For sheathing applications, it is crucial to use nails that ensure secure attachment and prevent material splitting. Typically, 8d (2 ½ inch) nails are used for 1/2″ to 5/8″ thick sheathing panels, while thicker panels of 3/4″ to 1 1/8″ generally require 6d (2-inch) galvanized nails. For these situations, a 10D nail is recommended, as 10d plywood nails are.148″ shank diameter and can range from 2-1/8″ to 3 inches in length.
For 7/16-inch OSB wall sheathing, a commonly recommended nail size is 8d (eight-penny) nails, which are typically 2½ inches in length and provide sufficient penetration into both the OSB. Electro-galv nails are often used for framing when the building won’t be closed in for 5+ months, as the EG coating provides good corrosion protection in untreated panels. Spacing hints include using a 10d box (0.128 inch x 3 inches) nail as a spacer to gauge 1/8-inch edge and end spacing between panels.
At least 2 in. long ring-shanked nails are required, spaced no further apart than 12 in. in the center of the sheet and 6 in. along supported edges. Nails used for framing and sheathing connections must have minimum average bending yield strengths, as shown: 80 ksi for shank diameter of 0.192 inch (20d common nail), 90 ksi for shank diameters larger than 0.142 inch but not larger than 0.177 inch, and 100 ksi for shank diameters of 0.142 inch or less.
The IRC requires 2.5″x0.131″ nails for 7/16″ wall sheathing, and the most common sizes for framing nails are 16d, 10d, and 8d. The first step is to consider the length and thickness required for your project, including sheathing thickness and nailing patterns for wall and roof sheathing.
📹 How to Select Siding Nails
This video explains the unique features of siding nails, which are designed to prevent splitting and backing out over time. The video also discusses the different types of siding nails available, including loose nails for hand nailing and collated nails for air-powered nailers. The video provides tips on how to choose the right type of siding nail for your project.
📹 These Nails Act Like Screws!! (2 Nail Types That Perform Like Screws = MORE FASTENING POWER!)
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Hey Ethan, I never really comment on articles but recently I’ve been perusal a lot of your articles whenever I get some time, as around Christmas I was suddenly inspired to start wood working after never trying it even at 25, working in a research lab never using power tools other than a drill before, my confidence and skill has improved drastically with the help of your articles and I am creating things I’d not thought was possible for me to do. I’m so grateful for the time, care and effort you put into each one of your articles, you’ve also taught me the Imperial measuring system as a biproduct so thank you for that as well hahaha much love and appreciation from Australia
I remember bullet-head nails being used to nail weatherboard planks. The planks had a rectangular cross section, no special cutting. They were angled down, so negligible risk of their pulling out. Roofing nails were hot-dipped galvanised with s separate disk a part of the head to spread the load. We used flat-head nails similar to those you showed for asbestos sheeting. These had flat tips to not break the asbestos. This was 70 years ago.
Fascinating. I’m not a construction person so I learned something. Thank you so much for clarifying because you’re right. I’ve dealt with these nails on small demo DIY projects and wondered why. Now I know! I would just replace with screws but I can see the advantage of these things since they really are quick to get the job done.
We took a wood deck apart on our fixer upper thinking we could reuse the 2x6s to save money. We needed to rebuild it because the prior owners had built it wrong. We soon found out it was built with spiral shank nails! It was almost impossible to save most of the 2x6s because we had to pretty much destroy them taking them apart! We rebuilt the deck using regular nails,engineered screws and deck screws. I can attest to the holding power of spiral nails!
I got raised around my grandfather and father both following the : If I commit to build that damn thing, it’s not coming apart, ever and do it once and never having to rebuild it. So screws and glue it was, and spiral nails and glue, and bolt and weld or rivet and bolt and weld, you get the picture. Later in life, I was shocked to discover that most people hated those spiral nails, and would go as far as using only smooth nails. Grandpa was also a fan of nailing deck screws: Convenience of nails to assemble, and removable like a screw after.
What about cut nails? How about the sheer strength comparison mr honesty? Heh?? Just rustlin your jimmies there bud! I like this website but I’m not a fan of screws. They have their purpose but break too easy and i hate bits. If all rotary fasteners used 1 single universal bit then it would be part of the screw gun too and I wouldn’t have to remember where i left that #40 star bit and the screw gun wouldn’t be the adopted cousin of the hammer. They’d be hommies.
Thirty or forty years ago (or more when I’m not trying to hide my age) we only knew them as Pallet Nails. We never used them but did have to pull them out from time to time. Have you done a vid on Cut Nails yet? We used lots of those square-cut tappered hardened steel nails with the slightest of heads for tung&groove flooring and nailing into mortar joints.
Hurricane-country makes galv deformed shank gun nails the ONLY nail for sheathing folks. When that wind blows hard, you’ll be glad yours aten’t those smooth shakes that will have, in time, “worked” proud from the ply’wd. As you can bet smooth shanks will. Ringshank galv. 8d’s all-over. Code’s describe it best 🙂
I’m curious how, in the article, the person driving the screws got such a smooth edge around the screw hole without a countersink. The GC that rebuilt a deck on a house I have in another state left tons of splintered wood sticking up where the screws went in, enough that two folks got cuts and splinters just running theor hand along the handrail as they walked down the stairs. I’m doing a lot of touch-up work on this house and any advice would greatly help. (I’ve already filled and sanded this deck to a suitable level of frustration.)
