What Kind Of Nails Should Be Used For Roofing?

What Kind of Nails Do I Use With Roof Sheathing?

Roof sheathing prepares your roof prior to the installation of shingles. Sheathing also serves every bit added protection confronting wind, rain, snowfall and ultraviolet dominicus rays. Using the proper hardware to install sheathing is especially important in hurricane-prone regions that experience extreme fluctuations in temperature. Poor fastening of sheathing can pb to leaks, cruddy bulges, or worse, total building failure during storms. Using a minimum of 8d common nails to securely spike sheathing is recommended by the U.Southward. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Installation

Using proper nails to adhere capsule volition help your roof withstand strong winds.

Traditional capsule material typically comprises 15/32-inch plywood or oriented-strand-board (OSB) panels. Builders more often than not use 8d common nails, which are approximately 2 ½ inches long and 131/g inch broad in bore. The nails should be spaced no more than than six inches autonomously and attached 3/8 inch from the sheathing panel ends and edges, according to the Engineered Wood Association. The association also recommends using 10d box nails every bit spacers to estimate 1/viii-inch spacing between the end of the capsule console and edge joints.

Considerations

When installing capsule, drive nails securely into the framing members. Aim the smash in the middle, rather than at the edge of the member. This ensures that the nail is fastened securely and volition non dislodge from the fellow member or sheathing console. Also, avoid overdriving the nails into the rafter, which tin can weaken the connectedness between the sheathing and trusses. In add-on, use ring-shank or screw-shank nails forth edges, eaves and ridges, and deformed-shank nails throughout the entire roof.

Warnings

If you live in a region with high wind force, practice non utilize staples to attach roof capsule. Engineering science studies have proven that stapling frequently fails to concord downwards sheathing during hurricanes and high-wind storms. Detached capsule panels endanger your abode's structure, as well equally the occupants in it. FEMA advises using properly sized screws on sheathing for additional withdrawal forcefulness against farthermost elements such as strong winds.

Expert Insight

Ane of the most common reasons nails uplift and pop out of roofs is due to incorrect fastening combined with poor installation, co-ordinate to nationally syndicated paper columnist Tim Carter. Using the proper nails to ensure that shingles are securely attached to sheathing is merely every bit important for extending the lifetime of your roof. For case, sometimes roofing nails penetrate sheathing along the seams where the ii panels meet. Because the boom is driven into a capsule surface area where there is little wood, the roofing nail can back out of the roof sheathing and somewhen through the shingle itself. Abiding contraction and expansion caused by heating and cooling cycles also push nails out of roofs. To protect your sheathing and roof, Carter advises using roofing nails that extend approximately 3/eight inch past the bottom of the sheathing panels.