Construction, roofing, screw, finishing - how to choose from this variety of nails the most suitable for a specific construction task?
Recently, it has been widely believed that fastening with nails is unreliable, therefore, preference should be given when performing installation work.
I dare to assure you that correctly selected nails will provide your construction with the highest quality fasteners, not inferior in anything, and in some characteristics even surpassing vaunted self-tapping screws and screws.
Types of nails
The most convenient and logical is the classification of nails depending on their purpose.
Building A nail is perhaps the most common type of fastener. It is intended for connection among themselves of wooden details and fastening of designs from them.
It is a rod with a pointed end, on the reverse side of which there is a cap with a diameter 3-4 times greater than the thickness of the rod.
On the shaft of the nail, next to the cap, there are protruding transverse notches, which strengthen the fit of the nail in the material. The length of the rod can vary in a very wide range - from 10 to 250 mm.
roofing a nail, as its name implies, is used in roofing, securing the metal sheets of the roof to the wood from which the crate is made. Outwardly, it is very similar to a construction nail, differing from it in a hat that has a much larger diameter and a thicker core.
Tolevy a nail is needed to fasten soft roofing materials to the roof sheathing. It has a large flat cap, the diameter of which is 5-6 times the thickness of the nail. Due to the large pressure area, roofing material and roofing felt, fixed with such nails, do not tear.
slate the nail repeats the design and appearance of the building nail one to one, the only difference is a large galvanized cap that protects the roof from moisture penetration through the mounting hole in the sheet. The higher the wave crest of the slate sheet, the longer the slate nail should be.
Screw the nail has a core, on the surface of which spiral grooves are applied. It is used for reliable connection of wooden parts, regardless of whether the wood from which they are made dries up or swells.
Another type of hardware that provides heavy-duty connection of parts - ruffed or combed nail. Due to the special shape of the pin, reminiscent of jagged cones connected in sequence, the ruffed nail tightly fastens parts and structures together.
It is held so tightly that extracting it, if necessary, from the construction material is fraught with significant difficulties - it is almost impossible to pull back a comb nail already hammered into the material.
For fixing platbands, skirting boards and other decorative elements, they are the best suited plinth and finishing nails. Both have a reduced head recessed into the material, and the core of the plinth nail is also provided with a transverse notch for better fixation of the nail in the material.
With and without protective coating
The use of black steel nails that do not have a protective coating is justified only in the case of fastening wooden parts and structures inside dry, moisture-protected rooms or for the construction of temporary structures made of wood.
If moisture gets on the surface of such a nail, metal corrosion processes begin and the nail quickly becomes covered with a layer of rust.
To protect nails from corrosion, their surface is coated with a layer of zinc, aluminum, brass or copper. Such nails are not afraid of water and moisture, therefore, only nails with a protective coating are used for exterior decoration of buildings.
Good luck with your choice!
Nails have been around for a long time. Ancient people cast the first nails from bronze. Then they learned to make them from iron. The first iron nails were flat until they learned how to forge a square rod and make a flat head. Since nails were made by hand in the old days, they were very expensive. The nail was widely used only after the invention of machines on which it was possible to pull the wire. Now nails are mass-produced, they have become round, the same and affordable.
There are many types of nails for different purposes. A separate group consists of nails used in construction.
Here are the main ones:
Common building nail
The most common type of nail. It is used in the construction of house frames, fastening rafters, sheathing for metal tiles or, metal slate (PF-25) and other roofing materials. Smaller nails are used for mounting wooden cladding of facades and gables and for other construction work. Construction nail - a long and straight steel rod with notches near the round cap. The length of the building nail can be from 12 to 250 mm. The nail is selected so long that it pierces the entire package of parts to be joined, but its end does not go out.
To extend the service life, the nails are galvanized or made of stainless steel.
The nail shaft can be smooth or with a notch that enhances the strength of the connection. Nails with notches (ruffled) have a high resistance to pulling out and securely fasten the parts to be joined.
buff nail
A ruffed nail has a transverse notch on its shaft, which ensures a very tight fit of the nail. Ruffed nails are used when increased strength requirements are imposed on joints, for fastening perforated connecting plates. A hammered nail is very hard to pull out, it will most likely just break.
screw nail
Screw nails are used for bending structures, and also, if high moisture content of the wood, vibrations or a large load on it are expected, these are piers, walkways, floorboards, and exterior cladding of buildings. Such a nail increases the strength of the connection by four times in comparison with conventional nails. It is very difficult to pull such a nail out of the nest.