In Australia the majority of houses are built with corrugated iron roofing. Typically this is fastened with spiral nails with a special metal washer around the head. Over the last 10 years or so I’ve seen these replaced with tek screws. These are OK but if they have a rubber washer under the head the rubber perishes in the Australian climate and the roofing comes loose and rattles in the wind. Shingles are extremely rare here and I can’t remember the last time I saw some.
Back in 2016 we were doing a minor remodel in our house. New kitchen cabinets and the removal of one small wall to open the room up. We decided to demo the wall ourselves to save some money. No big deal, right? Oh, boy. This is when we discovered that the house was framed with a combination of construction adhesive and ring shank nails. Toward the beginning of the demo process there was one particularly bad connection that I couldn’t budge. My teenage son tried and he was defeated. The mess stayed as it was for two weeks as we waited for my husband to get home from a business trip and, in that time, I put a $20 reward up for anyone who could get it out, along with a promise they’d be crowned the King of England. About a dozen burly teenage boys and young men went at it and none succeeded. It was impossible. When my hubs got home, he took one look at the issue, collected his multitool, and cut off all the nail heads in short order. I have no idea who did this or why, but that house was built to last. At the time, we thought it might just be that wall, but later repairs proved that it really was the entire structure. For anyone who believes that this might have been better for the overall strength of the house, think again. Wood rots. Water leaks happen and sometimes subfloors have to be pulled and replaced. Overbuilding makes such repairs SO much more work. Now I’m having flashbacks to the pipe leak IN the wall that rotted a significant section of subfloor and some joists in two rooms before we discovered the problem.
going from the article title i imagined this was going to be about scrails! however they do not seem to be worth the extra cost perhaps for most typical applications? asking another carpenter type person he said he didnt like them / never needed them. and clearly the main benefit? might be to be easier to remove than ring or flute nails? but that is assuming you are expecting / anticipating to have to tear down the construction? then i would assume only movie sets or broadway plays, or temprary events like exhibitions etc? what do you thing about scrails? and also the relative cost of them vs (for example) ring nails, and / or proper real construction screws? it would be nice to hear another opinion
my go to for me is spiral shank nail for these reason’s i use a hammer – it is cheaper than screw’s ($35 for 10lb) – they hold – easy to toe nail. the reason why i do not use smooth is they like to back out and the reason why i do not use ring shank is they curl away from the wood when using a harder wood especially when toe nailing.
But do they actually though? Project Farm’s website did some testing a while back, and galvanized smooth shank were just as good as ring shank on pullout, while galvanized spiral shank was actually the worst of all types, slightly worse than uncoated smooth shank. Theory may need some refinement to meet up with practice. See article entitled “Do Nails or Screws Have the Most Holding Strength (not shear strength)? Let’s find out!”
Back in the late 50s and until about the late 70s there were nails called Scotch nails used for framing. They werent perfectly round like most common nails are but a bit flat on several sides. They were also cerated on the sides which gave them a better grip than regular nails. We used them exclusively in our home building business untill they were no longer available.
I like to use a hammer to drive nails and not a nail gun, I prefer spiral shanked nails for outdoor projects but they are so expensive. Very difficult to remove them if you can’t bang them out from the other side. My biggest gripe about nails in general is how soft a lot of manufacturers make them these days, every fifth nail out of a box bends over. Spiral shanked nails tend to be a bit harder but you are really paying for the privilege. Ring shanked aren’t bad for holding power but a lot of them are pretty soft too.
Hola! 🖐 Once again, you hit the nail right on the head, haha! 😆🤣😂 I always learn something new by perusal your articles. Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge. I worked in demo for a while and by far the worst job ever was removing a subfloor in a kitchen, they really threw every kind of nail AND screw in the arsenal. I destroyed a set of knee pads on that job. Someone that has never encountered these fasteners cannot appreciate how much holding power they achieve until it’s time to “break” them apart. Take care and have a good one, Adios! 👊
I’ve been cleaning out my old garage this weekend. The inside walls are just exposed studs into which the previous owners drove in dozens of various nails over the past 100 years for hanging things. I’ve been pulling them out. One wouldn’t pull…. It was insane trying to extract it!! Sure enough, it was a spiral shank…. Hardened too..
Actually, instead of ring-shank or spiral-shank just plain old galvanized hold seem to lock in better and the price tends to be reasonable vs the specialty nails. I will say that years ago I had to demo a temporary structure that was put together with glue coated nails (don’t ask me why, I didn’t build it)… A lot of the time the wood splintered instead of the nail pulling out.
Hello Ethan, thanks for sharing, your website it’s a great source of information, very practical and educational. I found some wood blocks that I wanted to reuse that had some nails though and when I tried to pull them off, using the technic that you showed in another article I just broke the head of the nails. When I took a closer look to the nails it looked like they had a thin copper wire twisted around the nails, it made imposible to remove. I don’t know how they put this nails with the wires but it surely improved the resistance to pull them off.
in ontario canada spiral nails are the standard nail to use in construction.we call them ardox nails . no one uses straight shank nails for framing except guys doing concrete forms who need to pull the nails later and also shingle nails are smooth . when i moved to the us i was surprised that the only spiral nails are galvanized and not many use them.
Stop the article at 4:10 and look at what is going on. Holy shizzle my nizzle! No miters, a different type of molding on the header, the door in the next room with a half inch reveal on the door casing, the giant gap in the molding he is working on, the crazy crown molding, no safety glasses… I’m going to stop looking for stuff now before this turns into a book.