?? on roofing nailers

Huntindave McCann

Huntindave McCann

Well-known member
I need to purchase one and am looking for some honest reviews. Yes, this is duck related, as I have been instructed,,,,,,,,,,,,,, no roof= no ducks. We not actually but if I don't get a roof on this summer, I'll be shoveling snow off the living room carpet. Thats how bad the old shingles are right now.

Please post up your pros and cons on any power roofing nailers you personally have used.

Thanks
 
Dave,

Might be easier to rent one. Actually it is MUCH easier to hire someone else to do it and you won't have to go to the chiropractor at the end of each day.

I used two last summer to do my garage roof. One I rented that didn't work good and the other my son had. I don't know what the brands are but they both took the coil nails that are on wires. The rented one would leave the nails proud about an 1/8" to a 1/4" no matter what I did with the air pressure. Make sure your compressor is has enough capacity that you don't have to wait for it to catch up if you're a speedy roofer. Also, get a good swing stapler for the roofing paper. Speaking of paper, get some good quality paper from your local lumber yard. I bought mine at Home Depot and the difference between it and the good stuff was night and day. The good stuff costs more for a reason.

Good Luck,
 
reroof our house (summer in FL is not a smart time to do that btw) and I used a pneumatic nail gun for the project...a roofing nailer that uses coil nails from harbor freight. I can get the brand later this evening. Anyway, for about a third of the roof the nailer was great, then it would nail in half way, then it just quit nailing...it'd make the noise but no nail would come out (and yes there were nails loaded into the gun...properly even)...so we took it back and got another of the same brand...no problems with it at all, still use it for lots of other projects as well. No complaints about the new one...

If you go air nailer, make sure you watch the cord though that you dont trip yourself...

Dani
 
Run down to Menards and get the Bostich... Give me your CC number and I will pick it up for you and drop it off at your house next Sunday.
 
Wait until after the next big storm and let your home owners insurance pay for at least part of having a professional do it. Guaranteed work and no falling off the roof for you.

I'm old and lazy, so consider my opinion thusly,
Harry
 
I'd reccomend one that is reliable, light, and inexpensive.


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Dave,

I agree with Phil, I have done 3 roofs all with borrowed Bostich coil roof nailers. Never had issues. I would not rent them personally since the time you will need to complete the job usually is longer than the rental time/cost average deal. Basically if it is small roof and you plan on doing it all in one day, then sure rental makes sense. But if this is a after work deal and taking 3-4 days the cost ususally is even or slightly ahead to buy it. Most rental places rent bostich that I am aware of.

2 other points,

Andrew Holley turned me on to POLYURETHANE hoses, way smaller, LIGHTER, and just as strong, and they kink up less. On a roof I would love to use one. I have it as my main line now at home. Much nicer than rubber or the other poly ones. HD has them for about 30 bucks, 100' and it is a light blue color.

Also, speaking of Andrew, if you are really nice to him, he just may bring you down his nailers, compressors, hose and a PIE...but that is probably gonna cost you dearly. I know he has done a lot of roofs, I can't remember what nailers he has.

Good luck, be careful.

Eric
 
You could be nice enough for me to bring the stuff, but Dave, you don't have what it takes to get me to help you (curves is a good starting point).
 
OK I was thinking three round trip tickets from DTW to your closest air port.... We will bring the nail guns with us... HUMMMM A trip to Iowa would be fun...

Anyway my husband is licensed contractor here in Michigan, he does around 6 - 8 roofs a year.... the roofing nailers we use are called MAX, used to use senco but they seemed to be a little temperamental... dad turned us on to these oh about 6 years ago and have never had to service one ever....
Dont know a whole lot about bostich coil nailers but the max will take just about any brand of nail from 1 1/4 - 1 3/4
which will cover the need for nails on your ridge cap too. some nailers will not take the 1 3/4

here is a link to amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LZHT30?smid=A1B3JVH1905P58&tag=nextag-tools-mp-delta-20&linkCode=asn

depending on how long it takes you to get the roof done you could be looking at close to this in rental fees, and if when your done with it you dont want it I bet you could sell it for a good price on ebay...

Also the hoses Eric was talking of are great, we switched over to them about a year ago or so. So much lighter!