Dukert-nail (finish)
This is a nail with a very small head. They are used for fastening wooden lining, platbands for doors and windows. The head of the finishing nail is sunk into the wood and the nail is not visible.
Slate nails
Used for nailing slate to a wooden roof sheathing. The nail is a round rod with a galvanized cap-washer of large diameter - up to 18 mm. The diameter of the slate nail rod is 5 mm, the length is 70 - 120 mm. It must be galvanized to avoid the appearance of traces of corrosion on the roof. When choosing the size of slate nails, they are guided by the maximum height of the slate crests, while the length of the nail should be 10-20 mm more than the sum of the thickness of the crate board and the height of the slate crest. This is necessary in order to be able to bend the "nose" of the nail - then in the event of a strong wind, the slate sheet will not come off. Now asbestos slate is considered a harmful and obsolete material. It was replaced by a galvanized metal slate (PF-25), which is attached to the crate not with nails, but with roofing screws with a sealing washer.
Roofing nails
have a flat cap of increased diameter, to hold soft roll or sheet material (roofing, roofing material, cardboard). A wide flat cap holds the material more securely in place.
Wallpaper nails
– are used for fixing upholstery materials on doors, furniture. They have a decorative hat. Their size is small - from 12 to 20 mm.
Use of nails
It is the easiest and fastest way to connect wooden elements.
The strength of the connection is ensured by the fact that the nail partially breaks and partially pushes the wood fibers, forming a hole in it with compacted walls. Thanks to this, it is firmly clamped in the wood and resists pulling out well.
The connection of boards, timber along the length is called splicing. If the wooden elements are connected in width - this is rallying, if at an angle - binding, If the wooden parts are attached to the supports - this is called anchoring.
The disadvantage of the nail connection is its increased creep. To reduce the creep of critical nodes, the nail joint is crimped with tie bolts, and steel perforated linings are used.
How not easy, it would seem, to hammer a nail, but this requires skill.
Following some rules will help you perform these operations better:
- - always hold the hammer by the end of the handle if you need a strong blow. Holding the hammer closer to the head reduces the force but increases the accuracy of the strike;
- - so that the hammer hits exactly on target, you should look at the nail head, and not at the hammer;
- - if you drive in nails at an angle to each other - the connection will be stronger;
- - the nail should first be baited with a couple of light blows, and then hammered with strong blows;
- - Hammer the nail with sharp and strong hammer blows - then the nail will be held in the socket more securely. If a lot of blows are applied to the nail, the fibers of the wood may collapse and the nail in the nest will hold on worse;
- - the direction of impact on the head should coincide with the direction of the nail shaft. Otherwise, during impacts, stresses will occur in the nail shaft, leading to its bending.
- - it is necessary to hammer nails into a healthy part of the wood, bypassing knots and cracks;
For the convenience of work, you need to have not one hammer, but at least two, different in weight, because. the impact force depends on the weight of the hammer. Small nails can be hammered with a light hammer. For roofing works: installation of rafters, sheathing under a metal tile, it is better to use a hammer weighing 400-600 grams. Large nails are hammered with a hammer weighing 0.8 - 1 kg.
Ease of use also depends on the handle of the hammer. It must have high elasticity and strength. It is good if it has a rubber or silicone handle so that the blows do not give into the worker's hand. The handle of the Stanley Graphite hammer has such properties.
How to hold a hammer while working? How to strike correctly?
There are various ways. As a general rule, the hammer is held by the middle of the lower half of the handle. Then the blows are strong and sharp. If only high precision is needed, then the hammer is held closer to the head.
Light and precise blows with a hammer are performed with the hand.
Stronger blows for driving nails are applied "from the elbow".
And, if strong and sharp blows are required, the hammer swing is performed “from the shoulder”. This may reduce the accuracy of the shots.
The quality of the nest is the higher, the greater the speed of penetration of the nail into the wood.
