Coil Roofing Nailers-Resolved

[paulsharvey]

I am going to have to reshingle my house in the next month (insurance problems) and I am going with a 2nd layer of 3 tab asphalt shingles. Home is roughly 1500 square foot roof area. I want a coil roofing nailer, without breaking the bank. Gun will be used for this roof, and possibly 2 or 3 more over the next decade; so it doesn't need to be professional grade, but I don't want to spend more time fixing jams then nailing. Any thoughts?

 

[grsthegreat]

For one roof….just rent one. There real inexpensive to rent, and rental units are generally good quality brands…. Less for them to repair and less down time.

 

[Roadworthy]

I rented one about fifteen years ago for $40 a week. I work slow so I probably had it two weeks. For the next roof I bought one from Harbor Freight. It was $80 or $100. It hasn't given me a moment of grief. I drip a little oil into the air intake each day and it works well. I'll use it again when I do my next roof. I do recommend removing your old shingles. That will let you see the condition of the sub roof. Oh, yeah, I've got the special shovel for that, too.

 

[3Ts]

I do recommend removing your old shingles.

I second this recommendation.
I have a Hitachi roofing nailer. I'm slow and don't work well on 4/12 pitch roofs in the middle of the summer in Texas so I bought one. I could only tolerate being on the roof for a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the evening. Rental wasn't an option for me. Since the roof sheathing was exposed and the wind kept tearing off the tar paper, I ended up covering the whole roof with peel-n-stick also called ice & water shield. It holds its self to the sheathing and can be left exposed to the weather for a couple months. It's more expensive, but after replacing the tar paper a few times, the ice & water shield became a better option.

 

[Dwellonroof]

I roofed for 47 years and always hand nailed and used hot dipped galvanized nails. You always know if you hit solid decking unlike the fellow that uses a gun.

 

[paulsharvey]

With my Insurance, Citizens, it's a state run insurance company of last resort here in FL; we got a letter in mid Jan that we had to have a new roof by mid May. We didn't see the letter till about 2 weeks ago; so thats the time urgency. We did have the option of paying for an inspection, and if they sign off that roof has min 3 years of remaining life, they won't cancel. I know the roof needs redone, but I frankly, would have been happy to patch and seal bad areas for a few more years.

Had a coworker just went threw the same thing; any roof over 15 years old; due to insurance fraud stuff after hurricanes.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Have you thought about a metal roof ? 29 gauge galvalume metal roof would go on pretty quick, especially if it's a gable roof , they are a little easier and less waste than a hip.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I have a Portor Cable roofing nailer that I bought back around 99' to shingle a 28x80 foot barn. Not a single jam unlike my old Duo-Fast framing nailer. I would consider an HF nailer for your needs. Also, I am with the old roof tear off camp.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I built for a long time. Never seen a roofer use an air nailer. I put on a few too. I know they use them on trailer houses and double wife's. Not the roofers I've used, though. Just a hammer, pouch, knife, chalk box, and measuring tape is all you need. Maybe caulking gun for some roof penetratilons with caulk.

 

[MossRoad]

Back in 1995 I did a layover on our house right before selling it. I hand-nailed. It took me a day to do 1/2 of one side of the house. The next day I rented an air-nailer. It took me one day to finish the other half of that side, the entire 2nd half of the house, the breezeway, and the garage. Never used a hammer for roofing again. It's nuts to think about the time spent and physical damage to your joints until you do it yourself.

Two summers ago we added a 24x24 addition to our garage. I bought a framing nailer from Harbor Freight. This one. $100.

21° Framing Nailer

Amazing deals on this 21 Degree Framing Nailer at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

It worked so well, that I bought a palm nailer from Harbor Freight. This one. $20 on sale. Used it to put in the roof truss brackets.

Compact Palm Nailer

Amazing deals on this Compact Palm Nailer at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

It worked so well, that I bought a roofing nailer from Harbor Freight. This one. It was on sale for $100, as I recall. I also bought a case of nails.

15° Coil Roofing Nailer

Amazing deals on this 15Deg Coil Roofing Air Nailer at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

It worked flawlessly. I did 1/2 the roof one day, and the other half the next. Goes really fast. I do not want to think of how sore I'd have been using a hammer. I've had a torn rotator cuff before. No thanks.

