I’ve been told my a contractor friend of mine that he does not like to use the nails for pneumatic nailers. I have a bostich air nailer that i use with 3.5″ nail (coils) or 2″ for strapping. When i built my house i used the air nailer on all interior walls with no problems. When I compare a coil nail with a regular ardox nail the regular ardox nails are thicker hence my friends hesitance to use coil nails. He prefers hand nailing everything.
I am going to start building my garage very shortly. It will be comprised of four exterior walls with no interior walls.
Would I be better off using regular ardox nails and hand nailing the whole thing or would the nail gun be fine? All of my bigger buildings to date I use galvanized ardox nails for the entire structure inside and out and aside from the higher cost of nails and longer time frame for actual nailing I’ve had no problems. Seeing as this is a garage/workshop I am tempted to use the air nailer as a bit of an experiment. I would rather get some opinions from more seasoned fellers as if the air nails fail, it would be an EXTREMELY costly experiment.
Thank you for your advice!!
Replies
turn the pressure up nail away, if your guys reasoning was correct we'd be having a bigger housing crisis than we have now. Ardox ? we use hand drives for framing all the time usually smooth shank.
Hey, is that you Harbor Springs Dan?
or was it Petosky Dan?A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Yea its me Calvin came out of my cave and got back on line. kinda like Pacino just when I thought i could get away ya'll pull me back in. Was on the 12 step program, but the addiction came over me. Somebody help me!!
And so it goes.
A bunch of folks get canned and some new ones (sort of) come in.
Evolution.
And that would make you a throwback.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
yea and your older than dirt you old fart
Good to have you back.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Been building with air nailers everyday for 14 yrs now and no problems. Just remember it's not how many nails you use it's where you place them. also with nail guns people have the tendancy to over nail
There's a whole lot of houses out there built with gun nails and they are code approved. don't think too many houses are getting build strictly hand nailed anymore. Don't worry about it.
Don't listen to him. But if you're really worried (and you shouldn't be), go back through after every thing is raised and add a few toenails.
Hint: use a block of wood -- 5/4 or 2x to hold your gun up at a consistent height, and run around the room doing all the toenailing at once.
But I wouldn't do even that. Gun are fine.
AitchKay
Very few of the things that go wrong with a house over time can be attributed to the nails, and even fewer to using an air nailer. The only one that consistently comes up is over-driving roof sheathing, which can lead to problems in high wind areas. Blast away.
Think about it - when push comes to shove, which is going to fail - the nail or the wood around it? Most likely something's going to start bending, then the nails will either pull out or pull through the wood.
Nail size won't affect that much - except for maybe the size of the head. If the force stays in shear, then the wood fibers will start to give before the steel. A larger nail gives more bearing area in that case, giving it a slight edge. However, if you get to that point, nasty things are going to happen anyway.
If the building is well designed for the conditions, none of the fasteners will come close to the stress needed for them to fail, whether it's a gun nail or otherwise.
Bang away if you want the exercise. Otherwise, work on your finger pulls.
Don
Maybe it is just the nails I am using but I think gun nails are harder to pull than hand driven nails. I suspect it is because they go straight down in one shot with less damage to the wood fiber. Maybe some day I will try some semi-scientific test.
Also the friction heat is greater, and that melts any glue on the nails for a tighter grip.Aitchkay
Air nailer all the way.
There's a time and place for hand-nailing, and framing ain't it.
I had to go look up what "ardox nails" are. Hadn't heard that term before. I call 'em screw shanks... As far as I know they aren't normally used for framing. Maybe something to do with the diameter of the shank??? In framing applications most nails are under shear forces - not extraction. I like them for decking and a few other applications though.
Anyway, to give credit where credit is due, it sounds like your friend is a very conscientious tradesmen. I learned some time ago not to tell people they are doing too good a job. There is such a thing as over doing things though... Put the words "Fine Homebuilding" through the spell checker here at BT... ;-) It's like that other discussion here on screwing framing.... HELLO.... any common sense in there... ;-)
That aside, gun nails are fine. Admittedly they don't hold quite as well as hand driven nails, but as stated above the fact of the matter is that people just use more gun nails, giving an equal or better end result in about 1/2 the time. Especially on sheathing applications.
If you want to do an exceptional job on your project focus on proper exterior detailing to produce a structure that will last for generations and then use up the rest of your extra time on producing superior interior finishes.
BTW - I know a successful remodeler who doesn't use any power nailers.... He is an anomaly, but he does do good work. He says he just doesn't like to drag all the equipment around. He mainly does smaller jobs - kitchens, bathrooms, rot repair, etc. Not things that envolve foundations etc. and large truck loads of materials.
To me one thing a good builder knows that sometimes novices don't is where the line is between doing a good job and overbuilding. It results in a end product with value.... Many novices are doing it just because they enjoy it - putting bread on the table isn't a priority. "If I were a carpenter".... and all that.. :-)
Edited 11/12/2008 7:41 am ET by Matt
Like others said, the nailgun is good.
If your using p.t. bottom plates you need the corrosion resistant nails for that.
Edit; just noticed your post says your using galv ardox? nails for the p.t.
Edited 11/12/2008 9:15 am by wood4rd