Rules for proper nailing:
Nails are always driven in from the side of the thinner part. In this case, the length of the nail should exceed the thickness of the nailed board by 2-3 times. The more part of the nail goes into the wood, the stronger the connection will be. The diameter of the nail should be no more than a quarter of the thickness of the part to be nailed.
Boards 100-120 mm wide for cladding the facades of houses (tes, lining) are nailed at each attachment point with only one nail. With a board width of more than 130 mm, they are already nailed with two nails.
To give greater rigidity to the nail connection, it is necessary to hammer in the nails not strictly perpendicular to the surface, but at a slight slope (5-10 °) in different directions. Then the nail will not be the axis of rotation for the parts to be joined.
Note: a nail hammered along the grain (at the end of a bar or board) holds much weaker than a hammer hammered across the grain. Perforated fasteners, such as mounting brackets, help improve the reliability of end connections.
The more annual layers of wood the nail passes through, the more securely it will be fixed.
The figure shows some of the most common rules for driving nails:
- 1. To prevent splitting of wood and increase the strength of the connection, you can pre-drill holes for nails with a diameter of 80% of the diameter of the nail. In this case, the nail has a greater bonding ability, since the wood fibers are not broken and compress the surface of the nail with great effort.
- 2. Drive nails with a countersink and at an angle to the surface to prevent the workpiece from being hit by a hammer or drive a nail into a recessed hole and provide a stronger connection
- 3. Holes above the nail head can be puttied to hide the nail
- 4. A perpendicularly hammered nail provides a weaker connection along the axis of rotation around the nail
- 5. Drive no more than one nail into each fiber
- 6. Wrong placement of nails shown - resulting stresses can split the board
When choosing nails, take into account the fact that with a diameter of nails less than 6 mm, their shear capacity does not depend on the angle formed by the directions of force and fibers. For the strength of the connection, it is better to hammer in several thinner nails than one thick one, of the same section as the total section of the thin ones.
Driving nails into solid wood inevitably creates splitting stresses in it, the more dangerous they are, the closer the nails are placed. In order for the nails not to soak and split the wood, they need to be driven in at a certain distance from each other.
The correct arrangement of nails according to domestic building codes is shown in the figure.
When arranging nails in straight rows:
from the ends of the board -15d,
The distances between the nails across the fibers (S 2) and from the nail to the edge of the element (S 3) must be at least 4d.
When arranging nails in a checkerboard pattern or in oblique rows at 45º:
The distances between nails with a diameter d along the fibers of the connected elements (S 1) must be at least:
from the end cut-15d,
between the axes of nails in elements with a thickness equal to or greater than 10d-15d,
if the thickness of the element is equal to four nail diameters - 25d,
and in elements of intermediate thickness, the distance is determined by interpolation.
Distances between nails across the fibers (S 2) - 3d,
from the nail to the edge of the element (S 3) must be at least 3d, and 4d when arranged in oblique rows..
In multi-layer cross joints, the specified nail spacing standards must be observed for each layer of boards.
When driving nails in opposite directions, if their ends overlap one another by no more than 1/3 of the thickness of the middle element, it is allowed to keep the same nail markings on each side of the connection.
The distance between the nails along the wood fibers in the elements of aspen, alder and poplar should be increased by 50% compared to the above.
Nail connections are distinguished with pull-out nails and with bent nails.
Connections with pull-out nails
are used for fastening boards of ceiling filings, floor panels, formwork. From the action of loads in these joints, tensile forces N arise, tending to pull the nails out of the wood of the element to which the boards are nailed. This effort is resisted by frictional forces between the surface of the nails and the surrounding wood.
The dimensions of the nails to be pulled out are selected from the conditions so that the estimated length of the nail l 1 is not less than 10d of the nail and not less than twice the thickness of the nailed boards.
Connections with bent nails
are used in the joints and nodes of plank structures, preventing mutual displacement of the connected elements. In a joint, the nails work in bending, while the surrounding wood works in crushing.
Nails have increased resistance to bending because cold drawn wire has a high yield strength.
- In order to drive a nail into a wooden board and not get cracks, you must first make a hole with a drill in the place where you will hammer in the nail, slightly smaller than the diameter of the nail. There will be no cracks, and the connection will be more durable.
