Re: Garage replacement options

Well, I'd forget about the nailgun, but that's just me, I find they produce highly variable results. Yes, I'd just use ship- lap, or even 150mm featheredge if you can get good stuff in long lengths, from a timber merchant. Just copy what has been done before, improving if you can. If it's 15m x 6m, timber will cost a pretty penny! Can you use anything else, or is appearence a prime requisite?

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I disagree. If you use a decent pneumatic nailer such as a Senco or Porter Cable with a reasonable air pressure regulator, you get very consistent results.

I've just been using various of my nailers, ranging from a framing nailer down to a 23 gauge pin nailer for a wooden building job with very good results.

.andy

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I'll give it a go at least...

Appearance is fairly important since this is a listed building an dthe garage is close enough top be covered. I've convinced the conservation office that to reclad it will be 'repair' rather than 'renovation' so no would be LBC required.

Thanks for your help!

Presumably this is availble to hire top begin with? Although judging by the prices I've paid to hire some bits in the past it'd probably be just as cheap to buy one in the long run.

Most of the hire places tend to do Paslode nailers. These are a combustion motor type of device where the power is delivered from exploding a charge of gas and diving the nail in this way. The one advantage of this technology is that it is "cordless", in the sense that you don't have a power cord or airline. However, the nails and gas are proprietary and you pay a lot for them.

I have used one of these a few times and found that the results are not very consistent - the penetration depth varies a lot from nail to nail.

In that sense I have found the pneumatic ones far better. The good ones have good balance and various mechanisms to reduce the effect of recoil. This is important with the big framing nailers because you don't want them to bounce around, since this affects accuracy. The smaller ones like the 15 and 16 gauge finish nailers and 18 gauge brad nailers are much lighter and don't have such a big problem with this. On the other hand you are generally trying to achieve a much more carefully placed result. The tiny 23gauge pin nailer that I have is a real joy to use. It is very useful to hold pieces in place while glue sets. Unlike the larger nailers, the pins are so fine that you can barely see the dot that is left when the nail has been driven.

You're right though. If you plan to use it more than once or twice, it's cheaper to buy.

.andy

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