I'm going to do a semi large flooring job and I'm thinking to buy the gun rather than rent it. This gun has some fairly good reviews but I have to wonder if the price is too low. Amazon has it for $108:

NuMax SFL618BR 3-in-1 Pneumatic Flooring Stapler/Nailer with White Rubber Mallet - Amazon.com

This will be a semi stressful job. I'm nailing into 3/4 ply which covers radiant floor tubing. The tube locations are well mapped out with copious photos on hand. Still, I worry about double fires and tragic accidents. In my experience, double fired nails or staples go in real close to each other, rarely if ever does the second push the first down deeper. But this sort of gun has the groove holding the gun pretty firmly in place so it might happen. I don't recall that happening in my previous jobs but none of those were over tubing. If it did happen, their was no negative feedback loop.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I might ask the owner to specify how to do the job without puncturing the tubes, then follow his instructions to the t....and not do it at all without feeling comfortable that it will work. A knot in the wood might deflect the nail straight down. A way to avoid that would be to drill every hole with a depth limited drill.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

My neighbor put in a hot water radiant floor system with 3/4" T&G plywood subfloor and used an air nailer.

he snapped chalk lines out directly over the PEX tubing and then measured 1/4" each side to set a "danger zone". 1 1/2" Oak Flooring was installed in one day (after sitting on site for 3 days to come to local humidity level). We set the flooring up spacing wise to make sure we didn't have a nailed line over the PEX area.

We didn't hit a tube thanks to his cautionary marking of the PEX tubing system.

Try it...

I'm going to be using a sharpie to specify where every tube is. There will be a few dicey areas, where the tubing does a return. We know where those spots are and have photos of the tubing before the plywood went down. I'm tempted in the problem spots to use polyurethane const. adhesive and weight the hell out of flooring.

Stoney, I'm curious, did you use the mallet activated nailer? My client has picked up the impression that those are more prone to double shooting. I seem to recall that they're pretty good in that dept.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Air Nailer Mallet Actvated and had No Double Shots...Used the expensive nails/staples that have the golden coating (lubricant/glue). I usually use Ring Shank nails for 3/4 T&G to plank sub floor but on this one we used Torx head deck screws (1st time)...they countersunk well but the manufacturer supplied TORX bits were crap - rounded off very quickly with avg torque setting, had to break out my tool steel set.

Just make sure the nailer is lubed well and that you strike DIRECTLY on the head...off center strikes confuse the activator and cause double shots.

laid an entire two story house (about 2600 ft2) of Bruce prefinished oak flooring. We rented the mallet-fired nailer although in retrospect, I would have bought it then sold after the job.

Very few miss/double fires but of course we didn't have the heat tubing to worry about. All-in-all, it was a hard but satisfying job that gave us a great feeling of accomplishment. In fact, it was so easy that our marriage survived the experience.

In your case, I might be inclined to hand nail in those areas near the tubing return loop. I also chose the prefinished Bruce because the finish is baked-on and seems to be almost diamond hard. It cannot be told from a post-finished floor in appearance and you can use it right away.