I purchased enough shingles to also do the roof on the original garage, which was around 50 years old. So, the next summer, I bought a shingle removal shovel from Lowes or Menards (can't remember which), and removed the original shingles. It took me about 2-3 hours to remove each half of the 24x20 roof. I was surprised at how fast old shingles can be removed by one person with that shovel. Again,

I then replaced any damaged wood, put down ice shield, then tar paper, then new shingles, new metal edges, drip rail, etc., again using the HF roofing nailer, and again being very happy with the results.

As mentioned, just be sure and drip air oil into the air inlet before use each day. Doesn't hurt to do it again after lunch.

I wouldn't hesitate to purchase these Banks nailers for small projects like this. Hope that helps. Good luck with your project.

 

[s219]

One of my best luxury purchases was a roofing nailer. Mentally at least, it paid for itself right away. Over the years I put on a lot of roofs using hammer and nails. Had nail guns for everything else so the roofing nailer was a late addition to my toolbox. Should have got one at least a decade earlier!

 

[EddieWalker]

I have an old DeWalt coil nailer that I don't care for. It gets the job done, but it's always needed attention.

Be sure that you can use 1 3/4 inch nails. One of the biggest reasons for failure is not using long enough nails. The shaft of the nail has to go through the decking. The point of the nail has no holding power. Also be sure to follow the nail pattern that is on every bundle of shingles.

For a second layer, you should use architectural shingles. Three tab are too thin and they will fail on you faster as a second layer. Since they are not flat, they age faster.

 

[txvrod]

I have a Freeman Coil Nailer but it is for fencing. They do make a roofing nail gun. I bought a whole set of freeman nailers when I was remodeling a house, framing, finishing, stapler, all have worked well for me. These came from Home Depot, they are not in the store but I got them Online during a daily special.

 

[paulsharvey]

Have you thought about a metal roof ? 29 gauge galvalume metal roof would go on pretty quick, especially if it's a gable roof , they are a little easier and less waste than a hip.

Yes I did; and if I had some more time to get things together, I absolutely would.

 

[paulsharvey]

I guess one detail I left out about the roof in general; we plan on selling house in a few years; so longevity isn't a major concern. I do know that a 2nd layer isn't ideal, but it is allowed by code, and makes planning around weather, and work; doing a few 100 sf in the evening easier.

Yes, I know as an Owner-Builder, in FL, you can't sell within 1 year of pulling an Owner-Builder permit. You can't pull your own permit for the purpose of rent, sale, ect and if you sell within 1 year, your considered to have done the work for the ourpose of sale.

There is one soft spot, around a bathroom pipe boot that is soft, that will get OSB removed and replaced (not covered by my building permit).

Building permit was very simple (I work in a permit related field, but not building permits or county, state stuff) hand filled details, Shingle "FL#", they confirmed I owned property, pay my $84, and walked out with my permit.

Edit: the soft spot will get felt and doubled shingles as well, so as to not have an uneven area, drawing attention to the replaced OSB

 

[paulsharvey]

I ending up getting the Wen 61783 from Amazon for $93. Looks like Harbor Freight discontinued their Central Penumatic cheap one, and the next level up was more money, and didn't include a case.

 

[paulsharvey]

After action report; finished the roof. Nail gun did good, roughly 10k nails driven; did have a problem with fairly often (1 in 20ish) double firing, which was annoying. I'm happy with the Wen, and would buy it again. I used 7200 1-3/4" coil nails (Metabo) and maybe 2000-3000 1-1/4" nails.

Roof got final inspected today, no issues.

 

[EddieWalker]

Never heard of Wen. I'm glad it worked for you. That was a pretty good price.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I would strip the old shingles off too!

I bought a coil roof nailer from HF too and did a couple roofs with it so far. I think it jammed 3 times total.

I consider it to be a much better nailer than I thought it would be, it's been well worth what it cost me.

SR

 

[MossRoad]

Never heard of Wen. I'm glad it worked for you. That was a pretty good price.

Wen has been around a long time. I bought a small paint sprayer from them back in the 70s. Just don't hear about them much.

https://wenproducts.com/pages/about-us