Roofing and siding gets cleaner and easier

I’ll show you how old I am by telling you a secret. As a young punk kid I played with cap guns a lot. Actually anything that would blow up or make noise made me a happy kid. So when I was given the opportunity to look at Paslode’s Model #CS150 pneumatic Cap Stapler, a new cap gun on the market, I jumped at the chance. I was soon made aware it wasn’t like my old daisy cap gun of yesteryear.

Wind is a factor of the job no matter what time of year. Winter or spring weather isn’t very forgiving if you’re not prepared for it. Being prepared for the season is the reason for having one of these Paslodes.

On the roofing and siding jobs this past spring, we were very happy to have the gun. If you have ever installed roofing you know the felt goes down first, then you get to pound the roofing in place. Seems simple enough, unless you paper off the whole roof before you realize there isn’t enough day to finish installing the roofing. If you have just tacked down the paper with a stapler and it gets windy overnight, you’re in for a world of hurt in the morning. With the cap stapler you can paper off the whole roof and not worry if you don’t get it roofed before the daylight ends.

Nail your next deck project

If you’re installing many of the newer composite decking materials, chances are your customers want a deck that will be great-looking for a long time to come. The problem is: How do builders fasten it down? The old way was fasteners. Yuck. I haven’t installed a nailed-down deck for probably 20 years or more. There’s a reason. After nailing in boards, we used screws through the top of the boards. But, that left the heads still showing and they weren’t pretty. Then along came the self-recessing screws. They were even better, but still the heads showed.

My crew and I usually install a complete deck with virtually no screws (just a few to get the deck started) showing on the top of the deck. There are at least a half dozen ways of using clips of some sort to fasten your decking down to the joists. I have just been using what I feel is the best to come along.

Now, Fasco America Inc. has introduced its InvisiDeck Hidden SCRAIL Fastener System which includes SCRAIL Fasteners, I-CLP Clips and installation gun. Fasco America Inc., business unit and distributor of Beck Fastener Group products, distributes the patented Tiger Claw hidden-I-CLP deck fastener clips and InvisiDeck Tool. Combined with Fasco America’s innovative SCRAIL fasteners, the components create the basis for the hidden deck fastening system sold under the Fasco America brand name.

So, how does it work?

The little clip attaches to a dedicated nail gun that fires a nail with high-speed screw thread through the clip and into the joist. Yes, it is really that simple. The gun operates just like any other nail gun. Hook up the air, slide in a rack of screw/nails, put a clip on the nosepiece, apply it to the groove in the board and bang it’s done. Love it!

Now, I will admit you need pre-grooved boards or you need to groove boards with a router. Or you could use a biscuit cutter to cut a groove in non-grooved boards—but that’s still faster than face screwing. You also need the gun, screw/nails and clips. I could have used the system during a recent job. I just installed a branded non-grooved decking that happens to be a great composite product using a screw gun with collated screws. We installed it per customer request with countersinking face screws. It came out great, but I was about dead from forcing all the screws into the decking. And it took forever to complete. But that still didn’t make up for the fact I was installing twice as many screws at much greater effort than with Fasco’s system.

This system will make your job faster and easier. Not to say anything about how great the deck looks without all the stupid screws showing their heads all the time. How about the times you’ve installed a screw only to have it not hit the joist or tried to install a screw only to have it bend as you were trying to get the thing to go into the decking? You don’t have to install many decks to make up for the cost of the tools, and from there on it is pure gravy.

OK. So the economy isn’t so great—or should I say nonexistent? This is a good time to get ahead of the competition and be able to produce a better job than the other guy.

Till next time, Art

Screw guns for decking and drywall

Most people don’t understand why a person would screw the floor decking plywood down in a new home, especially when the decking is glued and nailed when it’s installed. I’m going to relate a personal story with you about why it needs to be done.

I live in a home that I put a major (2,500-square-foot) addition on 16 years ago. Of course, I used manufactured joists and OSB for the decking. It was glued and nailed when installed during dry conditions. So, what’s the problem?

In a room that is 36-by-26-feet, the deck has developed four areas that now squeak when walked on. Had I glued and screwed the decking down, I wouldn’t have had this problem. I now have to wait until re-carpeting to screw the decking down. A mistake on my part, but nobody screwed decks down back then. Now, we screw down not only decks but walls to the decking. After building new custom homes for the past 30-plus years, I might be finally getting it right.

I have a couple of tools especially designed for screwing down decks inside and outside of the home. The Muro North America Company of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, makes tools for solving the deck screw installation problem. We have a Muro Vslider FDVL41 Speed Driver screw gun. This is a dedicated tool for installing collated screws from 1 to 3 inches in length into floor decking and outdoor decking. This model features a drum magazine that will carry a coil of 150 screws of different lengths. It’s great for getting lots of work done without reloading, and using it is a breeze in the standup position with the added rod handle extension provided.