- .When it is impossible to provide a solid support for knocked down parts, a second hammer, ax or wooden block is placed under the workpieces.
It would seem that it could be easier than an ordinary nail. However, the question how to choose nails” is asked not only by novice home craftsmen, but also by experienced craftsmen.
The variety of nails baffles many, although absolutely all nails are a metal rod, pointed on one side and with a hat on the other. Nails can be safely called the oldest and most common fastener, but nails do not lose their relevance. This type of hardware is used for the permanent connection between various wooden elements and structures.
Most often, nails are made from seamless wire, but forged and stamped nails are produced. It all depends on the material and the scope of their application.
Variety of types by scope
When wondering how to choose nails, you should first of all know what elements they are needed for fastening. The variety of types in the scope of application is extensive, depending on this, the following types are distinguished:
Special areas of use
The above types of nails are used specifically in construction or decoration, but there are also nails that are used in strictly defined areas. This includes glass (for fixing glass in frames), decorative, plaster, shoe, horseshoe nails. Special areas of use are clear from the names.
The aesthetic appearance of the parts to be joined will also depend on how you choose the nails according to the type of hat. It can be hidden, which is driven flush with the surface of the material, or ordinary - when driven in, a trace remains from the violation of the structure of the wood itself.
Production material
Knowing how to choose nails, you will not be mistaken in the material from which they are made. The material of manufacture, most often, is black or galvanized steel wire. "Black" nails begin to rust on contact with moisture almost immediately, so they are used for temporary structures where metal oxidation and rusty streaks do not matter. Galvanization on nails allows them to be used in interior work - they retain their properties for a long time, do not rust and do not leave rust marks as a result.
Even better than galvanizing, copper plating or brass coating protects the nail material. These metals are even more resistant to various aggressive environments, in addition, brass nails look inconspicuous against the natural color of wood, which allows them to be used instead of finishing nails.
An important factor is the length of the nail. It is selected for each specific case based on the thickness of the fastened parts. How to choose nails according to their length? For a quality connection, the nail must be driven into the part to which it is attached, at least 2/3 of its length.
This is a universal fastener that will help fix the roof, and hang the sofa and the picture in place. And some especially hardworking owners manage to drive these products even into concrete. Therefore, we will not torment with background stories for a long time and will simply tell you how to choose nails in order to make the task of installing them as easy as possible, to make fasteners durable, and most importantly, simple.
How to choose the right nails?
Many people say that fasteners created with nails will be unreliable, that self-tapping screws are much better. However, this is not the case. If you choose these fasteners correctly, they will give odds to many modern methods of fastening.
- Construction nails. The most frequent guest of many designs. Used for fastening wooden parts. To improve the strength of the fastener, there are notches on the rod that improve adhesion to the material.
- Roofing. With this type of nails, everything is simple, they are used for roofing, if the structure under it is made of wood. The core of such a nail will be larger than that of a construction nail, as well as the diameter of the cap.
- Tolevye. This type of fasteners is also used for roofing, however, unlike the previous ones, its purpose is roofing material, roofing felt. The relevance of using these particular nails is that they allow you to firmly fix the material over large areas and prevent it from tearing.
- Slate nails. They look very similar to construction ones, but have a larger cap diameter, which is galvanized and reliably protected from corrosion. The same hat prevents moisture from entering the house, ideal for slate and corrugated sheet materials of the roof.
- Screw . Such nails are used for "capricious" types of wood that can shrink or swell. The nails have helical notches on the shaft, which provide reliable adhesion to any wood, thanks to which the structure of the tree is not disturbed, and the strength of the fastener is maximum.
- Comb (ruffled). For super-strong adhesion to wood, it can be used to fasten elements for centuries, and in order to pull out such a nail, even after many years, you will have to make a lot of effort, it will be easier to pull it out along with a rotten tree ...
- Finishing. The name speaks for itself, most often these are decorative nails that are used for finishing cladding, fixing cornices, plastic, skirting boards. The cap allows you to completely drown the nail in the surface so as not to make hooks.
To choose the right nail, you should also pay attention to the material from which it is made. Galvanized nails, brass, copper are protected from corrosion, the influence of humidity and aggressive environments, it is suitable for external structures. Black nails - for indoor work.
