Fence picket nail selection

**Huon pine fan** · 8th May 2019, 06:27 PM

My old front fence has reached the point of no return and requires replacement.
My thinking is 120x120 cypress posts, treated pine rails and cypress pickets. It will be about 1.5m high.
I want to use a nail gun to secure the pickets rather than hammer and nails. I have a Paslode framemaster gun but am not all that keen on the size of the d-nail heads. Plus I have no desire to fill and sand around 1200 nail holes. I went down to the toy shop to see what type of nails are available and the only alternative seemed to be 14g brads. The nail head size seemed a little small giving me cause to wonder on their holding ability in a fence situation.
If I have to buy another nail gun then so be it but I want to be comfortable that the pickets will stay in place.
Thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome.

**Beardy** · 8th May 2019, 06:52 PM

You probably are looking for a coil gun and ring shank or spiral shank nails. I have the Bostich one but you could probably just hire one for the day from the green shed

**elanjacobs** · 8th May 2019, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by Huon pine fan

I have a Paslode framemaster gun but am not all that keen on the size of the d-nail heads...the only alternative seemed to be 14g brads. The nail head size seemed a little small giving me cause to wonder on their holding ability in a fence situation.

Well you can't have it both ways...either you want something small or you don't.

You could look at 15g DA brads; they are a D-head, but smaller than framing nails. They certainly don't come out without some persuasion.

Or coil nails, they're a round head but approaching the size of framing nails. They're often twisted for extra pull-out resistance.

**cjbfisher** · 8th May 2019, 08:48 PM

What Beardy said.

**justonething** · 8th May 2019, 09:22 PM

I'll go with the Brad's, less chance of splitting, looks better, 4 nails per picket is plenty

**Handyjack** · 8th May 2019, 09:50 PM

If they are long enough, for extra strength try skew nailing.

**Huon pine fan** · 8th May 2019, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by justonething

I'll go with the Brad's, less chance of splitting, looks better, 4 nails per picket is plenty

Per picket or per rail?

**Huon pine fan** · 8th May 2019, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by Handyjack

If they are long enough, for extra strength try skew nailing.

I am thinking 63mm so length should be OK

**justonething** · 9th May 2019, 05:43 AM

Originally Posted by Huon pine fan

Per picket or per rail?

Per picket 2 nails on the top rail and 2 on the bottom rail

**jimfish** · 9th May 2019, 08:01 AM

I use a 14 ga nailer (also known as nd brads)for installing cement sheet cladding. They have a slightly smaller head than t nails and will certainly hold fence pickets. Another option would be decking screws. The old story goes if you can’t hide the fixing make it stand out.

**Pete57** · 9th May 2019, 09:28 AM

For fixing rails to posts I used batten screws.
For the pailings I used one of these:
https://www.tradetools.com/product-r...gun-64mm-angle
With Trade Tool brand galvanised nails. Fired in at an angle to get some skew on the nails.

I prefer hardwood posts as they seem to last longer.

It is only a fence so don’t care about nail holes. As long as it looks good from a couple of meters away.

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