Is it possible to use a pnuematic stapler or roofing nailer to fasten up vinyl soffit or does soffit need to be left loose like siding?
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I uses my 18 gauge narrow crown stapler for it.
Does it leave the soffit loose or does it matter it it's tight. I finished that garage and now the neighbor wants me to do their whole house. WOW. Going from 10" soffits to 24" soffits 10'-30' off the ground. What a difference.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone!
I have adjusted the depth on the stapler, the staple is usually left a 1/4 of an inch from the suface of the rib.
I was in the air today about 30' myself. I set a 24' pic up and it took me a minute to get used to the ladders and pic moving with me.
Being that far in the air bid it as everyday being a bad day. Include setiing up of ladders and staging. And take your time up there. Be careful and enjoy the birdseye view.
Well you must have done something right landing the neighbor, keep up the good work.
Did you have pump jacks set up or was the pick set up on ladder jacks? If you were on ladder jacks thats a long way up with nothing behind you. I took your advice and did everything as neet as possible. I'm lucky though, my guy did work for a siding guy when he got out of highschool, 20 years ago. I wouldn't take such a big job but he convinced me to. I'm willing to learn from good people, so I pay him well.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone!
I use ladder jacks and pics. Haven't got the money for pump jacks yet. I'm a fool to do your dirty work.
I use my 18 ga. narrow crown...does 2 or 3 good...then BAM one will crack or lose a chunk, then a few good...BAM. I hand nail vinyl and save the stapler for the aluminum.
May work in Florida mid-summer, possibly Texas today or Death Valley, or any other near-sun -surface temperature place....but not Ohio most of the time.
you can and it does..
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Typically vinyl soffit is fastened at the out-board edge and the inner edge is supported by either 'F' or J' channel. If that is the way you are doing it a narrow crown stapler works fine. You need one with an adjustable drive though because you don't want to be driving the staples through the material. A cordless stapler is really the ticket if you have access to one. Also the short lengths of vinyl soffit - often 12" have little expansion. For wider soffits - say 2' you need intermediate support so in that case they need to be fully hand nailed. They do sell positive placement pneumatic or cordless nailers and staplers especially for the vinyl siding applications but they are highly specialized tools that are a bit pricey.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000302T6/sr=1-8/qid=1155953179/ref=sr_1_8/102-1740786-2276157?ie=UTF8&s=hi
I'm going to get on people's nerves here and say it should have a couple 1 1/4 galvanized screws in it - outer groove and lip. I've never seen one of these blow out. I have seen it blow out with 1 1/4 roofers (lip only).
Plus, easy to do with a sleeve screw holder.
When you say outer groove and lip are you talking about the j channel. If not, please explain.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone!
The vinyl soffet we have put on is 16 inches wide with grooves every 4 inches. The deep part of those grooves touch the facia. We put a 1 1/4 galvanized phillips deck screw in one or two of those grooves into the facia and also through the lip into the facia. Using one of those sleeve screw holders it's easy to do one handed. We've never drilled for the screws.
Screwing would be a major pain. If you didn't predrill for each screw, the soffit would be sucked up tight to the facia.
And all sub facia is not perfectly level so sometimes you need to float the soffit panels so the aluminum facia isn't all oilcanned. (Wavy)
With the 18 gauge stapler with the depth set right you can float soffitt most of the time all you need. I'm a fool to do your dirty work.
I've never tried the stapler on it, so your way may be better. I would have thought the stapler would have cracked the vinyl in cold weather. I know those staples are hard to pull out. The ones I have seen blow out around here were hand nailed with roofers. To me that would be a major pain - I hate hand nailing any more. As far as "floating", that would be easy with 1 5/8 galvanized deck screws.
I suppose a staple will work until the wind blows but lookout then. It took us 18 months to catch up with hurricane damaged vinyl soffits after Charlie. Short spans, long spans and everything inbetween, it all blew off. Granted this was on Sanibel Island but we found most of the staples rusted badly and their strength compromised. We used stainless screws in the grooves when we replaced it and have done the same thing on all new work since then. After that experience I wouldn't put vinyl soffit on my house if it were a gift. We use Hardisoffit if I get to choose.