I just Googled to see if these new nails were available for sale. These special nails are now sold through Amazon. But something seems weird about the specs.
Click the link and scroll down to the strength charts. This nail comes in two thicknesses, one length only. The chart claims that their .113″ nail is as strong as their .131″ nail in resisting seismic loads. Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Both sizes are 2.5″ long, but made from different thickness wire.
http://www.amazon.com/Bostitch-Hurriquake
Also interesting is that a guy bought a box of the .131’s and found lousy QC indications.
Anyone here tried them yet?
Bill
Replies
Hi Bill,
I just bought about 10K of the .113 shank diameter Hurriquakes from Amazon. I'm going to have them used for the sheathing on the house. I plan on going with screws on the subfloor and the HQ1 everywhere else. I haven't tested it throught the Hitachi framing nailer yet, the framing guys will try it out this week hopfully. All of my nailers are finish nailers :-(.
Quality seems pretty good (see photo), but you should check each stick before loading, I found one stick where the head has extra metal on it. As for the earthquake ratings for the .131 and .113 diameter nails, I have a feeling that it has to do with the nail head size. I imagine that the nail heads sizes are the same on both nails, this is only my guess though.
How different are these from the Sheather Plus nails? I've used those for awhile and like them. I spent about 3 hours today shearnailing the basement walls with these :-) For shear nailing i like them because the bigger heads keep the nail from overdrive as easily.
The thin I dont' like about them is that I swear they send more plastic from the collating into my face. I've got a cold so I'm mouth breathing and got quite a bit of plastic in my mouth today :-) Make sure you wear glasses.
I got the.131" nails and we use these on garage walls and special shearwalls like interior where they get inspected, otherwise we use the .113" coil 8d nail.
Tim,Have you seen both sizes of the Hurriquakes? If so, is it true that the heads are the same size on both? My next comments assume identical head size on both.What baffles me is that the thicker shank should perform better in an earthquake due to greater shear strength and greater bearing at both the framing and the sheathing. In fact, the video on The Bostitch site shows the heads pulling through the sheathing when subjected to high enough vacuum, so it seems to me that the fatter-shanked nail would NOT do any better in wind, but that it WOULD do better in a quake. The chart on Amazon show the exact opposite. Bill
Ok, I recognize the ring shank portion of the nail.But what is the purpose of the twisty part at the top ? Novelty ?And the heads may be a tiny bit bigger around, but yeesh, they are the thinnest heads I have ever seen on a nail outside of a drywall nail. (Not counting finish nails of course.)
H T R J
>>> But what is the purpose of the twisty part at the top ? Novelty ?
Spec says "screw shank fills voids in sheathing created by rings" Pat pending.
Now, don't you feel better?
Not really.What it looks like to me...Thin head wants to mushroom at the slightest pull.And screw shank weakens and pre-stresses the shank which makes it easier to break off.I think a good old fashione thick headed ring shank would be a better nail. Especially if they left the head as thick as a normal nail, but made it slightly bigger around, like this nail.
H T R J
Luka, I was simply pointing out what the manufacturer claims, didn't bother with the smiley.
I don't know enough about this, just another thought on teh twist section of the shank. It appears that portion would be completely embedded in the sheathing, and the most likely place for the nail to fail (due to shear) would be at the junction between sheathing and framing member. That section of the shank is full diameter, i.e. max strength.
>>> I think a good old fashione thick headed ring shank would be a better nail.
But how then would this be much different than current products. Where is the marketing appeal?
I didn't bother with the smiley, either.;o)Marketing appeal... I think you hit the nail on the head, right there...
H T R J
I haven't seen the heads on both the Sheather Plus nails. I can take a picture of a shearwall with the .121" nails and drive a regular nail next to it so you can see how the Bostitch nails compare that way. Let me know.
Tim,If it isn't too much trouble that photo would be helpful. Who manufactures the "sheather plus" nails that you use? Was ".121" a typo? .131?Bill
Should have been .131" and it is Bostitch. I think they replaced that nail with the Hurriquake nail. I'll try and you a few pics tomorrow.
Thanks, Tim.
My framing guy shot a stick of the Hurriquake .113s through his ancient Hitachi nailer. They were shot straight into a couple of 2x8 scraps and seemed to have worked okay, there were a couple of jams, but he said that it shouldn't be a problem. Also, two of the nails needed to be sunk in by hand. There was no depth drive dial on his nailer. We'll see if they work with the other nailers. I'm also looking to buy a framing nailer and help in nailing the sheathing if the framer doesn't charge me extra for allowing me to help! ;-).BTW: The twisty part of the shank is supposed to hold the sheathing stable. But is it better than a normal ringshank? Well, they aren't that much more expensive as nails. Lastly, I think that the testing of the Hurriquake is pretty interesting:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HurriQuake
I forgot to get those pics for you. Sorry about that, I'll get them Monday. I just used up the last of the SheatherPlus nails and I think we'll order in the .131" Hurriquake nail. I'm going to email the info to our engineer and see what he thinks and if it might change some of the oc spacing of those shearwalls that get down to 3" oc or even 2" oc.
Thanks, Tim. I'd be very interested to hear what your engineer thinks after carefully assessing these new nails. My gut tells me that the .131's are going to be better than the .113's.Bill
My brother gave me some info on the nails he found in a magazine. I'll be curious to see what the engineer says also. I'll make sure and get you those pics. Thanks for being patient with me :-). I had my camera and took about 200 pictures last Thrusday and Friday of the roof layout and framing, and it never crossed my mind to get the shearwall with the SheatherPlus nails.
Bill,
Sorry it took me so long to get those pictures. The links below are full res shots, the larger heads are the SheatherPlus and the smaller above are typical 8d gun nails (.113)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ctuchwhttp://www.sendspace.com/file/0yne5t http://www.sendspace.com/file/kmpxfr
Thanks, Tim. I just got back from vacation and saw the photos. Better nails is a simple idea like wheels on luggage that took a strangely long time to happen.Bill
I seem to remember when I was looking at them that the .131 was about 25% stronger than the .113. Did you check the specs on the Bostitch site?
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Paul,I looked at the Bostitch site, but couldn't find the specs. The specs in Amazon came from where if not from Bostitch? I don't know, but it seemed strange that the bigger nail was rated higher for wind but not any higher for seismic.Bill
Hmmm, I can't seem to find the graphs I saw before either.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
FWIW amazon frequently has errors in their descriptions, whether it's a nail, computer, or toaster.
I'd look for a second source of specs. buic