Replies

1. 
   seeyou | Sep 07, 2003 12:39am | #1

   Some pictures might help.

1. 
   peterg | Sep 07, 2003 02:10am | #3

   I donot own a digital camerera therefore no pix

2. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 07, 2003 01:38am | #2

   What exactly do you mean by 'popping nails'? That's usually something that happens with Gyprock. Don't tell me you've got gyprock on your roof ROFLOL?!

   Seriously--do you mean that the nails are coming loose and shingles falling off the roof? or that they were never nailed down flush and the heads are now making 'bumps' in the covering tabs?

   On an eight year old house I wouldn't expect to see nails coming loose--usually that's something we see on 30-year-old roofs, where they used 1" nails that just about got into the wood. Today we use 1¼ or 1½, pretty universally.

   Have you popped a couple of shingles to expose the roof deck and see what's up (ha ha) under there? Or can you examine the underside from the attic?

   Plywood delaminating in 8 years is surprising: it would normally take huge amounts of water to accomplish this--or enough heat to melt the glue, which I think would melt the shingles first.... (Never seen that, either.) If you had that much water getting to the roof deck, you'd almost certainly have had some come all the way inside to say hello! Are there any leaks?

   Oh, duh! Forgot to ask: you are talking about asphalt shingles, aren't you? and not aluminum or corrugated with short nails and lead washers (can you even buy those anymore???)?

   More details, dude.

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   peterg | Sep 07, 2003 02:16am | #5

   DINOSAUR-- Nails are telegraphing thru the asphalt shingle or are actually penetraded right thru the shingle,, Looked at the sheathing

   from the attic and I donot see any signs of a leak

1. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 07, 2003 02:33am | #6

   Is this occurring all over the roof, or only in one area? You said about 50 nails. If that's spread all over the roof, it's not a sign of real good installation, but it's not the end of the world. Smack 'em back down as suggested above, or better yet re-nail into fresh meat.

   If the problem is localized, you probably have for whatever reason a roof-deck problem that you'd better uncover and correct.

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   peterg | Sep 07, 2003 03:13am | #7

   MY health does no permit me to go on the roof. What I am told, there are patches of 20-25 nails popping in localized areas. BTW thanks for your help

1. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 07, 2003 03:48am | #8

   It's impossible from here to tell you why your nails are popping. Best educated guess I could make would be that the localized areas where this occurs will show some kind of warping/delaminating of the ply--but you say there are no water stains in the attic.

   It would be real schlocky, but maybe the builder ran short of 5/8 ply and threw a few sheets of thinner stuff on the roof deck. Or maybe even (Shudder!) Beaver Barf. Did you notice any different types of sheathing when you were in the attic. Also, how far apart are your rafters or trusses? If they're on 24" centers and the roof deck is sheathed with ½" ply or Aspenite, and the pitch is fairly shallow, and you live in a high snow zone--that's a lot of ifs but they could add up to your problem.

   You can't go onto the roof youself; so you need to call a pro you can trust. Get him to strip the bad sections and determine what the problem is. If you've got a completely NG roof deck, you'll be looking at a lawsuit against the builder or previous owner for a vice cachée ('hidden problem'; not sure if that's the proper legal term in English). In most jurisdictions, time to file limits are dated from the day the problem is discovered, not when it was created, so you might be okay on that.

   Otherwise, I don't know what else to tell you. What part of the planet are you planted on, BTW?

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

2. 
   Piffin | Sep 07, 2003 03:15pm | #10

   I agree with Mike that it's an easy fix to get him byu for another seven or eight years. No need to be tearing anything off yet. If more nails keep showing up, then it might be worth re-roofing in a couple of years..

   Excellence is its own reward!

3. 
   Dinosaur | Sep 07, 2003 05:04pm | #11

   Hard to tell without actually seeing it, though. Mike's probably right. But the fact that the problem is localized adds a little zing to the mix. In any event, once he gets a good roofer up there the guy will know right away what's up.

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

4. 
   xMikeSmith | Sep 07, 2003 03:55am | #9

   if the nail pops are your only problem, and the roof is only 8 years old.. on a cool day, a good roofer could go up with a flat bar and lift the tabs that show nails and drive them down, any holes could be patched with roofing cement from underneath.. or bigger holes could be patched by slipping a small square of ice & water under teh tab and over the nail..

    it sounds like someone was using  a gun that wasn't set right , or they were cocking the gun at an angle so teh nails didn't set flush..

    50 nails is not a lot to fix.. but it is a good indication that whoever installed the roof was a bum..

   Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

3. 
   djohan | Sep 07, 2003 02:15am | #4

   If your nail pops are showing up as bumps underneath the asphalt shingles, you can pound them back in place by putting a flat bar between the head of the nail and the shingle and tap them back in place.