This tool is a bit bulky for getting into some tight stud spaces because of the drum. But one gets used to it real fast realizing how easy it is to screw the deck down so quickly. I suppose if you’re really clumsy you could step on the screw drum, though.

This is a well-built tool that is easily adjusted for different specifications. Changing to different lengths of screws and drive bits is a very straightforward, easy-to-do job. Though this screw gun is for decks and walls, there’s no reason you couldn’t use it for screwing sheetrock and cement board into place. Makes fast work out of a real boring job.

The other Muro tool is a CH7392SF Ultra Pro Auto Feed Screwdriver. It is made up of a Makita 6823 sheetrock screw gun and the CH7392SF Ultra Pro II driver tool. It uses 1- to 2-inch screws in 30 count collated strip form. The Ultra Pro Driver tool is quite small, so it will fit into the tightest spaces.

If you were to purchase the CH7390 that will drive 1 ½- to 3-inch screws versus the CH7392SF I believe it will be more versatile because of a greater selection of screw sizes. On a recent job I found the CH7392SF to be a real time saver when screwing on cement board. But with the CH7390 you can screw sheetrock in the morning and decking in the afternoon with the same gun. One of the most important reasons a contractor buys a tool is whether it will pay for itself and make my job easier. And the more uses a tool has means less stuff in the truck to deal with.

Muro also supplies a full line of fasteners for these guns, whether it’s for sheetrock, decking or cement board, and square, Torx, or Phillips drive heads. They can supply the product to suit your needs. A glued and screwed deck is a must to ensure a floor that is as quiet as possible. Only a concrete floor will be quieter than when you screw down your decking down with a Muro Screw Gun.

The Generac XG Professional Series is a real workhorse and gets the job done

If you’ve ever been without power and needed to get something done, it’s hard work and nearly impossible. Having been a Boy Scout leader (and worker) I have often called upon generators to get power to the remote sites we worked on. Using a generator can help make that option exist. For work purposes, I have three generators in my company, and all three of them just happen to be Generac generators. These generators must be at least 25 years old and still work if I put gas in them. That’s a pretty good testament as to the value and quality of these Generac generators.

More recently, we tested the Generac XG Professional Series #005747-0 XG8000E on the jobsite. My initial reaction is that it’s great having a generator that will pull the load given. The XG8000E is a real workhorse and can put out 8,000 watts. It can cover most large or small jobs.

It features 4-110 Volt/20 Amp GFCI plugs and one 120/240 Volt/30 Amp locking plug. The circuit breakers are the “push to reset” type for electrical overload protection. And speaking of electricity: If you use this in wet conditions, it’s a good idea to install an extra grounding rod. The GFCI breakers give you the protection you need, but only if the circuit is complete. This model has an extra lug just for that purpose.

When working with my old generators, we used to build plywood walls around them to help with the noise level. Now, this generator isn’t whisper-quiet, but it’s much quieter than the older ones. Still I would like it to be quieter than it is. Maybe I’m just getting old and don’t like noise anymore.

All the bragging about the power and large 9-gallon gas tank will not make the cheesy handle storage lock button go away. On the very first use of this generator, Willey was wheeling it on concrete and then onto grass. As the wheels met the grass they sunk in a bit, and Willey and the generator went head-over-generator as the button snapped off. Wow, were we ever surprised how fast it failed. It is a very cheap, hollow, tin affair that must have cost all of 5 cents to make. We solved the problem by installing four self-tapping screws to hold the handle in the upright position. So much for the stowable handle system.

Another problem is the choke lever. When you start the generator you’ll pull the choke all the way out. Be careful trying to push it back in, as the cable isn’t sized properly. The shoulder on the finger pull is too short and catches on the face of the panel. We just about broke it off a couple times. This is a problem with multiple users because of unfamiliarity with the problem. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I will say this is one strong generator for your jobsite. It will get the job done and not break down. It even has an hour meter to remind you to service it.

On another note, I have a story to share with you about something that cost me a bunch of money and embarrassed my three employees by not looking at the bigger picture. We had a job up in the hills with no public power and built most of the house on generators. At about 10 in the morning the generator quit. They added gas, tore the filter off and blew it out, tore the carburetor off and cleaned it out. Well, to make a long story short they blew two hours of time before calling to alert me of the problem. It took me another hour to get there with another generator. Before replacing the old generator I checked the gas, full, then the oil, empty. Whoa! I asked why they didn’t add oil because it was low. Duh. Well, I added oil and—happy days again—it started with ease. Point being, this generator has a low oil switch that kills the action until you add more oil. So don’t get caught trying to get it started without oil in the crankcase. It cost me a couple hundred dollars from lost time because my guys didn’t check the oil.

Bottom line: If you need juice, I highly recommend Generac generators for your site.