How to Choose the Right Nail

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm James with JNC Home Repair. Today I'm going to show you how to choose the right nail. First thing you want to consider when you're choosing nails, whether or not you're going to be actually hammering them in or you're going to be using a nail gun. If you're going to be using a nail gun these are the most standard types of nails that you can use. These are just basically round head finish nails. You want to also match the nail to the type of nailer that you have. Not all nail guns will shoot the same kind of nails, they're set at different degrees and different lengths. If you have a real small type nailer it won't actually shoot these types of nails, you need actually like a framing nailer to shoot this type of nail. Another type of thing to consider about using nails, this is actually a ring shank galvanized nail. These are usually used on exterior like exterior fences and decks. They have the galvanized coating on them so they won't rust, and if you'll notice sometimes on people that install fences, if they use the wrong kind of nail, after the fence gets rained on it's actually going to get, wherever the head of the nail is, it's actually going to have rust running down the board of the fence and it just kind of looks tacky and a lot of people might be unhappy about that after the finished product. So that's one thing to consider about a galvanized nail. And also part about this type of nail is the ring shank. These nails are designed to actually, once they're set it, they're very difficult to remove. These are good types of nails to use for like fence pickets, because after you've nailed the fence picket down you don't have to worry about later that the fence picket starts wiggling off and falling off later. If you use these type of nails in a fence, they're actually going to rust and they're not going to hold the pickets on there very well for a long term. This is basically just another variety of a ring shank nail. This is one that you would just hammer in using a hammer, you wouldn't really use a nail gun to apply these. And then this is basically a little finish nail. These are used more like for cabinets, trim type things, that you can actually see that the head is real, real small, and you'll actually need a center punch to actually sink these in all the way, and then you'll actually be able to put wood filler over them and you won't ever ever be able to see the head of the nail. If you'll notice on this type, this has a big round head on it and it's designed to work on holding a surface in there flush and you won't actually be able to sink this nail all the way in as easy as a smaller finish nail like this with a small head. These are just some basic things to know about nails when you're choosing the right nail for whatever type of application you're using them for."