How To Use Roof Jacks For Shingling

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Setting Up Roof Jacks

Working from roof brackets and staging planks is the safest and most efficient way to shingle a pitched roof.

Install the roof subclass past driving 10d to 16d nails through the holes in the bottom strap of the bracket, through the top lap of the shingle, and into the solid roof framing beneath the sheathing.

Roof jacks provide rubber platforms on sloped roofs. They attach to the roof with nails, simply don't employ roofing nails; although the heads are broad, roofing nails are brusk, their shank diameters are small, and their heads popular off easily. Employ 10d to 16d common nails and drive them through the roof sheathing and into the framing (run into the photo). Don't rely on nails driven simply into the roof capsule considering they're likely to pull out.

Space the jacks about 6 ft. to eight ft. apart horizontally. Programme the jack positions and so that 1 falls within 1 ft. of the ends of your staging planks. Also think alee to avoid placing jacks where the joints between shingles and cutout slots will occur in the course immediately above.

Roof jacks have a long attachment strap with three or four teardrop-shaped holes or diagonal slots to bulldoze nails into. The shape of the holes or slots permits you to remove the jacks later on without removing the nails: Just tap the jack upward and the nail heads volition be released. To allow the jacks to slide upward during removal, be sure to let them hang low plenty when y'all install them; otherwise the plank support leg will bruise the butt edge of the shingle.

The backs of the triangular-shaped jacks will rest on the exposure portion of the shingle course below. With all the motion the jacks will absorb as you walk on the planks attack them, the backs tin dig into or scuff the granules on the shingle surface, or worse they can cut through the shingles. For protection, place a piece of flake shingle between the dorsum of each roof jack and the roof shingle. Y'all can also use pieces of wood-siding shingles as a cushion.

Apply 2 courses of shingles above the roof brackets before laying staging planks across them.

Protect the shingle surface beneath the roof bracket by slipping a scrap piece of shingle betwixt the bracket and the roof.

One time you have a row of roof jacks in identify and two courses of shingles practical to a higher place them, carefully lay staging planks, non dimensional lumber, across the roof jacks. Full-cut two×8 or two×10 planks fit roof-jack support artillery pretty well. As you lay the planks, exist certain you don't slam them in place because you may pull the nails out of the jacks. Overlap the ends of the planks by 1 ft. to 2 ft., making certain the lap occurs over a roof jack. To hold the planks fast, drive nails through the holes in the turned-upwardly ends of the support arms and into the edges of the staging planks.

THINKING Alee: As you feel yourself getting shut to your vertical reach limit when shingling, install a row of roof jacks and apply two more courses of shingles above the jacks. This mode you lot won't accept to bend into an awkward position when y'all first working on the next level in a higher place. You'll start working 1 ft. in a higher place the plank.

Setting Upwards Jacks effectually Shingles

Sometimes you'll realize that you forgot to install a row of roof jacks and you've exceeded your reach limit. You can still install the jacks below shingles that are already installed. Do this past lifting the exposure portion of the shingle where you want a jack, sliding the leg beneath, and carefully driving nails through the holes. It may take an extra set of hands to hold the shingle upward while you lot concur the jack and drive the nails. Be careful non to hit the upturned shingle butt when swinging the hammer.

In cold atmospheric condition, shingles won't curve up without neat. In this case, you may be forced to drive nails through the face of shingles to attach roof jacks. Earlier doing this, place shingle scrap below the jack-nailing holes to protect the shingle beneath. When you remove the roof jacks, pull the nails and slide a slice of metallic flashing coated with roof cement beneath the shingle under the holes. Apply small-scale dabs of cement to each pigsty on the shingle exposure, then scrape off color granules from a fleck shingle and press them into the cement. This will seal and hide the impairment the roof-jack nails caused.

WORK SMART: Be aware that your toes, tools, and materials stacked on the staging planks can easily bruise the surface of the shingles directly behind the planks. As yous walk along the planks, they will flex. Anything touching the shingle surface tin abrade it as the planks movement upward and down. The problem is worse in warm weather when shingles soften.

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