OT: Corrugated Roof Help

[Charles McKinley]

The wonderful roofer for the garage I bought put the nails in the valleys and coated them with cheap tar that is now cracked and leaking.

What is the best prouduct to seal the nails?

Thanks:confused:

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

With the nails in the wrong location for that type of roofing material, you have a problem on your hands. The best you could do at this point is to remove the Roofing Cement that is now sealing the nails, and try another sealant. Pure Silicone Caulk, of a good quality like GE, may seal better in the short term. In the long run, because the roofing material will expand and contract with temperaure changes, you may well have a reoccuring leaking problem. For long term peace of mind, and a dry interior, you may have to replace the Corrugated Sheeting and fasten it properly, on the ridges, like should have been done in the first place. I have seen roofs like this incorrectly fastened in this manner, and they are nightmare to keep from leaking. Maybe someone else has some ideas.................I hope so, it would be nice not to have to replace the roof sheeting because of someones ineptitude. Good Luck, I hope whatever you decided to try solves the problem.

[Paul Kunkel]

get some 2" Propanel screws-the ones with the heavy rubber washer. Should last a long time. Scrape the area clean after removing the nails YMMV but it has worked for me.:D

[Rob Glynn]

Just a thought.
If the sheets are all the same length, take them off, turn them over and the holes will be where they should be.
Depending on the design of your garage, it may work and may solve the problem forever.

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

I vote for screws with rubber washers always on corrugated sheet metal (In the Ridges). Purlins and trusses warp, twist etc and will pull nails loose. I eat breakfast (every day) with a family of roofers that think all metal roofs will leak. That said, they swear by screws and use them.
I've used a lot of new and used corrugated metal.

Try this:

Pull the nails from the valleys, silicone the holes and screw the ridges.
OR: Screw the same holes and seal.
OR: Try flipping the panels as suggested above. Great idea! !


What ever you do, use screws. Also, when buying corrugated roofing always specify 26 guage, the heavier stuff. I buy my screws at a poultry supply for, I think, $18 per thousand in a plastic bag (might be 500). Your local farm supply might be a source.

This photo is my deck and porch roof on the Harley shed. The porch roof is used sheet iron with the old holes siliconed. We held each sheet up to the daylight to find the holes. It's 2 years old and doesn't leak,......... yet.

[Steve Clardy]

with rubber sealed screws. I did mine that way, same problem. Cannot understand why some put the nails in the flats. Thats where the tin shrinks and expands. I think tin needs to come with instructions for some of these goofy contractors. Steve

[Charles McKinley]

I wish it was sheet metal. It is some kind of composit material. I'm not sure how well it will survive pulling the nails. I'll give it a try and if it breaks I'll just goo it for now and re-roof next year. We just bought the house last August. The house is about 5 years old and the garge with the problems is newer. What really gets me is the older part of the garage has the same material and is done properly! This was the builders home. Over all we are pleased with it. The little stuff will never end.

Thanks for the ideas.


When all else fails increase hammer size!

[Bob Nazro]

This sounds like Ondura. It's an asphalt based product. The best fix for this is to get the Ondura coated nails. They have a rubber washer on them and renail the panels correctly from the top of the panel. Then you need to pull the old nails out. Place a 2x2 in the ridge and pull against the wood. The Ondura will tear if you don't. Once all of the nails are out you can use an asplalt patch to fill the holes. A little bit smoothed over the hole is better that a lot. You don't want to create any dams to hold the water. This is a lot of work, but I'v had Ondura on 2 of my barns for many years and had a branch fall about ten years ago and the asplalt patch is still holding. Also when you work on the roof use a couple sheets of plywood 2'x3' to support you on the roof, otherwise you will crease or collapse the ridges.

The problem with trying sealants on the nails in the ridge is that most are not compatable with the ashphalt and the seal is broken after a few hot days. Even silicone seperates from the asphalt.

Good luck.

[larry merlau]

Do you have problems with roofing or you are looking for new one? siding contractor philadelphia (http://northeastunion.com/CommercialRoofing
) may help you

and i dont thinik your supposed to be plugging yourself for some work.

[Steve Clardy]

Get em Larry. Strange he's digging up two year old threads!!

[Jim Becker]

I reported this as SPAM and it will hopefully be taken care of by one of the moderators who has access to this forum.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Guys,

I Fixed the junky Ondura (avoid this stuff like the plague!) with a product called Kool Seal. It is a fiber reinforced asphalt. I put down a layer of the Kool Seal then put down a layer of fiberglass mesh made for the Kool Seal then more Kool Seal. It has held so far. Some day it will be replaced with steel.

Oh Siding SEO, I'm about as far from Philthy as you can get and still be in PA. By the way there sre several violations of the trems of service: no real name and direct link to your own site for starters.

[Ken Kimbrell]

Get em Larry. Strange he's digging up two year old threads!!
LOL!!! And here I thought this was a new thread!<O:p</O:p

Well, in case anyone still has an interest in the subject let me cast a vote for rubber sealed screws.

<O:p</O:pFrom first hand experience I can say that they not only seal better than nails, but they also withstand high winds a lot better than nails. As it happens we had some tornado winds at our FL home about 7-8 years ago and our 30x40 pole-barn took heavy damage to the corrugated sheet metal roofing. To repair the damage it was necessary to remove all the metal, repair/replace the wood then reinstall the metal with about 40% new metal… I did the reinstall using rubber sealed screws.

<O:p</O:pFast forward to 8/13/2004… when Hurricane Charley (http://www.mykimbrell.com/hurricane_charley.htm) came to call! We had some damage to the barn siding, but the roof had no damage except for one panel that had one little corner lifted up, (I pushed it back down and put one more screw in it).

<O:p</O:pOh, and how bad was it??? We caught the eye, 145-150mph sideways, that was bad enough for us.
My heart goes out to all those folks in the Gulf Coast areas these past couple of days, you can not imagine how it is for them unless you have been through one, the news folks try to tell you about it, but they can’t even come close.<O:p</O:p

[Vaughn McMillan]

Hi Guys,

...
Oh Siding SEO, I'm about as far from Philthy as you can get and still be in PA. By the way there sre several violations of the trems of service: no real name and direct link to your own site for starters.
Apparently "Siding SEO" is a real class act - the website link he gave is non-op. (As if he didn't already have enough PR problems here, LOL.) :p

- Vaughn