Roofing Exposed Nail Heads

Have someone hold the ladder steady for you as you climb onto the roof.

Roofing exposed nail heads.

A defect that i often find during my home inspections is exposed nail heads on the roof. Just make sure that you don t damage the shingles lifting them up. Recently gotten a new roof only to find the roofer made some mistakes. You ll also need a hammer and a small spatula or putty knife.

Most often the exposed nails are on the ridge the flashing an improper roof repair or the result of a nail pop. Generally accepted building practices and most shingle manufacturer s instructions call for exposed nails and the ridge end location is inevitably exposed to be covered with an asphalt plastic cement to prevent water leakage. Remove nail lift shingle and apply a small dab where nail penetrated shingle then push the overlapping shingle down and your done. Michael has a simple solution to cover and seal exposed nail heads that may be present after a new roofing job.

Roofing cement such as henry s is then placed below this final cap where the four nails will penetrate and then the four exposed nailheads are also coated with the cement. I do quite a bit of repair work on multiple types of roofing. I ve seen over 8 so far and i haven t really looked too close. The nail heads are not covered by.

Ok this is probably on here somewhere but i couldnt find it. Purchase a tub of roof cement at your local hardware store. I would suggest to remove the nail and put a urethane sealer which can be found at any home store to seal the hole from underneath. Smaller nail holes will be permanently fixed by this method standard roofing nails would be either 3 8 inch or 1 2 inch making a hole 3 8.

Apply a glob of roofing cement to the spatula or putty knife. When the roof is installed exposed nails should be kept to a minimum but it is unavoidable in certain situations. Fill small nail holes with silicone caulk or roof cement. The photo below shows to exposed nail heads.

Use the hammer to pound on the exposed nail head until it is flush with the shingle.