Nail gun or hammer? Roofing project starts in a few days.

BruceH

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The weather and work schedule have finally aligned so that I can start to reshingle my house.

I think I can do it alright with a hammer but I'm wondering how much of a difference a nailer would make? Putting about 23 squares down. Have a week to do it but would really like to be done sooner. I'm thinking that 1 square an hour with a hammer should be a pretty relaxed pace and only take a few days. Actually, I think I should be able to go faster provided there aren't any big issues but even at 1 square an hour it should be doable in a few days. That would be 60 shingles and 240 nails per hour.

How much difference does a good nailer make? I already have a compressor that would work. I'm thinking that setting the compressor up, dealing with air lines, loading the nailer, etc. would subtract from the time savings of using a nailer since I'm doing it myself without a helper. But, I don't have a reference for this thought.
 

skwerl

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I'll go ahead and post here the highlights of what I said via PM.

I think a nailer is your best option. Trying to nail a roof manually will take 4x as long.
Pick up a half decent, name brand nailer rather than a cheap POS from HF. Either buy a new one or look for something with low hours on Craigslist, avoid the worn out pawnshop deals. Once finished you can recoup some dollars selling it on Craigslist.
Find a commercial supply house to buy your nails. A case of nails will cost about half (or less) of Home Depot's price.

Also, I highly recommend using the 'peel and stick' underlayment rather than tar paper. Once you account for paper overlap, the cost difference is negligible. The peel and stick will weld itself together into one continuous solid membrane covering your entire roof and will never leak. You will probably get a lower homeowner's insurance rate also.
 

Phil1098

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Bruce, I have done dozens of roofs, I wouldn't even consider doing it without a nailer. Hopefully you have a helper, if so the foot on the nailer is your reveal guide, the helper uses a roofing hatchet and you can go to town. Bostich makes a decent nailer and you can usually find 1 1/4" coil roofing nails on sale at Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, etc.
 

irishpwr46

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does the local home depot rent tools? if so, rent a nailer if youre not 100% about buying one
 

BruceH

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Started today. So far I'm only using the hammer. I'll start with the nail gun once I can face uphill. Leaning downhill on the first few rows is making me stick with the hammer.

Bought the nail gun today, along with a case of 7200 coil nails and some extra hose. I've only fired enough nails to figure out the depth setting and minimum psi needed. No misfires but only 5 nails fired into a piece of wood. Once I have room to move I'll start with the nailgun. I figure 6 rows of shingles will give me enough room to maneuver while facing uphill without fear of accidentally stepping off the edge.

Damn, that roof is hot when the sun is out. I swear that the northern latitudes get a more intense sun in the summer. The outside temps weren't that hot but it was hot on that roof when the wind was calm. Hot enough that my pants collected lots of melted asphalt from the old roof. Yes, I'm going over the existing roof. I examined all of my options, the pros and cons of each and decided to go this route. The city requires a building permit for more than a 10 square tear off, all of my neighbors have had their roofs done as a reshingle without issue, disposing of the old shingles is a hassle, and I won't have enough clear weather to do a tear off by myself. I have one area where I will need to cut out some damaged wood (2x2 ft.) but other than that the sheathing is in good shape. If I'm still in the house when these shingles are done then I'll have to pay someone to do a tear off.
 

Phil1098

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Realize that you have zero warranty when you don't do a tear off. It's in the fine print on the shingle bags. I got to the point I could feel the difference in the shingles when a cloud blocked the sun for a minute.
 

BruceH

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Realize that you have zero warranty when you don't do a tear off. It's in the fine print on the shingle bags. I got to the point I could feel the difference in the shingles when a cloud blocked the sun for a minute.

I weighed the pros and cons. If I've made a bad decision then I'm responsible. I haven't known anyone to have issues with a reshingle. It was common practice when I was growing up except back then you could do 2 of them, now it's only 1.

FWIW yesterday ended up with thundershowers. Clouds started to build quickly, the wind picked up and I just got all the tools off of the roof about 5 minutes before the thunder started.

Got a chance to use the nailer, it's definitely faster than the hammer. Only shot a little over one coil through it before the storm came. Still toying with the pressure regulator and depth setting to get the nail set just right. Even if it never set the nails correctly it would still be faster. I'm taking the adjustment slowly because I don't want to blow through the shingles. I also think that my technique isn't very consistent, I'm still getting the hang of it.

It's been raining all day today, the weather forecast was for a week of good weather when I planned all of this, now it's supposed to be nice for at least tomorrow through Thursday. All I can do right now is wait, I hate waiting.
 

Badd GT

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you'll be ok with the shingleover. Your detail oriented, mechanically inclined, and know how to use google. Shingleing is dirty, hard work but not complicated. I hate being on roofs once your over 8/12 pitch, thats when your knees let you know how old you are!
 

