There are two key differences between the two techniques of hand-nailing and air gun nailing. The main differences between the two installation methods are the placement of the nail and the pressure in which the nail is driven.
The placement of the nail is a crucial element when installing a roof. Hand driving nails into shingles allows the roofing contractor to place the nail on the proper nail line and then drive the nail in, ensuring the correct placement every time.
Placing the nail correctly with an air gun can be hard without experience. The nail placement is limited to an exceedingly small area on the shingle. Placing a nail outside of this area causes problems, such as not hitting wood below leading to significant issues in the future and the possibility of voiding the manufacturer’s warranty because of premature roof failure.
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The Importance of Applying the Correct Pressure
Applying the correct amount of pressure is just as important as the placement of the nail. Not applying enough pressure during installation will leave the nails too high causing a rise in the shingle above it. This can lead to wind getting under the shingles, potentially lifting, or blowing off shingles.
Over time, the nails can rub through the top shingle causing a nail to pop through leading to leaks or worse.
While too much pressure leads to nails being “over-driven” or blown too deep, potentially causing a “domino effect” of shingles to slide down the roof or single blow offs because of improper pressure settings of the nail gun.
The importance of hand nailing is the installers can feel the pressure while nailing. Because of this, it is not as common to have nails that have been over-driven when hand nailing.
This is especially useful when installing shingles over the roof’s decking because nails are hitting between the wood without hitting anything solid. The installer who is hand nailing can feel when this happens and make corrections as they go.
How is the Correct Pressure Measured?
While the hand nailing technique allows the installers to feel and have control when hammering nails, air guns do not have the same feeling. The pressure of the air gun is controlled by an air compressor that stays on the ground during installation.
The pressure of the air gun MUST be adjusted often to keep the correct level of pressure suited to the conditions the roofer is working in, such as weather conditions, wood variations, shingle type, and more. This means that the roofer must get off the roof to adjust the pressure on the compressor for the different conditions.
Unfortunately, most roofing contractors set the compressor way too high to save themselves from having to get up and down from the roof. The problem with oversetting the pressure is the nails will at times blow through the backing of the shingles, leading to leaks and more problems down the road.
Hand nailing has become a lost art as it is time consuming, labor intensive and more expensive. With Premier South, feel confident in knowing we choose consistent, quality craftsmanship above all.
Why We Hand-Nail
At Premier South Roofing, we hand-nail every single roof because we value quality craftsmanship which is why we only offer a hand nailed roof. We pride ourselves on doing things the right way, the first time.
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