OT-Question about nailers

[Dar Lounsbury]

I want to buy a flooring nailer for a couple of large projects. All I have used is a manual style Porta-Nail about 25 years ago. It worked fine but the arm really got tired. Surely some sort of progress has been made it this much time. I have done a Google search for flooring nailers and I don't recognize any of the brand names. What is good and what is junk?

Thank you, Dar

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
A good "brand name" for a pneumatic is "rental" - as in "What brand does the local home center have for rent?"

A good rule of thumb to go by is if the job is expected to take longer than two weekends, then buy one. If not, then rent one.

While I have no actual experience with one, my friend Jim has used both the Bostich and the Porter Cable brands.
He rented them for a day each for two different projects.

He's planning on doing an extensive amount of flooring in the next couple of years and has plans to buy one of the two brands mentioned.

Each one sells (off sale) for around $400.

FWIW - I do have both a Bostich framing nailer and also a Porter Cable finishing nailer. Both are excellent tools - very well made - and do an excellent job.
Another forum member that uses pneumatic nailers for a living, day in and day out, thinks very highly of the Hitachi brand. He's used just about every brand out there.

Another route a lot of people take is to look on Craig's list for one and/or buy one, use it, then sell it on Craig's list.

[Jason Roehl]

I've used both the Bostitch and P-C flooring nailers. I ended up taking the P-C back to the rental center because it blew a seal while I was using it. That, and part of the casting was chipping (cosmetic issue only, but still...). I had no problems with the Bostitch and thought it was a much better nailer overall. IIRC, it also allowed me to nail at least one row closer to a wall and still be able to hit the plunger/trigger.

Around here, the Bostitch sells for about $450, but rents for about $20/day. I like the rental option because if it goes south you can get it replaced fairly quickly.

[Ken Deckelman]

I have owned a Bostich MIIIFS for about 6 years now and put down thousands of SQ feet without trouble. They are costly at about $400 though...