How To Attach Wood To Concrete With Nails

Connecting wood to concrete can seem intimidating but with the right tools even an amateur craftsman can do it.

How to attach wood to concrete with nails.

Two common nail options are shown below. But attaching to concrete really isn t much more difficult than fastening to wood if you use the correct tools and. Trying to screw or nail into concrete sounds like a near impossible task. You can fasten wood to concrete using 3 different methods depending on your preference.

Choose a length that will penetrate the. You can use regular 16d sinker nails as concrete nails in an upcoming project where you need to attach a piece of treated lumber to a poured concrete slab or a wall. The cut nail and the concrete nail. Be careful not to bend the nails as you drive them.

Some concrete nails are the cut nail design shown in the photo with a thick flat shank and a tapering v profile. This method is only effective when you are attaching wood to concrete blocks or a concrete black wall. Other nails have a thick shank that sometimes has spiral ridges for improved holding power. The wood could be a 2 x 4 bottom plate for a wall or a simple 2 x 2 cleat for some utility shelving in your basement or garage.

The easiest approach is simply to nail the wood to the concrete. Mortar nails are the cheapest option for attaching wood to concrete but there is a trick to get these nails to work. If the nail stops before its head reaches the surface no amount of pounding will help. Insert concrete or masonry nails into the holes and drive them flush to the surface of the wood using a framing hammer.

If the concrete is less than a year old you may be able to drive special hardened concrete nails. Standard nails will not work on concrete but some nails are made specifically for nailing wood to concrete. Hammer set concrete fasteners concrete screws and mortar nails are all effective ways to connect wood to concrete. The following is a breakdown of the pros and cons of four versatile fasteners most often used for attaching wood to concrete.

The cut nail has a square tapered shape with a square tip. One way to attach wood to concrete is to use mortar nails.