Pole barn skylight replacement

[BarnyardEngineering]

The fiberglass skylight panels on my pole barn are deteriorated and leaking. In fact, one of them blew out when I had the door open on a windy day, so I had to climb up on the roof and screw it back down the best I could. Would've made quite the viral video, scaredy-chump squirming up the roof...

My plan is to replace with steel. How do you pull the nails out of the surrounding steel, without ruining the steel?

I need to at least get the nails out of the peak cap to slide the new steel underneath. I can pound the nails that were holding the old fiberglass in easy enough.

 

[moresmoke]

Couple options depending where the nails
are. A small block of wood shaped to fit
the valleys of the tin will keep you from
crushing the tin. I find it works best if
you give the nail one hit down first,
breaks it free of the wood. If you have to
you can cut the head off with end nippers
and drive the shank down with a punch.

 

[DIM]

Get a pair of nippers and weld a rod on one handle and put a steel weight on the rod and make a sliding hanmer. grab
the nail head with the nippers and use sliding hammer and pull nails right out. no dents in tin

 

[coshoo]

Cut all the heads off, remove tin, then drive the stubs down into the purlins. Easier than driving them down with a punch while the tin is still on. I haven't had much luck pulling them- seems like with about half of them the head breaks off anyhow.

 

[jeffcat]

Pick up one of those HF Multi-tool gizmos. With a grinder remove the
heads, then lift the edge of the roof a little and use a long blade on
the multi tool and cut them flush with the rafter. Wear leather
gloves.

 

[Duner Wi]

Second Dims method. Goes really quick!

 

[db4600]

Try an old fashioned nail puller. Search for polycarbonate
ridge cap. It last better than the old fiberglass and the light is
nice to have.

 

[ben70b]

X2, I do it for a living, this is my method as well