Hand-nailing small patch in hardwood floor?

shtoink

Hi

I am about to patch a small area (approx. 20 sq. ft) of t/g fir flooring where we had removed part of a wall and an old fireplace hearth. Since it is such a small area and I don't own or have easy access to an air nailer, I am considering hand-nailing it.

I realize that up until the advent of air nailers that this is how all hardwood floors were installed.

Are there any reasons why I shouldn't?
What type of nails should I use?
Should I pre-drill the nail holes in the tongues?

Thanks

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BigJim

I am not a floor man but have installed a lot of flooring. You can rent the nailers from Home Depot if you want to. Before the air nailers they use the mechanical nailer and they were tough to use. If you don't want to rent and want to hand nail I would use a 6d finishing nail and predrill for the nails as the tongue can crack sometimes. JMHO

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Jim