Hand Nail or Nail Gun??

[jchristie]

I am building a deck and have so far constructed the posts, bearers and joists and am now ready for the decking. I have ordered and taken delivery of 39m2 of 130 by 19 Jarrah decking boards milled from old structural roof members. I'm unsure whether or not I'll be able to use a nail gun or whether I'll have to drill and hand nail the deck down?? Any advice welcome?:confused:

[glock40sw]

An air nailer will do the job no worries.

Hire a compressor (if you don't have one) and the nailer.

[jchristie]

Thanks Trevor, what type of nails would you reckon would do the job?

[mic-d]

You certainly will have to predrill and handnail the ends. On the ends you might also touch a 3.5mm drill in the hole to relieve the pressure from the nail head. You might try a coil nailer for the middle nails, but if they split it you'll have to revert to predrill and handnail. Use 50x2.8mm Gal nails hammered flush to the surface.

Cheers
Michael

[Carpenter]

What sort of joist timber? HW I hope. I'm not a fan of the dome head nails used in coil nail guns, but thats just a personal preference. I reckon the hand nailed 50 x 2.8 bullet head gals are the go if you can be bothered hand nailing. If its treated pine use a longer nail & if using the coil nailer in treated pine joists go for ring shank, in HW use twist or spiral shank. Have a look at this stuff, its worth the effort.http://www.joistrip.com/

[jchristie]

thanks carpenter the joists are jarrah, if hand nailing what size drill bit would you reccomend?

[Bally]

Damn those joists will be hard. I just finished my deck using all hardwood and found when I started I bent far more nails than I managed to get in ( 100m2 is a fair bit of deck to hand nail too ) so I ended up gluing and screwing. It took a while but I'm confident that sucker won't move. :)

I used say a 2mm drill bit with 2.7mm ( I think ) Timberlock nails when I started and damned if I bent a fair few and snapped countless drill bits. Then when I counterpunched sometimes the nail cocked and looked awful so I reverted to screws, these had to be pre drilled and countersunk too bit they looked heaps better. I ended up puttying all the holes with glazing putty cause the nails looked so bad.

[mic-d]

I'd use a 2.5mm drill for the 2.8mm nail. You may have to drill the full nail depth but if the joists allow, drill a bit shorter or even just the deck board.

Cheers
Michael

[Tools]

Those boards are pretty wide for the thickness...hope you don't end up with cupping problems.

Tools