Which Nail gun?

[Hudson1984]

Ok, so i'm gunna be boarding out the loft,

https://www.buildersmetalwork.com/type-ar_trip-l_grip_framing_anchor.html

so will be installing a bunch of these. Honestly, can't be bothered to nail them by hand.

So, hoped for a recommendation for a nailer to make life a little easier.

 

[Diver Fred]

Impact Driver

 

[JohnD]

How old is the house, and what are the ceilings made of?

 

[blup]

Nail guns mostly use small or lost heads so you may find it a false economy.

Blup

 

[^woody^]

You don't want to be nailing above plaster ceilings

 

[Deleted member 174758]

As @^woody^ says, nail above a plastered ceiling and it can cause problems - in particular cracking.

The type of nail gun you need for joist hangers, etc drives 2.8 to 3.3mm "diameter" nails (in other words the same general size as a framing nailer uses, and most definitely not small or lost head), but the nails specifically made for hangers have rectangular shanks which are twisted so that once driven they are awkward to remove (in other words they have excellent pull-out resistance characteristics). For ironmongery such as this you therefore need a more specialised gun, one where you can either see the tips of the nails or where the gun has a locator "finger" (see below) in order to be able to actually place the nails in the holes accurately - this type of gun is referred to a positive placement nailer or PPN gun (see around 0:40 in this video for a PPN being used). I have never seen one for less than about £400 with most of the gas guns (e.g Spit, Senco, Paslode, etc) being in the area of £600.

An ordinary 1st fix framing nailer cannot handle this task because you cannot accurately place the nails in the holes

Above: The locator "finger" allowing the gun to position a nail accurately in a hole in a plate is clearly visible on this Paslode PPN (L) whilst the large "claw" nose piece which obscures the nail tip position is visible on this Hikoki NR1890 (R), Without theat "claw" nose the gun could easily slide when undertaking tasks such as toe nailing (i.e. nailing with the gun at an angle, generally in tight spaces)

whereas a PPN nailer cannot use the longer nails used for sub floors, roofing and framing (i.e 50 to 90mm). PPN guns are a bit of an expensive one trick pony TBH. Which is why you don't see too many of them, even on site, but when you need one they are indespensible

 

[foxhole]

They require twist nails which need hand fixing, you will struggle to hit the holes with a nail gun.