Had a look around at this - never considered one before, but as there is much to do (whole house ceilings upstairs and downstairs, plus flooring and some walls, which is a lot of screws) and a weekend hire is >£40, I have bought a brand new but obsolete model corded Senco DS275 for £100 of the 'bay (the one in this youtube ). Waiting for it to turn up. Also bought some spare tips as I don't know how quickly they wear out. I know how tough it can be on your wrist using a cordless drill for hundreds of screws because you rely on the torque to set the stop/set the screw which continually wrenches your wrist round - did a large deck a couple of months ago and arm was aching afterwards. Never used one of these but hopefully I will be thanking you for good advice. and not cursing a waste of money.................
I use a Fein M-gun and can put in hundreds of screws in one afternoon - no arm or wrist problems whatsoever just some tiredness in the arm muscles but not pain. With the Fein, you pull the trigger to start it running, push down for the first screw, lift, move to second and so on without releasing the trigger ... Get some practice in on a piece of scrap before you start and to set the depth correctly.
Screw gun arrived, tested, and seems excellent. Managed to get 10 spare tips for just £1.50 ea https://www.harlequinfixings.co.uk/ds275-ac-phillips-no2-s-dr-bit/product/1586 not OEM part, but seem to work just fine 20 sheets of PB arriving tomorrow.......
Have you got the knack of using it and keeping it running between screws rather than the intuitive letting it go after each. Takes a while but once you have it, it really is, screw, screw, screw ... You will not regret it especially when you work out how much time you have saved.
Y. I did some tests and yes, it is counter-intuitive from using a cordless driver, but think I'll be fine.
I fitted some insulated plasterboard to a ceiling this week. I put some dry wall foam fix on the board first before screwing up. It made a huge difference when putting up the board. With someone else holding the other end, didn't need the plasterboard props I normally use. One can did 4 boards easily. http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p60449?table=no
Big thanks to pollowick for recommending a screw gun removed a zillion nails from joists from the old latts and put a couple of sheets up today. Screw gun is ace.
it was the zillion nails I had to remove first............... should finish first room tomorrow. And had to unload 20 sheets PB and stack them in the house. Enough work for 1 day beer o'clock now
I put up 4 sheets this week, didn't even bother to hunt down my Makita one, just used a cordless drill.
Not just a couple of sheets. I have about 50 1200 x 2400 PB sheets to do in total in the project. that must be 3-4000 screws........that makes a gun worthwhile Only did a couple of sheets today because of other work, having to put in additional joists, noggins, remove latt nails etc etc.
Trust you have mastered the knack of using it now! You will get even faster and boards will be screwed in place with a couple of minutes. I bought mine from a local tool shop owner when he was manning a Fein stand at an exhibition. At the time I did not need it but knew that within a year I would - and the price I paid was very low as he persuaded Fein to discount it even more for one of his "good customers" so to good a chance to miss! And never looked back.
What do they use in new builds for ceilings? I bet they use 9.5 mm because of the overall weight of the ceilings fastened to the engineered roof trusses.
15mm thickness, saves having to install noggins to support the edges of the board when fixing at 600mm centres. 9.5 hasn't been used for donkeys.
Yeah. That makes sense. Would not have a new build given me . Mind you I might be persuaded. I could always sell it.
Only teasing, it is so much easier with an autofeed gun. Sounds like you have an entire house to do - you will be wanting a paddle mixer next for all that jointing compound you will need.
Y & Y - ! will all be skimmed. I used my old electric drill last time, but it isn't ideal. Walls I'll do myself - have skimmed PB walls a few times now and know I can make an OK job. ceilings not so sure - they're 2.7m (which is also a good height for lifting full sheets of PB) and never done a ceiling before - might get someone in for those.......
Your arms are going to ache after doing a ceiling. If you're confident in doing them though, a work platform would be useful. 2 lengths of 2 by 4 over some trestles with a door on top of the timber. Makes a comfortable and solid work platform, and you can get quite high with them. Or, https://www.hss.com/hire/p/folding-indoor-scaffold I'm sure you can guess which method I use...
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