Nailing Sheathing On Roofs

Follow these five simple construction steps for roof sheathing and scroll down to see more details on each with installation hints and tips below.

Nailing sheathing on roofs. The critical fasteners occur at the gable framing member not necessarily at the edge of the sheathing. Roe osborn a senior editor at jlc responds. Never attach roof sheathing with staples. 8d ring shank nails should be used instead.

Nailing accuracy is crucial along this member. Roof jacks provide safe platforms on sloped roofs. A structure s roof truss spacing can vary from every 12 to 24 inches. Check the nailing surface is level.

Use 10d to 16d common nails and drive them through the roof sheathing and into the framing see the photo. Sheathing should be a minimum of 19 32 inch thick. Ventilate the roof according to current building codes. During a hurricane the strength of the sheathing on the roof can greatly impact the homes ability to weather the storm.

Properly fasten panels including fastening and spacing hints. The requirement became effective on october 1 2007. Method for maintaining a continuous load path at the roof ridge by nailing roof sheathing. The problem exists because nail sizes and spacing used to attach the sheathing to the roof s structural members rafters or trusses do not provide enough strength to keep the sheathing on.

It s true that screws have a highly effective withdrawal resistance which makes them excellent fasteners for tasks such as avoiding squeaks. The number of nails needed for a roof varies on multiple factors such as board face width length and roof truss spacing. Roof sheathing and the gable truss. Although the heads are broad roofing nails are short their shank diameters are small and their heads pop off easily.

Starting with how to place the first row of sheathing we cover fastening methods the use of h clips stagg. There is a common misconception in the building industry that screws always outperform nails when attaching wood to wood. We go in depth on how to install roof sheathing. They attach to the roof with nails but don t use roofing nails.

Keep these tips in mind when roofing in hurricane areas. The connection between the roof sheathing and the structure is a vulnerable point that is known to fail during a hurricane. Roof sheathing comes in grid marked 4 by 8 foot sheets and should be installed perpendicular to the frame. Boards used for sheathing range from those with a 4 inch face to 48 inch long plywood sheets.

The typical thickness range for sheathing is 3 8 to 3 4 inch. Can screws be used instead of nails for attaching wall sheathing to framing.