Best hardwood floor for BIG dogs

[Jeremy Brant]

Brad,
That's what one of my orginal plans was - to rent the flooring nailer from Home Depot.
I stopped in two different stores to check prices and availibility and both carried no name Aisian nailers.
I figured I might as well take a chance on the Harbor Freight one.
My gamble paid off on this one.

My buddy bought the harbor freight nailer and had no problems with it as long as he used name brand staples.

[Brad Shipton]

Brad,
That's what one of my orginal plans was - to rent the flooring nailer from Home Depot.
My gamble paid off on this one.

I have never seen a Big Box rent the imports. They must be getting a lot better. I recall chatting to one guy at the store a few years ago about how often they were re-building the Bostich nailers (partly due to misuse he said). Granted, they shoot hundreds times more than a 1200sqft job before that. I wouldn't have rented an import either. We woodworkers never seem to mind a new tool sitting around

[David Nelson1]

I bought the Freeman from Home Depot for 189.00. I could have bought cheaper.... this one will accept all 3 choices of fasteners and looked like it was better built than the rest in that price range and lower. Not to mention the ergonomics felt better to me, less leaning. The HF nailer I borrowed will only shoot staples and jams a bunch and is a bit tougher on the back also requires a more forceful swing for a properly driven staple.

[Shawn Pixley]

The manufacturer of the bamboo flooring I installed recommended a particular brand of nailer with the very hard bamboo. I rented it and the compressor for ~30$ over a three day weekend. I rented from a rental place rather than a blue or orange borg. The flooring manufacterer also recommended the nailing cleats rather than the staples. For me, the rental was better than buying a tool I would use once.

[jim gossage]

I don't have any expertise w floors, but i asked the same questions as you when we built our house 2yr ago. I went with golden teak (timbauba) from lumber liquidators and was told that the 7 layer finish w alum oxide would hold up to our 50 pound dogs. 2 yr later, they are completely scratched up. However, you don't really notice it until you bend down a little and look at it in sunlight.