air stapler for attaching house wrap

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

I am putting house wrap on my rebuild garage tomorrow and I was intending to use a stapler and compressor for the job. I have a couple of questions. Is this a good way to attach the house wrap vs just using an Arrow hammer stapler? I have a Campbell Hausfeld compressor with a stapler that came with the kit. One concern I have it the depth of the staple penetration. I think the staples were going a bit too deep so I adjusted the compressor regulator to less the the minimum recommended 60 psi to get the depth to where I think it should be (flush). Is there any problem with adjusting the regulator to less that the recommended pressure for the tool?
My OSB sheathing is 7/16" and I am using 5/8" Bostitch narrow crown staples which are the shortest ones that fit in the stapler. I did double check the manual on the stapler and there is no depth adjustments on the tool itself. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

[Jim O'Dell]

Andrew, are the staples 5/8" long? You say narrow crown, is that the 1/4" wide staples? I used 1/4" wide X 1/2" in my Harbor Freight 1/4" crown stapler. Worked, but it pulled through the material a lot. I recently purchased a 1/2" crown stapler. It works much better for this type of work. I've tacked up some insulation that was falling down in the shop, and it worked great. Jim.

[Dave Johnson29]

I was intending to use a stapler and compressor for the job.

Andrew,

Adjust the compressor output pressure regulator and do some tests to leave the staple about 1/8" proud (or a little less) of the sheet you are attaching it to. That will hold the wrap but not cut through it.

[Ted Jay]

Go to the BORG and get a Hammer Tacker like THIS (http://www.toolbarn.com/stanley-pht350.html)

They work great and you can get different length staples for it...:)

Ted

PS: The plus side is not having to drag around the air hose and the heavier staple gun, especially if you have to climb a ladder or a stool.

PSS: forgot to mention the plus side of having the retractable blade for cutting the wrap in widow openings and tar paper.

[David Freed]

Go to the BORG and get a Hammer Tacker like THIS (http://www.toolbarn.com/stanley-pht350.html)

They work great and you can get different length staples for it...:)


I have used one and I agree.

[Randy Cohen]

if theres going to be some time between installing the wrap and the siding you may want to use cap nails so you don't have to reinstall the wrap after a windy day.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
If it were a whole house, I'd say get a pneumatic cap nailer.
Since it's only a garage, staples should work ok as long as you don't have to leave the wrap uncovered for any length of time.
If you do, then a few cap nails should keep it in place unless a storm comes along.

I've used narrow crown staples for similar.
Instead of driving them straigh in, angle the gun so the staples go in about midway between 45* and 90*.
That's a heck of alot easier than trying to dial down the pressure or trying to adjust the depth - neither of which I've had an great successs doing when trying to keep from overdriving a staple.
Brads - yes.
Staples, no.

Go back and whack them w/a hammer to lay them down flat, being careful not to tear the wrap.

[Scott T Smith]

I have used one and I agree.


+2 here. They are also much faster than using an air stapler, and you can reach out an extra foot or so beyond where you can with an air stapler. That equates into mores sq footage stapled per ladder move - ie less time required to complete the project.

[Jim Becker]

A staple hammer is faster, lighter and easy to use...

[Eric DeSilva]

Whatever you do, don't get one of the Arrow electric staplers. Had one to do some interior insulation and that thing jammed every fifth staple. Worst tool I ever bought--and that is sayin' something.

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

I gave up on the narrow crown staples since they were either penetrating too deep and tearing the wrap or if I dialed the compressor pressure down low enough to get good depth the stapler would miss (no staple comes out).
I bought 2 hammer staplers and neither worked for very long. The cheap one from Princess Auto never worked and the Arrow from HD only worked until half the row of staples were used up at which point the spring did not seem to have enough compression left.

I ended up just using an Arrow hand stapler and it worked out fine.

Thanks for all the input.
Andrew