Ihave two prjects this Spring/Summer. A roof job of about 520 sq ft and a deck of about 10×13 ft. Around here, rent on a nail gun and a compressor is about $100 each a week. The roof job will require about 20 sheets of sheathing and possibly about 40 pieces of blocking, so I figure about 1200 nails for the sheathing and another 160 for the blocking. I’ll rent a roofing nailer for the shingles. But I’m a bit confused about the deck. I’ve been looking at the Simpson metal brackets at the big box. Do these need to be hand nailed? I was thinking it might be a bit dicey trying to hit the hole/slot with a framing gun. The reason I ask is that HD (boo,hiss) has the Hitachi NR83AA gun and EC12 compressor on sale for $499, with a coupon for another $100 off. I also have a $50 off coupon that I just got from the Hitachi rep. The $350-400 for the gun compressor combo is pretty similar to the possible $400 rental for a gun and compressor for 2 weeks, but only if the gun would be useful for the deck project. I would like a compressor for the long term as well and would probably get one anyway even if I didn’t buy the Hitachi compressor/gun package. Do people hail down decks these days or use screws? On that note, the hitachi guy showed me their new plastic colated screws which can be driven by a nail gun, but removed with a driver. Does this sound legitimate or is it smoke and mirrors?