The 309 tack strip job that made me miss the old days

Last month I did a full tear out in a 1980s house over in Maplewood and the tack strip was still the original stuff they put down back then. Real wood, nails holding strong after 40 years, not like the flimsy particle board stuff we get now. My helper Joe was fighting with a pry bar for an hour on one section and I just laughed, told him to cut the carpet around it and leave it. Had to pull up 309 linear feet of that old strip and only two pieces broke apart. Makes me wonder if the new materials will even last a decade, anyone else notice the quality drop in tack strip lately?

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the_sean1mo ago

Man, is that not the truth? I pulled some of that same old school strip out of a house in my area and it was like trying to break concrete, solid wood and nails that didn't budge. The new stuff feels like it's made of pressed cardboard and hope, I'd be shocked if it holds up half that long.

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mark_chen621mo ago

The "pressed cardboard and hope" thing is close, but it's not the whole story. New stuff is engineered wood, mostly OSB and plywood with better adhesives. It's lighter and softer on the surface, sure, but the real issue is the nails they use now are garbage. You pull a ring shank from 40 years ago and it's thick, coated steel. Today's fasteners bend or snap if you look at them wrong. That old strip was oak or fir that was air dried for years. New framing lumber is often still wet when it goes in the wall. So it's not just the wood that's weaker, the whole system relies on perfect conditions to hold up.

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