tom m

Does anyone hand nail anymore? How do you guage your time hand nailing verses gun? Do you figuire 3 times longer? Or do you increase your square foot number? About 4 years ago I resided a contemporary house with vertical lap cedar. The plank was an 8". It was very warped and distressed. The customer had an addition put on a few years prior and the builder used a nail gun for all the siding. The nails were set half way into the planks. It aged poorly they were warped and pulling off the house. I sold them on a small 6" plank that I hand nailed. Its more stable and a better connection. The nieghbor has the same house wants a price, I need to make good time or charge well. I had a different crew then than now so Im curious on who else is doing what ?

framerman

Handnailing is easily 3-4 times the amount of time. I did 1x8 vertical shiplap siding last 2 years on a condo project and used a hitachi siding nailer with flush adjustment on it. I also blocked from the inside too though so my nails went into blocking rather than just plywood/osb. It still had a hard time grabbing. This was knotty pine or spruce also, so very twisty sometimes.

Vertical, and handnailing. Both very time consuming. You got blocking to nail into? That was also a PITA to install.

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tom m

Flush adjustment sounds interesting. Hitachi. No blocking just plywood sheathing. I used stainless steel ring shank nails. This is a removal and replacment not fresh construction. I know its very time consuming so if its not predicted correctly I lose big time or over compensate myself out of the job.

wallmaxx

I just finished a new siding job using vertical cedar channel. I was lucky enough to frame most of it new so I could install let-in 2x2 nailers.
see here http://www.wallmaxx.com/hydecarport.htm

I also used the SS ring shanked - the shaft seems a bit thin and they were pretty long.

I had read somewhere in these forums that using casing nails was becoming the wrong way to apply cedar, since the smaller nail head size allowed for the cedar to pull through if it ever cupped.

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tom m

That one I did four years ago looked the same as the day I left it.

fnnuts

guns quicker angle nailing is the key factor when using a gun