Roofing Hand-Nail vs Gun Nail
One hot-topic in the roofing industry is whether hand-nailing is better than using air guns. Either way one goes, the quality of the roof depends solely on the craftsman. A bad roofing crew will screw it up regardless of what they use. But, overall hand-nailing provides for a better roof installation. It’s much easier to get sloppy with an airgun than with a hammer.
Using a hammer provides for better control and feel. That’s my personal opinion, having started roofing prior to air-guns, I’m rather fond of old-fashioned hand nailing. Here’s some articles that talk about hand nailing roof shingles vs gun nailing. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think:
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Back in the day, one of the signs of a quality roofer was how fast he could hand nail shingles. A roofer took pride in the amount of squares he could install in a day. If you could put down 15 squares in a day, you were good. If you could install 20 squares, you were a master.
Hand Nail Shingle RoofWith the arrival of roofing coil nailers hand nailing became a thing of the past. Many new roofers can’t hand nail at all and have become what I call gun spoiled. While coil nailers can be fast, this does not necessarily mean that you get a quality roof. In fact, poor nailing can lead to leaks and shingles blowing off too easily.
I still hand nail to this day, and often get work specifically because of this. Today there are not many roofers left that will hand nail shingles.
In this video the roofer is going fast, but is probably failing to fasten the shingles properly. One other thing to notice is how this roofer is running the shingles straight up the roof rather than stair stepping.
This not only slows down installation, but causes a channel that could leak years down the road. That’s why this “raking” method voids the warranty on many shingle brands. If you are having a new roof installed, be sure that your roofing contractor stair steps your shingles, and slows down enough to put the nails in correctly.
via Roof Repairs – Learn How To Install Shingles,Shingle Roof Repair.
Hand Nail Vs Gun Nail – Roofing – Contractor Talk
Which do you prefer and why?
If I couldn’t use a nail gun I think I would be a siding installer. I guess I’ve been spoilded by pnumatic tools and could never imagine hand nailing.
My father nailed for 15 years before he started stapeling. He said at first he could hand nail faster than staple. He claimed 3 squares an hour was not a problem with hand nails. His best ever stapeling was 9 squares one bundle in an hour and 5 minutes. He now uses a nail gun after 15 plus years of using a staple gun.
Some builders and homeowners demanded nails rather than staples. I stapled for around 7 years before switching to nails in the last 2 years.
IF the pressure is set right and the nails/staples are placed right there are both very efective to hold down the shingles.
For a couple years my brother nailed and I stapled on the same roof, we did at least 100 roofs and had perhaps 2 or 3 shingles that blew off. Most were within a couple weeks of install due to not sealing.
Recently my father and brother had a roof that had several shingles blow off. This time my brother was stapeling and my father was nailing on the same back piece of roof. Every stapled shingle stayed in place which were a little off on the staple placement while all the blown off shingles were nailed to perfection.
What happened is you got a few lousy roofers that should be working at McDonalds or something that tried to staple down roofs. I’ve seen and heard that some would skip the undernail shingle (while running up the roof off two lines) on the entire roof. Now when you start talking about each shingle having three nails versus four and your going to have blow offs. People started thinking it was due to the staples and not the installers and hence the bad rap to staples.
I will never staple again due to being licesensed and bonded and all doing more and more residential tear offs it looks better to most people to nail. Actually my one brother now has boughten his first nail gun and plans to nail. Well that leaves one of my uncles (the other uncle nails) and my oldest brother that still staple.
Hand nailing would be better I guess but to time consuming for me being owner operator on all jobs. I
It must be really tough to hand nail in the winter with gloves on?
via Hand Nail Vs Gun Nail – Roofing – Contractor Talk.
Roofing: Hand Nail vs Nail Guns and Decking Issues, wind damage, Amelia
QUESTION: We’ve always been told hand nailing is better. Our contractor quoted hand nailing, but then used nail guns claiming, the decking was improperly fastened and that the coil nails shot at 8 nails per shingle would correct it, otherwise our roof would not look level with some raised spots where the decking pieces meet. This sounds like BS to me. IS it?
ANSWER: Whoops!
Sounds to me like his crew screwed up the work order, and now he is trying to sling some s*^& to cover himself……why do i say that?
Because 6 nails per tab is ALOT, the standard is 4…8 is ridiculous…8 per tab would mean he shot 3 boxes of nails to do your job!
8 is easy to prove too!…get a flat bar or metal scraper and in the morning before the sun is up full, simply raise up a tab by gently using the flat bar to see the nail heads and count them!
Finally…if the wood decking is up..how is an 1 1/4 ” roof nail going to draw it down?? it takes an 8d hitting into the rafter / joyce to draw a deck tight…what would all the roof nails do, to draw down a deck over air??? They are not nearly long enough, or biting intoanythibng..so iot is a silly answer on his part!
Try this..looK in the attic, if there are 8 nails pr tab..the attic woULd will be FILLED with nail shanks…not just a little, not just some…i mean a TON!!!! look how little shows…how is that supposed to help draw down a loose deck???
via Roofing: Hand Nail vs Nail Guns and Decking Issues, wind damage, Amelia.
