Sometimes you’ve got to get a house dried in before the roofers can install the shingles. Here in Wyoming, where the wind has been know to blow, builders usually tack hundreds of strips of wood lath over a roof covered with tar paper to keep the wind from picking the tar paper off. But then you’ve got to take the lath off again before the shingles can go on. Here’s a better way.
On our last job we used tie wire, dispensed from a reel and held down by air-driven staples. First we stapled down the tar paper, using a hammer lacker. Then we ran the wire over all butt seams and lap seams between the sheets of tar paper and fastened the wire to the decking with staples on 12-in. centers. This system is a lot faster than putting down wood lath, and it holds the paper down extremely well. Best of all, when the roofers show up, they can put the shingles down right over the wire.
Mark Kerridge, Casper, WY
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