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Dan_Musicant
 
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Default Asphalt shingle roofing question: How exposed is an "exposed nail?"

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 02:45:36 GMT, "josh" wrote:

:Comments inserted
:
:"Dan_Musicant"wrote
: They didn't even put sealant on the two nails on the center ridge cap,
: and I believe they cut for cap, one of the caveats I believe you posted
: about not long ago in this newsgroup.
:
:Cutting cap, from a 3 tab shingle for a laminated shingle, is a cost cutting
:feature to save the _contractor_ money. I would be interested in which
:brand you had installed. I do believe every _major_ manufactuer, has an
:accessory cap available.

They installed Elk Corporation Prestique Plus:

http://www.elkcorp.com/contractors/p...stique_phd.cfm

They do have the cap, but I didn't see any going up the conveyor belt,
although at the time I didn't know about them and wasn't looking for
them. I read your post that mentioned the cap a day or two later and it
didn't ring a bell, so I suspected that they'd cut for cap.
:
:Also, you mentioned the nails are 1.25" length. It would be interesting to
:know the length recommended for the 50 year laminate for which you have.

I don't know. I suppose 1.25".
:
:
: Maybe I should call the shingle manufacturer's rep if the warranty might
: be voided. I guess my first call will be to the estimator and see what
: he says. Maybe he will get them over here and fix the exposed nailheads.
:
: What does it take to fix such a thing? This is a 2 story 1925 square
: foot house and I found around 70 exposed nails today. Probably 35% of
: those can be seen standing directly over them, the other 65% if you are
: looking at an angle or from the side. One section of the roof is a lot
: worse than the others. Some have only 1-3 exposed nails, one has around
: 10, but one section has around 50 exposed nails.
:
:
:First, if they nailed off-line, they put holes too low, when they shot the
:fasteners. Not only is too low a concern, but shooting off-line too high is
:a concern. You must catch the shingle where it's laminated together,
therwise you're not securing the exposed part of the shingle to the deck.

I see that. I have a 3 tab shingle in the room with me and can see that
the overlap is barely more than an inch. Not all the shingles look the
same, by a long shot, but this one has a whitish line at about the
midway point in the overlap, and I assume that's the nail line and I
guess they should really be on that line, not so much as a 1/4" below it
or the nail can be seen, at least from the side.

:Also, if you nail too high, you're not catching the previous shingle with
:the fasteners. This is a concern, especially when the winds pick up.
:
:Pulling the exposed nails, then to properly place them, the hole is still
:there, the damage is done.

I'm wondering how I'll know if they did a kludge and reused the shingles
with holes in them or replaced them with new shingles. I guess I could
get up there on the roof and watch them like a hawk, but I was trying to
avoid that scenario. I suppose I was engaging in a lot of wishful
thinking when I put so much trust in these guys. This is my first
contract in my life. I was hopeful but I'm taking my knocks now. I'll
find out what they say this morning, the estimator (who I think is also
one of the company owners, probably, or at least a higher up), and the
project manager who I'm going to call in an hour or so.
:
: I'm going to go in the attic and see if I can find evidence of plywood
: not falling on the rafters. Some of the nailing was pretty poor -
: sometimes 5-6 straight nails missed a rafter. Maybe they went back and
: put in more nails, I can't tell from the attic, but I sort of have to
: wonder when I see so many in one place.
:
:I had seen a job, as what you described. We had done 3, tri-plexes for a
:fellow over a couple years. He called looking for an estimate on a fourth
:job. I was close to $900 higher than his highest bid. Of course, this was
:the only one with everything spelled out, using the exact materials.
:
:I followed up on the lead, and Bruce said if I would cut it closer to a $400
:difference, he would award the job to me. No can do Bruce, you know the
:work, go ahead and take your chances.
:
:A couple months later, Bruce called me. He said he was embarrassed to call
:me, but didn't know where to turn. He climbed on the roof, and seen nail
:heads between the rows. He asked me to come look, and he would pay the fee.
:No charge to this fella, I had to see what he was talking about.
:
:He then asked me what it would cost, to fix the problem. Well, the roofer
:had two complete rows, disappear when he got to the ridge, this was besides
:the hundreds of shiny heads that could be seen.
:
:I told him, the quote was still in the computer, and was still good. We
:ended up, tearing off the brand new roof. And, Bruce, well he took the
:company to court. But, the company went belly up.

The estimator told me they roofed with integrity, did the job right.
They appear to take a lot of pride in correcting mistakes, so maybe they
will correct these. How do you correct an exposed nail? How many
shingles do they have to pull and replace and how? How many in a given
area before it makes more sense to pull the whole area and replace them
all? Thanks for the help!

PS I was wondering if there's any way to repair at least some of the
exposed heads (maybe the ones down flush and barely showing). I'm
probably naive, but I thought that maybe inserting a small rectangle
(1.5" x 2") of thin stainless steel with sealant/adhesive under it over
each exposed nail might make a permanent fix that would last decades.
They could be sprayed with color matching paint. I know, it's probably a
foolish dream.