Unlike most types of tools, nail guns are not designed for general purposes - there is no all-purpose nail gun that you can use with all your work. Nail guns are intended to carry out specific tasks, so before acquiring a nail gun it's very important to understand the work for which it will be used.

The types of nail guns are:

- Siding and Roofing nail guns: These are meant for the specific task of putting up either roofing or siding. They store large numbers of nails that are designed specifically for the task at hand (roofing or siding). These are usually coil-type nail guns.

- Framing nail guns: These are intended to drive bigger (1-1/2" to 4") box-type nails into larger pieces of wood. These types of nail guns are usually heavy and big and are almost always stick-type nail guns, they there are some coil-types available also.

- Finish nail guns: These are often referred to as pin or brad nail guns. They are designed for fastening smaller finish-type nails into smaller pieces of wood. These nail guns tend to be lighter and smaller than framing nail guns, and they tend to be used for finishing or trim work. These are almost always stick-type nail guns.

Once you select the sort of nail gun you want, some other properties that are helpful to have and which you should think about including are:

- A directional exhaust vent. When nails are nailed in, air is released from the nail gun. It's very nice to have an adjustable exhaust so that this air is not being delivered into your face.

- An easy-to-use depth adjustment. Almost all nail guns have an adjustment to manage the depth to which the nail is delivered. This way, the nail is not left jutting out of the surface, or sunk too deep far in. Many nail guns need tools, and time, to perform this adjustment, others can be set by hand and these are almost always much quicker to adjust. If you think you will need to be making this adjustment often, the easier and quicker it is to set, the less time you'll waste on this.

- A good-sized trigger. If you are going to be using your nail gun in cold weather, you will be wearing gloves. In that case you'll want to have a good-sized trigger so that you can operate it with gloves on.

- If you are going to be delivering a lot of nails, should consider the capacity of the nail gun and also the ease with which nails can be loaded into the gun. Choosing the correct nail gun can save you a lot of time on a job, or cost you a bunch of time if you make a bad decision.

- A pivot on the air connector to the nail gun. If you will be moving around often with your nail gun, this will help reduce the knotting of your air hose.

Finally, make sure you check the reviews for the nail gun you are looking at. Checking out a tool in the store or on the internet, it is really difficult to be sure how well it will work for you on site. By looking into the reviews of people that have used the nail gun, you will get a better idea if this nail gun will work for you.