Staples v 8d Common Nails for Sheathing?
Considering using a medium crown air stapler for sheathing application.
If medium crown (7/16″) power driven staples are use instead of 8d common nails for fastners on roof or wall sheathing (either OSB or plywood), is the nailing schedule the same as code requires for nails.
What length of staple should be used (or would this be code specified).
And, what is the proper orientation of the staple crown (parallel or ar right angle to framing member).
Are there any structural integrity advantages of one fastener over the other?
Thanks…
Replies
Where do you live? It is my understanding that in some (most? all?) states staples are not allowed to be used for roof sheathing. I'm not sure about wall sheathing. Your building inspector can tell you, or it will say something in the buiding code.
I have never seen a code concerning staples even though we have used them for about 25 years on sheathing and decking. We use the 2 inch long by 12 inch crown staple and we put them 90 degrees to the rafter or stud. On the joints we put the staples parallel to the rafters or studs. The holding power is tremendous. We put the staples about 10 inches apart. WE have used the framing gun and shot #8 sinkers. The duo fast guns I use come with an extra tip to put on the nose so that the #8 nail does not shoot through the decking. The staple gun is much faster.
James Hart
I think staples are outlawed in Florida due to failure in hurricanes - too easy to install them wrong - at an angle too deep etc
No staples in Florida. And, to top that, the new codes will be requiring ring shank 8's for roof sheathing . No more 8d commons and most likely no more alternates like the 8d CC's for high wind areas.
Staples have good withdrawal resistance, but their shear strength doesn't amount to much.
So, if you're in an area with any wind category, or seismic and shear walls are specified, forget the staples.
You mentioned common nails, but box nails will fulfill most applications. some shear walls require 10d nails so you should probably consult your local inspector or a codebook for your area.
kinda on this subject, a short article from JLC nov-04
Florida Requires Ring-Shank Nails for Hurricane-Zone Roof Sheathing
The 2004 edition of Florida's building code has a new nailing requirement for residential pitched roofs: All sheathing must be nailed with ring-shank 8d nails at 6 inches o.c.
The requirement grows out of research conducted by Ricardo Alvarez, a professor at Florida International University's International Hurricane Center, and his colleagues as part of Florida's "Hurricane Loss Reduction Program." The program has paid for extensive study of construction techniques and their effect on building durability in high-wind events. After testing the holding ability of ring-shank nails, Alvarez and his team concluded that using the modified nails would provide a major upgrade in strength for a barely noticeable cost.
In the Florida team's testing and other studies, 8d ring-shank nails at 6 inches o.c. have shown an uplift capacity of 292 psf, while ordinary 8d common nails provide only 126 psf of uplift capacity. "Currently prescribed 8d common nails would only meet allowable design uplift pressures for some limited roof conditions, roof heights, and only up to wind speeds of 120 mph," said the team in their code change proposal. "The proposed 8d ring-shank nail would perform adequately under all roof conditions and heights, from 15 feet up to 40 feet, including gable ends in any exposure." According to data in the proposal, the added cost for a typical house would be about $7.
Press stories in Florida hailed Alvarez's research as a breakthrough, but the holding power of ring-shank nails was established long ago. "As the inventor of threaded nails, Maze Nails is not surprised," said Roelif Loveland of Maze Nails in an e-mail message. "They've been available for 70 years." Maze introduced a screw-shank nail in 1933, and Independent Nail, now owned by Maze, brought out ring-shank nails in 1934.
A 1958 paper by the late Virginia Tech professor George Stern argued that threaded nails should replace bright nails for many applications, particularly for house construction in wind zones: "There is no doubt that a frame assembled with threaded nails results in a stronger house which may be able to resist the forces of wind better than the weaker frame assembled with plain-shank nails ... its walls are less likely to crack and its joints are less likely to open." A house built with green lumber would perform properly only if threaded nails were used, argued Stern, because they maintain more holding power as wood shrinks and moves. His testing also showed that ring-shank nails had as much as a fourfold holding advantage over smooth nails in flooring applications.
Information on the Florida Building Code is available at http://www.floridabuilding.org. — T.C.