Electric nail guns, also known as nailers, are essential power tools for carpentry, roofing, and framing as they are designed to help with the insertion of high numbers of fixings into a variety of materials. Nailers offer efficiency and precision to large-scale projects that would be too tiresome or time-consuming to be completed by hand. Nails are loaded into the gun in the form of a coil or strip, with the nails pushed out by either pneumatic or battery power with each press of the trigger. Nail guns also allow the depth of the nail to be chosen and prevents the nails from bending under the force of a hammer.

Nailers are ideal for use in a wide range of applications ranging in size and scale, from the laying of sub-floors and decking to roofing and fencing, not forgetting home DIY projects such as crown moulding, cabinet building, and laying hardwood flooring. Our range at RS features products that are fully electrically operated and do not need any additional gas cylinders. We have tools from some of the industry's leading brands, including DeWALT, Makita, Rapid, Stanley, and RS PRO.

Types of electric nail guns

Electric nail guns are available in corded, mains-powered, or cordless battery-powered varieties, and the different types of nail gun vary in size and weight.

Aside from the power source, there are different types of nail guns for different applications, each one able to drive different sizes of nail. Some nailers are more suitable for heavy-duty applications, such as framing nailers, whereas others, such as finish or brad nailers, are more suitable for more precise, lighter-duty projects.

• Framing nail guns - these are the tools you should be reaching for when those big projects come along, such as building a decking in your garden or creating the framing for a house or extension. They are also typically used when laying sub-flooring, erecting a fence or working on roofing.
• Finishing nail guns - these nail guns are designed for accuracy and precision work, so will be perfect for interior jobs like installing trim, building furniture, or doing any sort of moulding work.
• Brad nailers - Brad nailers don't drive nails as other nail guns do but, as their name suggests, drive brads instead, which are essentially ultra-thin nails. This makes them especially useful for decorative work, like installing moulding or trim that a larger nail might split.