Last spring, a tree branch punched a hole in a workshop roof and taught me more about purchasing than any vendor pitch ever did.
I'm the procurement person for a 14-person contracting company. For six years, I've managed roughly $180,000 in annual material spend, which means I've seen enough invoices to be skeptical of nice round numbers. When our foreman handed me a repair list for a damaged roof, I expected to order plywood, shingles, and a few nails. What I didn't expect was a small ordering headache involving Simpson Strong-Tie hardware, a 1600 psi pressure washer, and the kind of legal question you don't search on a job site: is a nail gun considered a firearm?
The Simpson Strong-Tie Hardware Order
The project had four roof trusses with a couple of cracked members and a top plate that needed reinforcement. The engineer's sketch specified Simpson Strong-Tie Truss Screws for the truss-to-wall connections. He also wrote 'Simpson Strong-Tie hardware' next to a list of brackets, which turned out to be more complicated than I wanted.
The list included plate brackets, face-mount joist hangers, post bases, and a box of screws. Our usual supplier quoted $512 for the full Simpson Strong-Tie order. A local yard offered $394 for what they called an equivalent bracket from another brand. The difference was $118, and I almost took it. Then I asked the local yard for the load values. They sent me a link to a web page with no installation drawings. When I asked if they had printed documentation for the inspector, they said the inspector could look it up. That was not the answer I wanted to hear on a Friday before a Saturday inspection.
The Simpson Strong-Tie order came in boxes with load tables on the back. The truss screws had product codes and rated capacities printed on the label. I could hand that to the inspector and say, 'Here is the data.' In my experience, that little bit of documentation is the real value of 'brand name' hardware. You're not just paying for a screw; you're paying for a tested, published, reproducible connection.
The crew used a Simpson Strong-Tie Truss Screw for the truss-to-plate connections. Each screw seated into a pilot hole and tightened down without the brittle feel you get from some cheap coated screws. The bracket placement was equally simple. Everything lined up. The inspector didn't push back on any connection. That's what you want from structural hardware: a signed-off inspection instead of a problem.
A Note About the Phillips Flat Head Wood Screw
I also ordered a box of #8 Phillips flat head wood screws for the blocking and non-structural parts of the work. My first instinct was to order the same Simpson Strong-Tie truss screws for everything. The foreman stopped me. For blocking and sheathing, a regular Phillips flat head wood screw is fine. The loads are carried by the structural connectors. Using a specialty truss screw there would cost three times as much and buy nothing. That sounds obvious, but when you're staring at a catalog, it's easy to over-spec.
The 1600 PSI Pressure Washer Detour
The project hit a speed bump when the crew ripped off the old shingles. The rafter ends were covered in moss, dirt, and an old oil stain. The inspector said the wood had to be clean before we could treat it and install new connectors. So I drove to the equipment rental shop and grabbed the first machine that looked useful: a 1600 psi pressure washer.
Was that enough? For some jobs, yes. A 1600 psi pressure washer is great for cleaning a patio or washing away loose dust. It is not great for stripping old oil and years of embedded grime from soft wood. The spray removed the moss quickly, but the oil stains stayed. We switched to a scraper and a stiff brush, and eventually the wood came clean. It took another four hours. The $48 rental turned into $600 in extra labor. That's the sort of hidden cost that doesn't show up on a quote.
If I had thought through the total cost, I would have rented a 2800 psi gas unit from the start. Or I would have scheduled the cleaning as a separate step with the right tools. Instead, I let the phrase 'pressure washer' make the decision for me. That's how I ended up with a machine that was technically capable, but practically too weak for the task.
Is a Nail Gun Considered a Firearm?
Midweek, one of the apprentices asked me a question I'll never forget: 'Is a nail gun considered a firearm?' He wasn't joking. A former project manager had told him that a powder-actuated nail gun uses a cartridge, so it might count as a gun for people with certain restrictions.
I looked it up because I was honestly not sure. According to the ATF, a firearm is a weapon that expels a projectile by the action of an explosive. A nail gun is a construction tool. It drives fasteners into material. It is not designed to be used as a weapon. Even a powder-actuated nail gun, which uses blank cartridges, is not classified as a firearm under federal law. It's a tool regulated by workplace safety rules.
According to ATF, 'The term firearm means any weapon which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.' A nail gun does not qualify because it's not a weapon and it doesn't fire projectiles.
So the short answer is no. Federal law does not consider a nail gun a firearm. State laws and site rules can be more specific, so if a job site says no firearms, don't argue with the superintendent. Just leave the nail gun in a locked toolbox when you're not using it. But if someone asks, you can say with confidence: a nail gun is not a firearm.
What I Learned From This Job
In the end, the roof repair was a success. The Simpson Strong-Tie hardware passed inspection without a single correction. The truss screws held exactly as they should. The brackets were code-compliant, and the repair was done in two days of actual framing work. There's a particular satisfaction in seeing a load-rated connector fastened to a clean surface. After all the ordering drama, it's the part that makes the job feel finished.
Here's what I'd tell someone else doing the same kind of project:
- Use the specified hardware. If an engineer calls out Simpson Strong-Tie Truss Screws, don't substitute a generic screw just to save $10. The load data is what makes the connection code-compliant.
- Separate structural screws from ordinary wood screws. A Phillips flat head wood screw is the right choice for many places. Know which places are structural and which ones are just holding things together.
- Think about the total cost of a tool rental before you choose the cheapest one. A 1600 psi pressure washer is useful, but it's not a replacement for a heavier unit when the job demands it.
- And yes, a nail gun is not considered a firearm according to federal law. But safety rules still apply.
One last honest thing: my sample size is small. This job was a single workshop roof repair. I have not ordered thousands of truss screws or tested them in a lab. If you're doing production framing or high-wind details, you need an engineer's directions, not my anecdotes. But for a typical repair project, these are the lessons I keep going back to.
I still kick myself for the pressure washer mistake. It was the one purchase I treated as an afterthought, and it cost us more time than any bracket. But every mistake refines the process. The next project will start with a better checklist, a bigger washer, and the same Simpson Strong-Tie boxes on the shelf.
Also worth remembering: our order was small. It would have been easy for the supplier to send me a quote and disappear. Instead, they answered my detailed questions and split the shipment so we could keep working. That's why they'll get the call when we do a bigger project later this year. Small orders might not make a vendor rich, but they're how trust starts.
