staples or nails? Glue?

[CBGumby]

We are finally ready to install the hardwood flooring in our dining room.

So, here is what I have: floor joists, then 1/2" plywood (very old), then we put 3/4" plywood over that, then rosin paper. We are getting ready to put the flooring in now. My question is: should we be using staples or nails? Pros/cons?

Also, I have read in many places that the wider boards (4" or wider) should be glued down as well. We have 2.5", 3", 4", 5", and 6" wide random length boards (Walnut). Do we really have to glue the 4/5/6" as well? If so, how? It says just the ends, but we have rosin paper under it, we would be gluing to paper. That doesn't make sense.

Also, our room is "off square" by about an inch. Three walls are wallboard, the one wall is log (flat side in). The log wall has a base heater running along the length of it. Where would we start? I originally wanted to start along the log wall, since that is the wall that you see at the entrance to the dining room from the kitchen, so I would figure straight lines to be important here, DH says we should start at the opposite wall, since the inch that will be off will probably end up under the baseboard heater (by the way, the baseboard heater has a pipe on each end that goes into the floor, so we have to figure out a way to notch the wood). DH says the pipes are so close to the wall, we probably won't put wood behind them, but what does that mean? I can't really leave 1/2" expansion space from the pipe out to the floor, or it will be really visible, and we can't cover it up with molding, because of the heater....

any ideas?

thanks, guys!

[sunshine]

Do you have any paper between your old subfloor and new?
It looks to be that you might want to start by glueing or nailing what ever is easier to position yourself around the installation of those pipes. You would want to start the row around the areas you would have to jigsaw around. I pefer to us galvinized staples on instillations that have sheets instead of planks. Don't forget to leave a slight expansion for moisture.

[CBGumby]

thanks Sunshine, we did end up putting the flooring in anyway, and we didn't use glue, because there was rosin paper between the hardwood and the subfloor....see the picture!