cordless nailer vs gas air compressor
lpranger467
| Posted in General Discussion on
Going to be framing in a month or so and wont have power to the site. I have a small generator to power saws and such but I’m debating if I should frame with a cordless nailer (Dewalt or Milwaukee) and drop money on a gas compressor. House will only be roughly 1300 sq feet and there will just be 2 of us framing
Replies
I'd use a hammer and maybe some deck screws with cordless impactor, but I'm I'm old fashioned.
When I started in the early 70’s, we hand nailed it all. For sites w/o power we used a gas generator behind a sheet of ply…….hearing protection at its most primitive. When the Senco salesman showed up finally we took him up on his offer of the use of a gun with the purchase of nails.
Now he was real busy or we were fast. Didn’t want to just leave it there on the new frame so off it went to the next house in another county. I don’t believe we ever ran into him again.However, I think our further purchase of nails more than covered that gun.
No way for a temporary power pole?
*Point being, there’s nothing like handnailing a house and of modest size, why not? I think Ply sheeting is by far easier to hand nail than osb, so there’s the rub in material. But, I’d glue and screw the sub floor. And the roof can get boring, so never back up (first thing I was taught by the boss). ((And that’s no bull, another young guy wasn’t listening and he backed down the stair well, only to be pretty badly bruised.))
Best of luck!
Good points on screwing the floor, better bond I guess. I was going to use the new zip sheathing, not sure if hand nailing would over dimple
Nothing worse than the creaks and squeaks of the floor once the frame dries out. Glue and screw is the way to go. And don’t buy cheap on the glue. PL Premium is my choice. Big caulk gun with a release and pull back on the plunger to hold off runout. You can still nail it but go back and screw before the glue sets.
And remember, never back up!
Since this has turned into a sub-floor thread, 😄 I’ll chime in on that sub-subject. I’ve done a lot of fiber cement clapboard siding in the last few years, which has meant a lot of OSI Quad for all the joints has gone through my hand pumped caulking gun. Last year my son bought me a Makita battery powered caulking gun. Life changing! Not really, but what a great tool. You can dial in the speed/size of bead, let go of the trigger and it relieves the pressure, perfect for sub-floor caulking or Advantech foam. It really has speeded things up, with higher quality. It’s on my list of must-have tools. BTW, not all battery powered caulking guns are created equal, based on reviews, don’t buy the Ryobi.
Ive got a gas compressor I'll sell you...I had this issue with a high school class last year building a tiny house without power. We used a gas compressor, but I wouldn't do it again. (I already owned it for dealing with some heavy equipment). Mostly because of the noise.
I'm too young to remember framing houses without compressors & air guns (46), so I'd personally go with battery nailers if I were you.