DIY architraves - nail gun?

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Burnz0

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Hi All. I’m going to have a go at the skirtings and architraves on my house over this next week and am considering buying a nail gun. I’m not too sure what I’m buying and would like to keep the cost down so interested to know if it’s worth it?
Would I be able to get something for £1/150ish that would do the job? If it’s air powered that would need to cover the compressor too.
And will I be able to use it for the skirting or am I better sticking with screws?
Any advice appreciated! And specific suggestions more so if that’s allowed? I’m a bit lost with all the different types
 
Some might say it's a bodge, and it doesn't expressly answer your question; but, I've been more than happy using low expansion expanding foam for fixing skirting and no more nails for architraves! :)
 
Burnz0 said:
Hi All. I’m going to have a go at the skirtings and architraves on my house over this next week and am considering buying a nail gun. I’m not too sure what I’m buying and would like to keep the cost down so interested to know if it’s worth it?
Would I be able to get something for £1/150ish that would do the job? If it’s air powered that would need to cover the compressor too.
And will I be able to use it for the skirting or am I better sticking with screws?
Any advice appreciated! And specific suggestions more so if that’s allowed? I’m a bit lost with all the different types
Click to expand...

Unless you have a considerable number to do - lots of houses, then it really is not worth the outlay. No more nails works well, with the addition of the odd lost head nail and a nail punch. I did much of the house many years ago and all still fine, apart from one section which later warped and pulled away from the wall. A screw solved that, sunk below the surface, filled and painted over.
 
Thanks. I should have done a search before as I can see this sort of question has come up several times and the answer always seems to be that the cheaper models aren’t much good and u don’t fancy paying £300+ for one so on that basis I’ll just make do!
Just seemed like it would save me a lot of time & since I’m having a crack myself I can justify some cost and an extra tool for my collection!
 
I was going to use it for the architrave and then I have a bit of fencing to make (half a panel) and fix a few loose panels on my shed so not sure that’s enough reason to spend £300+? If the £100 models are useless then a hammer it is!
 
For second fix you really need a 16 gauge gun, but corded ones are useless whilst cordless ones other than the trade models (£400 plus) are pretty dire, too, with maybe the exceptions of the Ryobi cordlesses (@big-all would know better) and the top of the line Tacwise Ranger 2 (which looks like a knock-off of the 1st generation deWalt cordless gun). Sadly, they both breach your budget as well

The little 24 litre mini compressors from the likes of Scheppach (£60) or SIP (£80) will do the job (I had a B&Q Rockforth for a number of years which ran flawlessly and cost £50, it even ran a girt great DW full-head 1st fix nailer on fencing jobs), although to go with it I think you'd be better off getting a half decent pneumatic 16 gauge gun such as one by Makita, deWalt, Senco or Hikoki (which may break your budget a little) or even the Ryobi pneumatic 16 ga gun (assuming you can find on in the UK these days) or the Tacwise pneumatic 16ga gun to go with it, rather than a cheap B&Q, Clarke, Silverline, etc gun. I've found in the past that cheaper guns tend to mar the timber and you can't get spares for them, either. As examples of trade/semi-trade 16 ga guns, SFX are doing the Makita AF501 at under £140 at the moment, whilst Toolden are offering the Senco 942008N semi pro 16 ga gun at £115. Looked after they'll last you a lifetime

The big plus of a compressor is that it can run other stuff, like pneumatic drills, tyre inflators, etc in the future, even though a 24 litre compressor will get rather breathless on bigger tools

BTW a 16ga gun is not big enough for 1st fix work like fencing - you really do need the appropriate gun for that sort of job, although for limited non-trade use you will get away with a cheapie
 
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Would anyone who uses NO Nails for architraves tell me how they deal with the mitres and how they stop the heads or legs falling off before the stuff sets? If the answer is nail or pin it then you might as well skip the No Nails completely - and just use nails!

OP - whilst we are talking about expenditure it has been suggested that the skirtings can be fixed with low expansion foam (as suggested by @RandomGrinch). Having used it I find that this works well, especially on MF stud walling (which can be a bit flexible), but I do find it a tad expensive for large volume work. For the architraves I generally glue the mitres (with Mitre Mate, sets in under a minute, basic Unika Mitre Bond £5.98 at Toolstation) and fix in place with pins. In the absence of a 16g nail gun this can be done with a basic kit comprising 16 gauge panel pins, a small awl (ideally a birdcage maker's awl, but pilot holes can be made as easily by chucking a panel pin in an electric drill as well), a rampin (Draper RP160, £3.65 from UK Tool Centre - £5.42 from Amazon), a hammer (16 or 20oz) and a nail set (for example a set of 3 Stanley nail sets costs £6.95 from My Tool Shed - don't be tempted to buy cheap Chinese tat! Other reliable brands include Priory, Bahco). Assuming you already have a hammer and an awl (or drill) to start the holes that leaves you with a tool expenditure of well under £20 on tools that will last you decades. So despite giving you the expensive path before, it isn't always necessary to spend shed loads of dosh on tools (and I'm old enough to have started work before pinners and nailers were introduced, so hand nailing was the only way)

And BTW, even if you buy a pinner, you'll still need a hammer and at least one nail set (to fit the pin heads) in order to sink the heads below the surface, which the gun doesn't always do. I have a set of three nail sets in my tool tote for just this purpose, together with some Mitre Mate which gets used for all sorts of sundry repairs

Draper rampin 2.jpg
Above: Draper rampin in use
Below: Stanley nail sets (set of 3)
Stanley Nail Sets.jpg
 
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