As far as the plastic tops, we use a bostich nailer for that, makes the job so much easier than pounding in one by one!


Hope it helps a little?!?

OH and definitely support your local lumber yard the difference in materials is well worth the money, unless you want to re do the roof in 10 years?

Bridget
 
Maxx makes a great gun... Bostich would be my second choice.. They will both shingle a couple of acres of roff if you treat them good...At least I did with mine.. If its not raining to hard my max and bostich will be popping tommorrow..Please be carefull, and treat your gun just like a firearm... I have seen guys shoot there own feet and fingers.. It's not pretty... The gun will save you time.. Do not push to fast... Good luck... Bostich would probably be easier to resell...
 
Dave,

Might be easier to rent one. Actually it is MUCH easier to hire someone else to do it and you won't have to go to the chiropractor at the end of each day.

I used two last summer to do my garage roof. One I rented that didn't work good and the other my son had. I don't know what the brands are but they both took the coil nails that are on wires. The rented one would leave the nails proud about an 1/8" to a 1/4" no matter what I did with the air pressure. Make sure your compressor is has enough capacity that you don't have to wait for it to catch up if you're a speedy roofer. Also, get a good swing stapler for the roofing paper. Speaking of paper, get some good quality paper from your local lumber yard. I bought mine at Home Depot and the difference between it and the good stuff was night and day. The good stuff costs more for a reason.

Good Luck,
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Most nailers have an adjustment on the nose piece that is completely independent of the air pressure. THAT is where you need to make the adjustment to set the nail depth. The nose piece, or safety, is the part that has to be depressed for the gun to "fire".
 
Thanks, I didn't know that. When I took it back to the rental place they didn't either I guess because they said there wasn't an adjustment. I hope that if I ever need that information again it's because I'm watching someone else do it.
 
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and you won't have to go to the chiropractor at the end of each day.
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Pete, I may suffer from a few aches and pains but at least I'm no where near as OLD as somebody I know who lives in Wisconsin. Didn't you just celebrate a milestone birthday a few days ago??? huh?
smiley-gen101.gif
Just how does it feel to be 60 ??

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If you go air nailer, make sure you watch the cord though that you dont trip yourself...
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Dani, Yep, thanks for the heads up. Don't want to make one long step to the ground for sure!

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Thanks for the info Don, I'll check it out and reply to your PM.


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Give me your CC number and I will pick it up for you and drop it off at your house next Sunday.
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Phil, Even better,,,,,,,,,,,,,, skip your trip to the store and just show up at my place. I'll have the nailer waiting for you.[/font]

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Paul, What a great idea!!! I'm going to need a quick demo on how that one operates. I'm a slow learner and you may have to repeat the "demo" about 7200 times. Plan to show up about the same time as Phil.

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I have done 3 roofs all with borrowed Bostich coil roof nailers. Never had issues.
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Eric, Thanks, Bostitch was one I was considering.
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but Dave, you don't have what it takes to get me to help you (curves is a good starting point).
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Oh come on now Andrew, I've got "curves",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, wadda you mean they're not in the right places?????? BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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Bridget, Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

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Do not push to fast... Good luck... Bostich would probably be easier to resell...
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Tim, Don't worry about old men moving too fast, won't be a problem. As to resale value, yes I was thinking a mid-price gun would have the most marketshare on the used market.


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[/font][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]
Most nailers have an adjustment on the nose piece that is completely independent of the air pressure. THAT is where you need to make the adjustment to set the nail depth. The nose piece, or safety, is the part that has to be depressed for the gun to "fire".
Click to expand...

