Brads and finish nails in outdoor projects?

[Dan Karachio]

In making any kind of outdoor pieces with cedar, do I need to be worried about brads (or other nail gun fasteners) eventually leaching rust, stains or simply failing? I will also be using waterproof glue in my joinery. I cannot find anything (at Lowes any way) that is labeled as a "galvanized" brad or finishing nail. Am I over-thinking this? I did find at Amazon galvanized brads and pins! Should I use something like this vs the stock pins/brads?

This will be a cedar trellis using half lap joinery throughout. Do you think that for the lattice section with 3/4 wide/thick pieces joined with half laps throughout I could use a combination of waterproof glue and pins vs brads? I just love my Grex pin nailer and they do hide well. I see that Grex has galvanized pins too.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I cannot find anything (at Lowes any way) that is labeled as a "galvanized

Try Home Depot.
I know the Porter Cable 18 ga ones I bought were labled galvanized.
I swore I bought them at Lowes though.

[Jim Terrill]

If you're going to do it, do it right. You can get stainless and never have to worry about it again. Face nailed galvanized will rust sooner or later and your cedar will have streaks running down it. If you have the time, glue and clamps will be sufficient, but otherwise just get a box of stainless brads and be done with it. When we would install cedar shakes, we use galvanized bostitch nails for covered nails and stainless for any nails that were exposed. Still looks great to this day. You can save some $$ with galvanized, but it just isn't worth it in the long run.

FWIW, we were firing Bostitch fasteners out of bostitch and Ridgid brad nailers. I've never used a Grex gun, but I'm sure that it would fire standard fasteners as well.

[Dan Karachio]

Thanks Jim! I had no idea you could get stainless! Turns out Grex has ss pins for the pin nailer and I will use ss brads with my Bostich brad nailer as well.

[James Biddle]

I used stainless pins with my Grex last year to make an outdoor lattice. I didn't bother to glue it at all; the pins are holding everything just fine (and no dark marks around the pin). One note of caution though... my experience with stainless pins is that they tend to stray from the intended path easier than other metals, so keep your hands clear of the area.

[Callan Campbell]

I have stainless steel nails for my 15ga Senco finish nailer and 23ga pins for my Grex pin nailer. It takes any worry out about nail corrosion and black stains or other marks from staining when a steel fastener rusts. As an added bonus, if you do have to sand something after you've nailed it, you don't worry if you sand down to a nail that didn't set deep in your project and is now flush with the surface. Previously, I'd drive my galvanized or regular nails pretty deep in cedar to help slow or hide the black marks when the nails rusted. I usually get my SS nails from McFeelys, but a local distributor probably carries them as well. I don't buy or use them often, but they're sure nice to have.

[David Helm]

If you don't want brown streaks, don't use galvanized. There is a chemical reaction between cedar and zinc that causes these streaks. Use stainless.

[Dan Karachio]

That's a good tip James, thanks!