Several years ago, a friend restored an agricultural drying barn and wanted
the floor to look original. California building code required a steel
reinforced cast concrete floor in addition to the foundation. His solution was to
purchase nails from the Tremont Nail Factory, snip the shanks off, glue boards on
the concrete and drill partial holes where the nails would go, then glue in the
nail heads. The result was a nice wooden deck with square nail heads that
looked for all the world like an original wooden deck (the galvanized heads
differ enough from the rusty original nails that it met Secretary of the Interior's
Standards). Not that I am saying some one a century ago needed to fake a
floor, but perhaps they had some use for the heads that has yet to be considered?

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
www.legacy106.com