Why We Build Houses with Nails, Not Screws

it's 2025 Wadsworth why are we still talking about Nails I'll tell you why because even though screws have come so far and they're so convenient and drill drivers and all of the options that now are on the table for put fastening things with the screw are beautiful sometimes you've just got to be able to know what nail you need where to get it and how to put it in so the elephant in the living room is why don't we screw our houses together screws are so much better and they're everywhere and they have I mean

there are as many different types of screws now as there are different types of nails so there's a couple of answers for that the way I see it and there may be others and when you have an answer or any sort of observation on any of this please put it in the comments because that's where the real significant teaching happens on this channel is in your comments but why don't we screw our houses together I mean man oh man you take these torqus drive and you just go man what a beautiful connection that oh the

tip came off and I think this is a T25 man that's so yes how much did it cost to do that I don't know but it cost more than this and that has to be at the bottom line why the houses aren't why everything isn't screwed together because there's only so much money in a household and people need a place to live and there are Corners that can be cut now is nailing something instead of screwing it together cutting a corner no because there are engineering Concepts and keep in mind this is a carpenter telling

you about engineering concept about the safety margin in the things that are designed they've got to be like at least two and a half to one I think or a factor of three safety I don't know ask an engineer but it has to be better than it needs to be but it has doesn't have to be a hundred times better than it needs to be and nails are understood and screws are understood and if you get sufficient times three strength out of a set of nails that can be put in in 5 seconds compared to

two or three screws that are put in in 50 seconds that's the short and easy answer now but pause comma when it's something that has to be taken apart or if resistance to draw out is the big Dynamic then yes we have to use a screw and so structural screws have made an appearance and they're used all over where the connection has to be stronger than you could possibly get it with a nail for attaching trusses to top plates for attaching elephants let me put the right thing on here for attaching elephants to locomotive for

attaching any number of things that really have to be sturdy and where only one Fastener is needed so yeah there's a place for both of these Fasteners so here's an assortment of the nails that I have used with regularity over the last 40 six years as a carpenter 30 of them as a general contractor these are the things that have been and still are used to put houses and remodels and additions and chicken houses for that matter together let's talk about the similarities let's talk about the differences and where you might choose one or choose

a different one we're going to start right here in the Middle with the items that are different than everything else these are duplex Nails scaffolding nails and they're used in form work and building scaffolding because you can drive them in and still have a head exposed for pulling them out the 16 penny the 8 Penny are pretty much the two sizes that I use most often these are Hilty pin they're hardened nails for fastening to concrete these have replaced cut nails which are hand drive high carbon steel super hard super brittle nails that can drive

into concrete I don't think I even have one in the shop anymore with these out of the way what we're down to is just the nails that look like nails in several different sizes and with two or three different finishes most used is the 16 penny sinkers this is probably a box nail configuration which is smaller diameter this is probably the equivalent of a 16 penny common but they're both referred to as sinkers mostly because of the smooth glue coat that goes on there because they do go in easy and they do pull out hard

this is an 8 Penny Sinker probably about 2 and 38 long these are probably three and A4 these are the two nails that if you don't have any other Nails in your bags and you're framing you ought to have those 16 penny sinkers and 8 Penny sinkers here's a couple specialty Nails this is a 4 Penny Sinker or just a conventional nail maybe a 4 penny box is what that's called sometimes you need a little bitty nail for attaching something light and this has the added bonus of having a slight ring shank those are most

often used for nailing down um underlayment although staple guns and air nailers have almost completely wipe those out same with the Finish nail that's a 4 Penny finish sometimes you got to be able to drive one of those take a nail set and set it down below the surface but only occasionally over here we have a range of galvanized hot dip galvanized nails the galvanizing protects against corrosion we're going to start right here this is a Tio nail that's for fastening simp Simpson hangers the metal sheet metal hangers that hold the world together now an

inspector will want to be able to see some sort of stamped Insignia on the top so that he knows you didn't just drive a seven Penny siding nail in there or 5 penny in this case it has to be something that he can identify as being large enough in diameter and heavily enough corrosion protected that it's going to last for a good long time moving up this is I think a six penny galvanized box nail that's a 7 Penny siding nail head is smaller less obtrusive drive it carefully don't leave any tracks in the cedar

siding walk away proud the advantage of hot dipped and the corrosion resistance on sighting is it doesn't streak or it doesn't tend to streak but if you want it perfectly corrosion resistant you better get out your wallet and buy stainless steel here's a better example of box Nails this is a 16 penny galvanized box 16 penny galvanized common these are used in fascia board and other exterior finish situations now we're getting up to the big boys 20 Penny sometimes for holding down a truss or a rafter or just really getting with it if something has

to hold and you're not worried about splitting it this is an 8 in Spike I have no idea what the penny designation is on that but by the time you get done driving that in you're going to know you drove a nail so now we get to the place and the sort of nail that really establishes the advantage of a nail and a nail gun let me clear this off and show you some of this stuff let me drill down on the nails that you are most likely to need to know about before I jump

