Nails Or Staples For Roofing Shingles

When properly installed a staple grabs and holds more material than the small head nail could ever hope to.

Nails or staples for roofing shingles.

As we state in our companion article asphalt shingle installation best practices the preferred fastener is galvanized roofing nails with a minimum 12 gauge shank and head diameter of at least 3 8 inch. Of force per staple. They are an accepted fastener by shingle manufacturers such as sbc and maibec. However always consult your local building authority for exact code requirements.

Although staples are allowed in some jurisdictions they do not provide the same holding power. Owens corning requires using either galvanized steel stainless steel or aluminum nails to affix shingles. In the past roofers preferred staple guns for attaching shingles to roof sheeting. The international building code requires that roofing nails have a minimum 12 gauge shank and a 3 8 inch diameter head.

3 4 staples pull out with 5 10 lbs. For one staples cost less than nails adding to their profit per roof. Roofing nails staples. Some of our results were as follows.

When estimating nail or staple usage for your roofing project you should budget 400 nails or staples per square. 5 8 staples which penetrate only 1 4 can pull out with as little as 1 lb. Staples also offered excellent holding strength and could be installed over a larger roof area quickly. Breaking it down further you ll typically use four fasteners per 3 tab shingle.