Safe to use framing nailer with unseen nails underneath sole plate?
Jeff Cooper| Posted inGeneral Questionson
I’ve tilted the walls up on my raised floor and have enough nails through the sole plate to keep it from moving, but it needs another 200+, which I’d rather do with my framing nailer, but I don’t know exactly where the nails are through the subfloor into the rimboard, so there’s a good chance that an occasional nail will go through the 1-1/2″ of the sole plate and then hit the head of one of the nails underneath. I expect that it will just stop there and not be dangerous, but I don’t want to find out I’m wrong the hard way. Please advise.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
Jeff,
You are fine. Most of the nails will slide sideways off the concealed heads as they are driven, and perhaps the odd one will end up half-sunk. I've often fastened furring through sheathing that was nailed at 3" oc without noticing any problems, and many times hit concealed Simpson hardware without incident.
Of course wearing safety glasses when using a nailer is a good idea. Most of the accidents I've seen have been due to guys walking around with their hands on the trigger with the gun on bump-mode. (Spoken as a guy who has driven two three inch commons though his fingers over the years. Sigh...)
Thank you very much, Malcolm.