Pulling nails from construction lumber can be slow and tedious. Before you can even get a grip on them with your hammer, you have to bang them out from the back side of the board to expose the head.
And of course the nails were probably bent during demolition, so you’ll have to straighten out the points before you can even drive them backward.
Rather than do all this by hand, you could attach the Mayhew NailBoss onto any air hammer, and you’ll be able to quickly straighten nails and drive them backwards with a minimum of effort.
According to Mayhew, the NailBoss also does less damage to the wood. This could be beneficial if you plan to reinstall or repurpose the wood.
The NailBoss screws right onto the threads of the air hammer that hold the spring retainer. Then you just slip the NailBoss over the point of the nail, use it to lever the nail straight, and then pull the trigger to drive the nail backwards though the board.
The NailBoss will work with staples or nails up to 0.25″ in diameter.
You can also use it with a manual hammer!
Mayhew also sells a “combination” version, which has a piston head that screws into the body of the NailBoss. With this head you can use any regular hammer to manually drive a nail backwards through a board. While it’s going to work slower with a hammer than an air hammer, it still gives you the advantage of being able to drive the nail through with a larger piston, rather than trying to hit the nail on the point.
Unfortunately, I can’t find the NailBoss combo tool for sale anywhere. The standard NailBoss is sold at Amazon and a few other little known online retailers (at least to me) like Life and Home. Expect to pay about $32 to $36.
Model numbers: 41110 (standard), 41111 (combo version with attachment for manual hammers)
Buy Now (via Amazon)
Buy Now (via Life and Home)
If you want to see the NailBoss and the NailBoss Combo Tool in action, here is Mayhew’s demonstration video: