Duo-Fast, an ITW company, has a long history of providing workers with innovative fastening systems, including the well known Hammer Tacker, Model HT550. Today they draw on the global resources of ITW to provide innovative tools and fasteners to exterior contractors.

In 2010, they introduced the world’s first cordless roofing nailer. This revolutionary tool offers fuel-powered convenience and efficiency.

Maspeth Roofing in Maspeth, New York, does 80 percent commercial and 20 percent residential work. The crews have been using the Duo-Fast Cordless Roofing Nailer for about eight months and they find uses for it on both sides of the business. “If you’ve got to be real portable it is excellent,” said owner John Schenone. “Now we don’t have to carry hoses and compressors. It may not be as fast as a pneumatic, but it is a lot more efficient than hand nailing.”

The repair crews use it exclusively on small repair jobs, such as skylight and one square repairs. Project Manager Arturo Hernandez said, “My repair crews don’t even take hoses and a compressor on small jobs anymore; they just have two of the cordless nailers on the truck.”

Currently, they are working on a commercial condo project with a cold-process flat roof and they have to replace 8,000 linear feet of hip and ridge fence with new shingles. Schenone said the cordless roofing nailer makes a difference in productivity on this job. “Now the crew doesn’t have to worry about dragging hoses through the wet tar, which makes a mess of the roof and the hoses.” They have three of the nailers on the job and have been very successful in this application. The crews also use it on commercial jobs where they have to nail off gravel stop and metal edging, and they like the results.

Arturo really likes the safety feature when crews have to work on ladders that they constantly move. “Now, they don’t worry about moving the hoses and compressor,” he said. Also for chimney and steep pitch work it is the only tool they want to use because otherwise it’s back to hand nailing. And using just the cordless roofing nailer means faster jobsite cleanup. “With a compressor, we have to take the time to clean up around the compressor when we’re done for the day.”

Even on bigger jobs, Arturo finds the cordless roofing nailer has advantages. “Near the end of a job, when there are only a few more squares to do, we’ll do them with the cordless nailer, so the rest of the crew can go down clean up, and put away the compressors and hoses. That’s another reason why my guys love this tool. They want more of them.”

And they might just get their wish. “It is definitely a labor saver, and the expense of the nailer is offset by the productivity of small repairs and hard-to-reach-place jobs,” said Schenone. He noted that they have improved his company’s productivity so much that by end of year he plans to have at least one in each of his 15 trucks. That’s sure to make the crews very happy.

 Duo-Fast sells the cordless roofing nailer through roofing and siding wholesalers found across the country. For more information, call 888-631-2020 or go to www.duo-fastconstruction.com.