Coil gun for renovations

[Tiger]

In the middle of a renovation at the moment and having just attached most of the fibre cement in the bathroom, I'm wondering about how I would do this quicker next time. The fibre cement is 6 mm thick and I hand nailed 25mm nails, lots of them. Would a coil gun be the tool of choice here? I think I read somewhere that an air stapler could be used but I need to do some fencing as well so hoping to get away with just one more tool :U ie the coil gun. What do you think?

[ian]

when I redid my bathroom 13 years ago, I used a rattle gun -- a corded Makita screw driver
these days I'd use a cordless impact driver, or if money was no object an auto feed screw driver

[Tiger]

Thanks Ian, the more I think of it, the more I think that a coil gun would be impractical as they usually have a capacity of 30 to 90 mm nails and my floor would have a 6 mm fibre cement plus 19 mm floorboard which makes 25 mm, if the smallest nail in a coil gun is 30mm that would mean the nails would protrude through the floor.

Ian, I actually have a screw gun somewhere which I've used for plasterboard, what sort of fastener did you use with your bathroom, galvanised screws?

[ian]

I'm not sure why you're using 6mm fibre cement over floorboard (19mm yellow tongue?). You're supposed to be able to tile straight onto the yellow tongue.
I would have thought 6mm too thin and flexible for the floor, with 12mm being more normal.
Also, when nailing 6mm fibre cement you would be using some sort of clout, something like the old Fibro nail, the head of which would be too large for a nail gun. I don't think standard bullet head nails have enough holding power.

I used 19mm fibre cement, screwed to built-up floor joists, so there'd be a definite step up into the bathroom (the other
because it was going to be under the waterproof membrane, I used ordinary steel screws,

When I read 6mm I immediately thought you were refering to the walls. This is where I used the screw gun -- which was so much easier than using a drill/driver -- to attach teh Blue Board.


for the waterproof membrane I used three coats of a commercial paint on latex concoction with bond braeker and fibreglass reinforcing at joints and the corners.

[Tiger]

Ian, we were advised to use the 6mm fibre cement over our floor which is part yellow-tongue and part baltic pine floorboards. Have to say that nailing the stuff down was painful in time and also on the knees. If this sort of job can't be done with some sort of nail gun, then I'm questioning the value of a gun for me, however for fencing and attaching weatherboards, it would still come in handy.

[ian]

Tiger, what sort of nails did you use?

You should be able to screw 6mm board down. and while I'm not sure, if the screw heads were seated on a blob of fibro sealer, you wouldn't need to drive the heads in.
You could reinforce the waterproof membrane with a 4" square of mesh over each screw. the fact that the screw heads were proud would disappear once the tiler spread his layer of screed

[wood duck 2]

I use a Max coil nailer all the time for naling down 6mm cement sheet.it's very fast doing it this way
This particular nailer is also a framer.The shortest clout it will take is 32mm
It doesn't matter if the nails protrude the floor a bit.
It's a lot quicker than screwing it down.

[Tiger]

Thanks guys. If I ever lay fibre-cement sheet again I will use some sort of gun. I like the coil gun that can do framing as well, that would save having to get a framer. The nails sticking out under the floor I thought would be a problem as when I've been under the house I've been poked a bit but I could live with that.