How To Nail Roofing Felt

Roll your felt out on the roof and cut it to fit with a utility knife.

How to nail roofing felt.

Cleaning and preparing your roof 1. Clean the roof decking of any debris protruding nails or other objects. Some roofers prefer to attach felt underlayment with 1 inch roofing nails or special nails with plastic washers but most codes allow staples which are easier to drive. Nail the drip edge in place.

Grab loose pieces of felt and pull them off the roof. Using your staple gun secure the felt to the roof. Start at the bottom of the roofline and work up so any water that gets through the roofing material will shed down the tar paper and will not go under it. How to do it.

Put fasteners at least every 8 inches. Install new flashing metal flashing is often called drip edge along the bottom of the roof near your gutters. As you work the paper can be tacked down in the center so it won t blow away. Gently scrub the roof using a bristle.

An underlayment of felt roofing is optional. In roofing one square equals 100 square feet. You can install metal valley flashing but it is common to. Roll out about 10 feet of felt and fasten with staples or roofing nails with plastic washer heads.

Dry the roof surface. For the lower portion of the roof especially the part that overhangs the eaves and is susceptible to ice dams it is a good idea to apply self stick waterproof shingle underlayment wsu also called ice guard. Use 1 inch nails for new roofing. Roll the felt so that it overhangs the edge by 2 inches.

Install drip edge flashings roofing felt and wsu if needed. Let it stand for about 30 minutes and then using galvanized nails and your hammer nail down the first layer. The roofing felt should be applied in layers that overlap. They are long enough to penetrate the sheathing.

You will need 1 10 gallon of lap not mastic cement for every roll and 2 pounds of roofing nails for every square. Use a construction stapler or a hammer.