Roofing question: typical work methods
Neighbor had his house reroofed yesterday and I saw a couple of surprises – just wanted to get some opinions. I live in Toronto, so there’s still small patches of ice in the shade. I’m wondering if what I saw is a regional thing. From what I hear, the two following observations aren’t unusual for my area:
1) They didn’t tar paper the roof. Just one row of ice dam and that was it. I always thought tar paper wasn’t an option.
2) They hand nailed. I thought this was extinct with pneumatic nailers? These guys are quick, but jeez. Not many large-volume framers around here use nail guns either.
Regards,
Tim
Replies
If you look at the instructions on a bundle of shingles, they usually (if not always) specify an underlayment, and the warranty may be voided if it's not used (not that the waranty is worth much). Plenty of guys skip the tar paper, but it makes me nervous. Any little drop of water that gets past the shingles will wind up in the structure somewhere.
Seems to me hand nailing is great. It's good to feel each nail holding, and the nails are always set at the right depth. I don't see a quality downside. Speed and economics are another issue.
Al Mollitor, Sharon, MA
Was it sheathing or shingles that they hand nailed? One of the things they learned after Hurricane Andrew was that if sheathing is nailed pneumatically, you can pop in row after row of shiners and not know it. If they shingled over skip sheathing, hand nailing would let them know whether they hit wood or not.
-- J.S.
The ice probably is a regional thing. I've still got eight inches of it in a couple of places. But what does that have to do with the roof?
I still hand nail. It is always a better job to hand nail provided the right nails and lengths are used.
But unless this roof is at least a 12/12 pitch and well insulated/vented, I would have a problem with no underlayment.
Excellence is its own reward!
I've seen alot of roofers lay down strip shingles on bare sheathing but I like to sleep at night so I can't work like that, as for hand nailing the only time I don't is over new OSB (eeyuch) or plywood it's too easy to hit seams and keep on going. Oats that have already been through the horse are always cheaper than oats that haven't.
When I was framing out in Cape Cod back in 1984 nobody ever used tarpaper. I thought that I was seeing things. I don't know if they're still not using it now.
Around here just about every roofer uses guns.
Framers around here, only old timers nail by hand, they don't believe that guns are strong enough.
Joe Carola
Edited 4/14/2003 9:53:14 PM ET by Framer
Thanks for all the responses, informative as usual.
John, no sheathing was done; just a straight tear-off and reshingle. Good advice, though, I was just up in an attic that had more than a few sheathing nails that missed the rafters (they didn't miss my head, though).
Piffin, re the ice: just wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out so as to avoid the "please provide more detail" request and I got carried away (thinking about that lonely strip of ice dam). 82 degrees today but forecasting freezing rain tomorrow night. Dam ice.
Regards,
Tim