I have a few cedar shingle jobs lined up . Until now I have always hand nailed them. Could anyone tell me what is available for fastening them with air. What kind of guns are available. TIA

The Paslode staplers work good as do the Hitachi versions, which is much like the NV45 roofing nailer.

Sometimes staples are better than nails.

Would you use a galvanized or stainless steel staple for cedar shingles ? Would the staples be 16 gauge with a 7/16 crown ? Why do you think staples would be better than nails ? Just wonderin !! TIA

Last job the homeowner insisted on galvanized nails and he wanted us to dip the shakes in water prior to installing!!!

You need two inch long staples or nails with the narrow crown staple. A sheathing or sheating (sp?) staple gun works good. Never seen any galvanized staples but somebody could make them. Only do a roof or two a year with wood shakes.

On large shakes use three staples a couple inches above the next course and on normal sized shakes use two staples. Wood shingles will swell up so if you have a staple in a joint your ok.

Hello,

We use the Senco SNS45XP, it is an eccellent stapler. We do 4 to 5 shake jobs a year and use N17BRB which are 1 and 1/2 " long for installation and N21BRB (2") for ridge cap. Here is a link to this stapler. They also offer galvanized staples.


http://www.senco.com/con_rem/ViewTool.aspx?toolid=165

Keith

I would never use staples for cedar shakes or shingles,\the non-galvanized ones rust andwill break away after a few years,leaving the shingles vulnerable to strong winds.
Hitachi makes an excellent coil nailer,shoots 13/4" grip-clinch non corroding nails,sorry i dont have the numbers,not at the shop.

My father and I stapled hundreds and hundreds of roofs over the years with no rusting issues, mostly asphalt shingles though. He stapled for over 20 years 6 days a week. The staples bite down into the wood which makes them hold very very well. A nail driven with an air gun would make me think the shake would split too easily.

The two things you still see stapled down these days are wood shakes and sheathing. Can't recall the last framer on new construction use nails to lay the roof decking.

I've had less problems with stapled roofs over a 7 year period than 3 years of nailing. Figuring 40-60 roofs a year over the time frame makes me wonder which method is better.

Now all the roofers I know all nail with either Hitachi, Paslode, or Bostitch guns.

Hi,

In 2004 we finished a three year project. It was a condo community, 24 buildings in all, 9 ,9 , and 6 . Each building ran approx. 85 squares. They were all shakes. The buildings were build in 1970-71, so they were 30+ year old shakes. they were stapled. The only rusted staple areas were around vent stacks. The field had very few rust areas, even the step runs had very little rust. There was no replacement of the underlying sheating. The roofs were felted in with a 30 LB. shake liner.
We installed solid ice and water shield and went over that with 30 LB. shake liner and installed new "medium" shakes. As I posted earlier we use Senco staplers and they do make galvanized staples.

Keith