Thinking about investing in some sort of staple gun, as I will be laying a carpet soon, and a gun would be handy for going around the edges, into a wooden floor.
Do I need an electric gun, or will a manual one do the job?
What's wrong with gripper-bars?
Well apart from them having claws worse than Mike's kitties ...
Oddly, an electric one may well be cheaper than a good quality manual one. I rather liked those manual 'hammer' types which we used at work. Until I found out how much they cost. ;-)
Mine gets used for tacking down the underlay. I'd use gripper board for the carpet itself.
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Having looked at eBay, you may well be right! Electric ones seem to start at around 15 quid, and would probably be good enough for what I have in mind.
I'll be laying an old carpet recycled from a bedroom, into my 'playroom', so top quality job is not necessary. Just tack around the edges to keep it in place. Anyway, good excuse for a new toy :-)
For flooring, a hammer type is the best usually:
(unless doing something like a bullnose on a bottom step, where an electric nailer can work well)
Actual staples, being generally bright, might be more visible than old fashioned carpet tacks.
A manual one is fine (depending on the carpet thickness.) There are several different sorts. If they don't go fully home, whack them with a hammer
I've one of these:
(Stanley Electric Staple/Brad Nail Gun TRE550)
Used for underlay (several rooms) and general tacking. No complaints at all, although I haven't got the hang of the high/low power setting - seems much the same to me.
A HDD magnet on the end of a stick does the job. Use arrow T10(iirc) staples, they're flat so sit on it just right.
NT
I reckon an electric one is more useful to have than a manual "click" type because it will also cope with tacking down hardboard as a precursor to vinyl. (I've never had a "hammer" type but I'd guess that would do both jobs fine). As someone else pointed out, the electric one is also useful in tight spaces.
Manual ones are handy if you need to fix polythene or tarp to a wooden framework, also good for fixing clematis netting to fences etc.
In message , Graeme writes
Faced with stapling a house worth of chicken wire I bought the Screwfix offer. Tacwise Duo at ?75.00
Did the job OK. Not sure if the staples suit carpet. 6mm ish wide.
It is critical that the staples have parallel sides when loaded in the m/c. Otherwise they do not feed. Suspect any opened packs proffered by counter staff.
Other thing with any is to make sure you can get spare staples easily. There seem to be several standards which aren't interchangeable.
Staple guns work best on vinyl flooring and that sort of material. You don't need a powered one. the guy who put my kitchen floor covering down seemed to have one that was cocked by some kind of lever and a spring. Brian
Cheap staple guns, especially electric ones, are the work of the devil. You'll spend more time clearing blockages before you fire it at the wall.
We used to use staple guns a lot and even the expensive air driven ones jam occasionally. Real P.I.T.A.
Heavy duty carpet tape will do the job.
Although replacement staples are readily available for the cheaper Aldi/Lidl electric staplers many suppliers do not list these manufactures on the compatibility lists. I've found that Toolsatan do replacements for my Aldi/Lidl stapler. Make a note of the physical size of the staple(s) before running out as the handbook may not state the size (just an harder to obtain order number)
It is also advisable to have a test piece/area to adjust the power of the hit. With some materials too hard a hit will push the staple completely through the material to be fixed.
For outdoor use consider the use of 'stainless' staples.
Last time I bought on the basis of size it didn't work out. The staples simply didn't match the claimed size.
NT
My old Bosch electric stapler takes type 53, available in a variety of lengths from pretty much anywhere
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