Dwayne and Pete, Yep Dwayne is right about the adjustment. Had that figured out just by looking at them. BTW. I ran a rental business for 12 years and we ALWAYS made sure the customer knew how to properly and safely use and adjust any equipment before it left the premises. We wanted the repeat business,,, go figure. :>)

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Ditto with Rutgers, only buy an actual roofers hammer, with the adjustable gauge for reveal of the shingle. Take the money you've saved on the gun, and pay to have the lumber yard stock the roof for you. If anything is gonna break you down, it'd be packing bundles of shingles around on the roof. I'd also buy the rubber butt cheek pad that hangs from the belt, and straps to your thigh. Better yet, take the money you've saved, and pay someone else to strip the roof and haul off the shingles. That's the real work to reroofing anyway.
The hammer's been attaching shingles to roofs for millenia, and while you might smash your finger with the hammer, you won't nail it to the roof with it. I've probably done a dozen roofs with just a hammer, most of them I got paid to do, and still did it fast enough with a hammer to make money. As an do it yourselfer, you're not gonna go like a greased ape like the rape and run commercial roofers anyway. It pays for them to use guns, it's all they do all day, so they don't have to spend much time thinking there next move, so they can devote all there mental abillity to not nailing body parts to the roof. Unless you've done a roof in the last six months, there's some figuring out for you to do, and the slower pace of nailing with a hammer gives you a little time to keep track of where you're going. This is especially true if your roof has lots of hips, valleys, dormers etc.
Since you're not paying yourself to do you're roof, save the money on a gun and gun nails and buy some shells, decoys, a down on a nice shotgun, whatever. You're doing it yourself to save money right? Besides, you can hear the birds singing, and enjoy the view of the neighborhood using a hammer.
 
Matt,

I understand where your coming from but,,,,,,,,,, I'm hoping a nailer will take some of the strain away from swinging a hammer all day. I'm not looking for "speed". This will be the first roofing job I done using a nailer. Not that I have done as many roofs as a professional but have done several roofs for family and friends over the years.

I don't have much help lined up and a good share of the time I will be working alone. I figure it may be easier to line the shingle up with one hand and hit it with the nailer in the other,,,,, rather than holding both a shingle and nail in one hand while driving said nail with a roofing hammer.

I hope to utilize the helpers I do have lined up for the heavy work of stripping off the old. Also hauling the new materials up to the roof. The actual laying of the shingles is always the easy part. Not a lot of cutting pretty much just staight run for the most part, about 22 squares worth.
 
I was reminded of an experience a couple years ago with one of my brother in laws. He had a couple "friends" show up to help, I kept my mouth shut, about experience and how to do things, until after the roof was stripped. His "friend" didn't bring any nailers as, he could go just as fast with a hammer as anybody could with a nailer. Now he was also a bit annoying, so I told him to pick a partner for himself and pick me a partner and we would race. He picked my dad (good choice) and gave me my mother. The best she could do was sit on the peak and throw shingles at me, to scared to walk around on the roof. Not only did my side look better, I beat them by almost half the roof, want to say I averaged a sq in 45 mins. Now that was a few years ago, I was in better shape and had some recent experience.

No offense Matt, but Dave, get a nailer and save your wrist and forearm.

And Dave, you never used a roofing nailer before? If the roof is 22 sq, that's about 20 hours of just laying shingles, by yourself, thats alot. You buy the gas, the food and beer, I will bring the tools and Eric in trade for a duck hunt this fall, just kidding, I would be serious if you were closer, nothing wrong with hard work, breaking a sweat and the feeling of a job done well.

How steep is the roof? And what type of shingles? I'm a classic man, nothing looks as nice a straight lines with three tabs, however with the architecials you have alot less trouble keeping the rows straight across, and it goes much quicker.
 
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If the roof is 22 sq, that's about 20 hours of just laying shingles, by yourself, thats alot.
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Andrew,

Yep thats a lot. It is about evenly split between my house and an unattached garage. Thats four sides to work, one at a time. I'll do what I can do then take a break. I am using the [/font][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]architecials and the pitch isn't bad. As to keeping the rows straight and shingles spaced,,,,,, well lets just say that is one of the reasons I am doing it myself this time. ( if you get my drift) I work in a tool and die shop and can be too fussy for my own good sometimes.

My brother-in-law is a professional landscaper straight to him is +/- 1/2inch, straight to me is +/-.0005
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Dave, I have vowed to only use the 3d shingles from here out. I like 3 tab like Andrew, but way too much fuss. When I did my shed the 3d went so much fast like Andrew said. I would never go back.

Check out the hose I mentioned, Andrew was definitely right on that one, it is nice not having to fight a hose on the roof.

What is your pitch of the roof? Standard 4/12?

Good luck.
 
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