Roofing question - limited access to drive nails

[Stephen Newell]

If the vertical space is that small I think you might get your hand broken with a palm nailer. The recoil would slam your hand against the wood above.

When I put a roof on my house part of the roof the pitch was too shallow for shingles but that area showed. My fix was I used roll roofing on the porch and ran a couple rows of roll roofing up the shallow part of the roof. I didn't want to put nails through the roll roofing so the first dozen rows of shingles I put them on with plastic cement and they are holding just as well as if they were nailed.

 

[Dave G9N]

(quoted from post at 07:17:44 09/11/23) To top it off this part of the roof was not resheeted and the sheeting is the original 1 x 12 old growth yellow(?) pine from the 40 or 50s and driving a nail is very difficult - especially under the soffit where the wood is in excellent shape.

uch as I like SYP, it isn't easy to nail.

I inherited a pneumatic palm nailer that would be my first choice in a tight spot. It doesn't kick or buck.

My second choice for really tight spots is a right angle drill adapter and cabinet screws. Cabinet screws are as close to a roofing nail as you can get in a screw. I used them in a similar spot where even the palm nailer was too bulky. They may not be ideal for roofing, but not much rain and wind gets into a tiny gap.

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-Right-Angle-Attachment-Impact/dp/B07NQS465R/
https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Exterior-Coated-Modified-Cabinet/dp/B07ZWCDBHS/

 

[dhermesc]

Bought the cheapest one Harbor Freight has - and learned something. The 1 and 1/2 inch roofing nail head does not fit - but the 1 and 1/4 inch roofing nail head does fit.... Had never noticed a difference in the head size before.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

The palm nailer can also be used like an air chisel. Came in clutch a couple of times for us. Just put a normal "hit it with a hammer" type punch in the pocket and used it to drive out pins and shafts.

 

[Mule Meat]

The best screws to use on shingled roofs in tight places are called [b:506984717d]Metal Roof Pancake screws[/b:506984717d].

They do not have a raised center head like pictured above that can wear a hole in shingles. Not the cheapest screws ut worth the money being made for roofing.

 

[dhermesc]

The roofing underpayment is not plastic. It like the original tarpaper (felt) and allows the roof to breath. This is more like covering your faced bat with another layer of paper (for some reason). The sheetrock that covers your faced bat creates a bigger moister barrier. Or in this case - the shingles over the top of the tarpaper and/or underlayment is more likely to cause a mold issue than second layer of underlayment. Or even worse - a second layer of shingles.