If you have a DIY project on the go, you will need to have the right nails ready. This also means you need to know what the different types of nails are. Most of the time you will likely want to know where you can get stainless steel nails for sell, but there are actually a huge variety available and a nail is definitely not just a nail. In fact, buy the wrong one and your project could just completely fail.
Nail Materials and Sizes
First of all, there are nails made of different materials, which each material having its own pros and cons. The most common ones are:
- Stainless steel nails
- Galvanized nails
- Aluminum nails
- Brass nails
- Copper nails
Next, you need to think about the different lengths, sizes and heads. The right material, size, length and head all depends on the project you are engaging in. If you do not have much knowledge about nails, you may want to speak to a specialist about this.
Specialized Nails
Besides the above nails, which are considered ‘standard’, there are some specialized nails as well. These include:
- Box nails, which look just like regular nails. However, their gauge is lighter. These nails are perfect for fragile wood jobs. However, they don’t hold very well.
- Finish nails, which are nails with tiny heads. These are used if you want the nail to be virtually invisible. Once hammered in, you will struggle to find where you put it. This means they are hard to remove as well.
- Brad nails, which is like a finishing nail but it has a round head, rather than a flat head. This means that they are even smaller and harder to detect.
- Roofing nails, which have been designed specifically for shingle roofs, allowing you to tack the tiles. They have much larger heads than regular nails and they also have a special anti-rust coating. They are often galvanized and they tend to be one or two inches in length.
- Coated nails, which have a resin covering that allows them to act as a glue. This is perfect for jobs where you really want the nail to hold.
- Coil nails, or threaded nails, which are the strongest of them all. They are as strong as a wood screw, but can be hammered into position. These nails are used in structural projects like cabinets.
- Masonry nails, which are made from extra strength, hardened steel. They also have grooves along them, which increases the nail’s holding power. However, because the nails have grooves, it is vital that they are driven into the material completely straight. This is generally only achieved by using a heavy duty hammer, or sometimes even a sledgehammer. If it isn’t straight, the nail could bend or break along one of the grooves.
Clearly, you have to make sure that you know what nail you need for each job. Some considerations to make is the weight that the product will have to carry, the material into which the nail is driven and whether or not the finished product will be used outside.
