A roofer I met recently, told me this incredible story of how his roofing nailer saved his life once. Since that day – he told me further – it hasn’t left his side, not even when he married his third wife last year (he took the carrying case with him to the church, he says). I have since found out that he likes a good story almost as much as he claims to like his nailer, so now I am not sure what to believe – except that the moral of his story seems to be that a Hitachi coil roofing nailer is pretty darn sturdy. Well, I better just tell the tale, so here it comes.
A few years back, in 2006 to be more precise, this guy (we can call him Big Pete – his name happens to be Pete and he is pretty big) had a roofing job on a large property down in SoCal. He is up there with his nailer and a co-worker who is laying out the shingles, sun is shining, all is good – then he slips. Falls on his butt, and slides down the roof, which is on the steep side. About 3 yards below him is a dormer, and by the most incredible strike of luck, his Hitachi roofing nailer, which he is still holding, snags the hose on the rain gutter. He holds on with all his strength, seems to have regained his footing – but then loses his balance again, his grips slips off the gun, and now he starts to slide down further!
Now, for some reason, there is no scaffold below that side of the roof – or just that section, so he is facing a drop of over 20 feet off the roof and into the bottom of a stairwell to the basement – a pretty hard fall. But now the luck turns downright freaky! His nailer, which he lost hold of up at the dormer, is falling again, and since the non-skid rubber pads are all worn down, it too slides merrily down the roof. It actually goes down faster than Big Pete, who is fighting to stay on the roof, it passes him and seemingly disappears over the edge of the roof.
A few seconds later, so does Pete. His partner, who is terrified, rushes down the nearest ladder as fast as he can, and runs around the house – only to find Big Pete once again hanging onto his nailer, this time stuck on some old hook sticking out from the wall above the stairwell, looking like he saw a ghost. After this ordeal, Pete told me, he never went anywhere without his beloved Hitachi roofing nailers (he has two actually) “since you never know when your life needs saving”, he said. Well, I’m a big fan of that brand too, but to trust them with saving my life is something else. I do think they are great roofing nailers though.
