A Cautionary Tale of Coil Roofing Nails

Last year, just before the fall I went up to give the roof a quick check and I realized that there was a small leak. I decided of course to get it fixed sooner rather than later and being the way I am, I decided to do it myself. Now what I should have done here is to go and get a nail gun and some coil roofing nails so that I could do the job properly, but I felt at the time that a hammer and some loose nails that I had hanging around would do the job. Sadly however, I quickly learned that I should have done things right first time.

The Leak Begins

The first really heavy downpour started about two weeks after I fixed the roof and we could see some water coming down inside one of the bedrooms. Naturally I had to go out in the rain and try and do something about it, and it was really pelting down. I identified what I thought was the leak and managed to temporarily block the gap, but the leak continued. Thinking the worst, I went back to the place which I had intended to repair some weeks earlier and by this point I realized that the leak was bigger than in the first place.

Nail Issues

Not only had I not put enough nails into the roof I had also used nails which were too short and they had come out of the wood enough that a pool was forming in the membrane, which of course then began to leak. Again I was able to plug this gap temporarily and the next day I went back to the source of the problem.

Doing it Right

The next morning the rain had stopped and I went to the hardware store and bought some coil roofing nails and rented a nail gun. I went back to the roof and this time I did things exactly as I was supposed to and made sure that the roof was fully sealed and that it would not leak again, and I was right. Sadly however, that was not the end of the problem.

Interior

The night prior when it had been raining, before I had identified the leak, the interior to quite a hammering with water and so by the time I was able to plug the gap, the wallpaper was completely ruined. Peeling back the wallpaper I could also see that the drywall was  now ruined and not so dry and that water had also began to set into the wall cavity which of course could lead to rot. All told this cost me around $600 to fix, when all I had to do in the first place was to go and get the nail gun and some proper nails.

The moral of the story here is always look to do the job right first time, with the right tools and the correct materials.