means you likely will have loose floorboards that move around the nails.
Top nailing boards through the face can also cause problems if the sander hits the metal nail and leaves a groove in the paper and drum that is used to sand the floor.
The preferred finishing method is to fill the hole punched with matching putty. Occasionally, with this fixing practice the boards, fixings (nail) and sub floor can move and acclimatize in future season, altering the overall performance of the floor. The putty can fall out by the nails protruding thru the floorboard.
In most cases, squeaky boards can be fixed by re punching the floor properly.
Screwing the boards down does not always fix this problem.
When punching new or old floorboards, that are top nailed as described above, experience has shown that if the nail is hit and then punched it has an effect that eliminates the squeaks which caused the floors natural movement over time.
You’ll need to work nail by nail, row by row, working from one end of the house to the other or from one end of the room to the other. It can be quite noticeable that after two or three rows you can see the floorboards moving down further protruding the nail, ready be driven home by the hammer and then forced under the surface by the punch.
Two other common noises in timber flooring are, squeaks in between floorboards and a banging noises.
If the existing floor is to be used as a subfloor and laid over, then the squeaks between the floorboards can be cut out. This relieves the tension between the floorboards and therefore relieves the root cause of the squeaking.
Problems often occur with old floorboards that have been sanded and finished. The more the floor is sanded the more the wear layer on the top of the floorboards gets closer to the tongue, which inevitably weakens the floorboard, which can crack, resulting in the squeak.
If the floor is to be sanded and finished, then replacing the floorboards in the designated area is a good solution to solving the integrity issue and the squeaking results.
When banging floor occurs, it can be a combination of the nail rows squeaking as a cause of the floor moving from the joist and the joist moving from the bearer.
The Joists Banging on the bearers are noticed when standing on the floor there is a distinct banging due to a sudden jolt on the floor area. Fixing the joist to the bearer or packing the bearer to the joist can relive this issue.
Some subfloors consist of pier to a concrete footing in the earth. A common sequence is Bearer layed across the piers and then Joist layed across the bearers, with the floor on top.
Remember, expanding and contracting is a natural part of a floorboards lifecycle, so, it is not uncommon for squeaks and banging to develop over time with floorboards.
The better you can lay your floorboards initially, the less likelihood there is of problems down the track. Consider using the QuikBrace™ to minimize these events from happening.