5tangiac.0

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I work in the commercial roofing industry. Flat roofs are nice!


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Phil1098

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you'll be ok with the shingleover. Your detail oriented, mechanically inclined, and know how to use google. Shingleing is dirty, hard work but not complicated. I hate being on roofs once your over 8/12 pitch, thats when your knees let you know how old you are!

Now I know I'm really getting old, I won't walk anything steeper than a 6/12. I can walk a 7/12, just too easy to slip for this old guy.
 

Shok

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I work in the commercial roofing industry. Flat roofs are nice!


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I have a house with a flat roof and it's been a PITA, sure part of it is due to previous owners work, but not all of it. What do you think of elastomeric coatings?
 

BruceH

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you'll be ok with the shingleover. Your detail oriented, mechanically inclined, and know how to use google. Shingleing is dirty, hard work but not complicated. I hate being on roofs once your over 8/12 pitch, thats when your knees let you know how old you are!



Thanks for the confidence boost! My roof is 4/12, it's a rambler. Not too difficult to walk.

I did buy the HF nailer. So far so good. I have about 7 squares down right now. I think I've had 4 jams and a couple of misfeeds. I attribute the jams to the coil nails, any little thing can affect them.

So far so good, vents and flashing are slowing me down some. Since I don't do this all the time I have to think about what I'm trying to accomplish with the vent covers, etc. I have the old setups to use for a reference but even then I have to give it some thought.

Tomorrow should get me to the part that needs to be cut out. I think the bad wood doesn't go past about 1ft x 1ft, my plan is to cut between the rafters and add braces for the replacement wood. I have a 2ft x 2ft piece of osb ready to go in. After that the next big deal will be flashing around the skylight. I only have two valleys to contend with. Still undecided between flashing them or just using shingles and cutting one side back.

It is hard and dirty work. It would be a whole lot easier if I was 30 years younger and 40 lbs lighter, but I'm not.
 

skwerl

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Old guys rock! Just keep plugging away and outsmart it instead of out muscling it. One of the benefits of getting old is that there is usually very little we are not capable of figuring out and handling ourselves.
 

5tangiac.0

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I have a house with a flat roof and it's been a PITA, sure part of it is due to previous owners work, but not all of it. What do you think of elastomeric coatings?



They're ok if done right and the roof has a good slope to it to get the water off quickly. From my experience roofs tend to have issues with coatings if they pond water. If I had a flat roof I would probably use TPO. Your not gonna have a lot of foot traffic on your house so that minimizes chances of holes getting poked through the membrane.


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Badd GT

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Old guys rock! Just keep plugging away and outsmart it instead of out muscling it. One of the benefits of getting old is that there is usually very little we are not capable of figuring out and handling ourselves.

Well said!!
 

BruceH

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Old guys rock! Just keep plugging away and outsmart it instead of out muscling it. One of the benefits of getting old is that there is usually very little we are not capable of figuring out and handling ourselves.


Almost done. All of the difficult stuff is done. Replaced the bad osb, got the skylight flashing done, valleys are done. Just have to lay about 5 squares and replace 8 roof vents. All easy peasy compared to the above things.

Used Ice and Water barrier in the valleys and around the skylight. That stuff is a major pain to work with, once it sticks to itself it's useless. I threw away about 15 feet of it that got stuck together. It would of been easier if I could of figured out the "ripcord" that supposedly splits the backing and allows for half to be stuck down at a time. Couldn't find it, if it's there it's just not what I was expecting or looking for.

I am sore. All the squatting, getting up, repeat, etc. is making my 50 year old legs tired and sore. I've decided to not work on the roof tomorrow just to make sure I won't be to bad off for work on Monday. My normal work day involves about 10 miles of walking, I wouldn't be able to do it if I'm as sore as I was getting up today.

The nailer keeps getting better with use. Thanks again for the suggestion, it really has made a difference.
 

BruceH

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All done with the nailing. Used all of the 7200 coil nails that came in the box except for 2 and half coils. Ended up using 24+ squares of shingles.

The nailer is now running great. All totaled there were 6 jams during the whole project. All of them happened during the first half. Once it was broken in there weren't many issues. How long the nailer would last I will probably never know because I don't plan on doing this again.

It really feels good to have it all done. A pic of the nailer for anyone who might be interested. I saw a similar looking nail gun at HD but it was over twice the price and labeled "Milwaukee". I have no way of knowing if they are indeed the same but even the loading gate catch was the same. I am glad it worked as well as it did. $99 + I had a 20% off coupon so with tax it was still under $90. HF has a 90 day return policy. If it turned out to be junk I was prepared to return it and pick up a Hitachi (Lowes had the Hitachi in stock and I came close to picking it up right from the start). It was a gamble, I've had good and bad from HF in the past.

 

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