to the nail done and sort of demonstrate why those have swept absolutely swept construction here's the nails that you know will work for most things now here's here's the takeaway though yes any nail will go in anywhere but there are ideal applications for ideal nails and sometimes it's just absolutely worth getting the right thing for the right job these eight Penny sinkers you carry these because they are best for nailing plywood to the to this framework they're 2 and 38 you can have half an inch or 5/8 or 3/4 of an inch through the sheeting

and still have plenty of material into the meat now you've got to have a lot of these to get cumulative strength and so now a days you just toenail down the corners to get keep the sheet in place and then nail it off with a nail gun but if you're detailing your top and bottom plates and you don't want them to get scrambled and mixed up if you've got these in your bag you can through nail one plate into another and you only have that much embedment holding them together so you can pull those plates

apart by hand clinch that nail and not have chaos when you try to match your plates together so tacking plates tacking plywood and holding the end of a chalk line you better have some vinyl coated sinkers 16 sinkers these are the ones that hold the world together these can through nail you know if you have a three and a quar inch nail you're going to have an inch and a half through one plate and an inch and 3/4 into the other which means it's going to stick through a little bit which means you'll hook your

finger on it but if you angle it a little bit you still get full penetration they drive fast they set flush they are they're the tool now let me back up you can toenail with these but sometimes you can toenail with three or four eight pennies and get sufficient structural strength and not have to drive in or split your material quite as readily as this nail will now let me show you a trick right here that you may already know if you have a nail that you don't want to split the end of a board

you can blunt the end maybe you got to put it on something hard a nail that's been blunted tends to cut its way through the board rather than part the fibers and you're not as likely to split things these are specialty Nails you don't use these in framing much this little guy kind of a unique let me show you a couple of these boxes because nowadays in the box stores you buy Nails in boxes rather than bulk that's what the 8 Penny sinkers look like in a box here is what this little nail looks like

in a box it's inch and a qu long 12 1/2 gauge and it is slight L ring shanked that's for tacking down or maybe nailing down underlay it now maybe you don't have a nail gun strung out or a stapler and you need to nail some down this is a nail that doesn't tend to back out and squeak but it's not galvanized there's no coat at all which means it better stay in the dry this little nail is kind of a dinosaur but dog on it sometimes you need a dinosaur that's a finished nail it

is for exactly what the name implies finished material it's tedious to put in takes a pretty good hand with it with a hammer and a nail set but sometimes if you just got to fix one or two little problems in somebody's house ant glattus for instance you don't want to roll out the nail gun got a box of 4 Penny finish nice to have this little nail have I got a box here of these yeah that's a 4 penny box galvanized it's just a little nail maybe you've got some LA to put around underneath a

deck maybe you've got some paneling to put up in your barn or some Barnwood that you're building something with it will not rust or at least it takes a long time this is an 8 Penny gun nail electrogalvanized which means a pressure treated board will break through that corrosion resistance but a cedar board probably won't hot dip galvanized is the most durable maybe I mentioned that that's a seven Penny siding nail if you're putting on wood siding you better have some of those in your bags and then the 16 penny common galvanized you can frame

with those but you're not going to get as much work done and there's no reason to frame with those but you use those for the heavier members that are exterior finish the jam legs the facial board that sort of thing and on a deck it's a good Fastener so nail guns nail guns have changed the construction industry in the United States as much as skill saws they've revolutionized everything and they've also stolen from us the ability to hand nail we'll talk about that in a little bit but there are different brands I have settled on

Hitachi for years but there's pass load and there's Bostitch and there's Senco and there is Hilty and on and on and on and there's Metabo now Hil hilty's been taken over by Metabo and Makita makes a nail gun and Porter yes and all of them do this that's making money I mean that's making somebody money to be able to do that and the coating thing is all the the same that as I've described the length the penny designation keep in mind that you can buy nails that are up to three and A2 Ines long and

so when you nail your trimmers to your king studs bang bang bang you're going to have little hooks you're going to have a danger on the backside of the king stud of those nail ends sticking out so I like to buy 12 Penny 3-in gun nails for framing they work great but it brings us to the issue of confirmation bias and the thing that we know the thing that we do that we've always done clearly being the best because it's the way I do it well that that's nonsense but nail guns illustrate this because when

they begin began to come out maybe what the mid 60s late 1960s the Carpenters said well those are junk because the nails don't hold as well when they're put in with air I hear people say that now and believe it and the obvious retort is well maybe but when you put it in with a nail gun you put in four times as many or you can so confirm confirmation bias bites all of us every day and there's just no substitute for being able to fasten something instantly in all positions it's just great so if you

can get a nail gun do it but drive some Nails by hand and learn how to nail I mean learn how to huh learn how to drive a nail and Larry Han is as good as anyone ever was with driving nails and it's a combination of the fulcrums of your shoulder your elbow and your wrist the grip is loose you're throwing the hammer at the work and controlling its descent it is your two small fingers that are flicking that hammer and making it happen you get to the point where you just watch where you want

to hit and the hammer will automatically go there and it only takes about 10,000 hours to learn that skill just like like any other skill but skills are important the more skilled we are the more useful we are the more useful we are the bigger benefit we are to the people around us and that my friends should be the object of whatever we learn how to do learn how to be more of a benefit to the people around you thanks for watching essential Craftsman and keep up the good work