Gurus:
I had a new roof installed after tearing off the old one. The nail points are protruding (nearly 1/4") through the underside of the deck, in the attic. That could be a safety issue in areas that we use for storage. I sure wouldn't want to come up between the rafters and slice open my head on a sharp nail!
If I wanted to remedy the situation in some high-traffic areas, would it be possble to cut the points off with some sort of snips, or do you have a better idea?
Hit them with a shot of expanding foam or press a sheet of 1/2 inch styrofoam onto the nails.
This is an excellent suggestion.
No to snipping them off.
And just FYI, your MFG. warranty would be void if the nails did not come through the roof decking. I think 1/8" minimum is the normal spec. Though I am sure they will do their best to void it anyway if you have a problem.
Colbyt
A little foam here and there is no problem but don't get carried away. If you insulate too much of the underside of your roof deck you could have ice thaw related problems like ice damming because these areas will be at different temperatures than the rest of the roof and the attic airspace.
You would loose a little headroom but you could put sheets of thin plywood or pegboard from rafter to rafter and maintain full airflow over the underside of the roof deck.
You could just keep a helmet up there.
Wear a hard hat.
Andy suggests:
The underside of the roof deck needs to be exposed to air in order to
allow moisture to dry out. There are two sources of moisture -- 1) from any small leaks that can soak the wood (and which you will never see since it will quickly dry out) and 2) condensation on the inside of the attic which may take place as a result of temp differences on the inside and outside of the roof...
You need to have air circulation. Wood rots really well when wet, and lasts forever if kept dry....
One approach would be to buy the 4x8 sheets of foil backed styrofoam for about $6 a sheet, and nail them to the roof trusses, which are 2x4 or 2x6, usually, in those areas where you are worried about banging your head. That will give you about 4 inches or so of air which is free to move between the roof deck and the bottom of the support beams, and is strong enough to save your noggin.
Just a suggestion. There may be cheaper ways to accomplish the same thing, but the air circulation under the roof deck is important.
Andy
Corks from empty wine bottles. Just stick them on the protruding nails. Good excuse for drinking a lot of wine. Any vintage will do :-)
Staple hardware cloth across the rafters.
But all my wine bottles use screw caps, and the nail pokes right through. Bummer that...
Vintage last week?
That's how you tell a good wine from a cheap one -- by the screw cap instead of those cheap corky things. --
As a simple suggestion or two got very close to this, I will add another way to "safety"things up. If it's a high traffic area, the best thing to do is cover it up so you won;t come in contact with the nails. My suggestion is pretty simple and is fairly cheap too.
Buy some 3/16 plywood or paneling, and nail it up in 2 foot strips with spaces between them so the air above will not be cut off from circulation. Nail to underside of rafters. leaving the space between the roof decking and the ply/paneling. If you just need it for a specific area, you shouldn't have to use much. leave a 4 inch space between the 2 foot strips so it can breathe, yet your head won't go up high enough to damage your skull. As it was stated in other posts, do not cut off circulation of the air through the attic.
I have often found plenty of small pieces of very thin plywood in shipping dock/warehouse dumpsters for the taking. Large enough pieces to do just what I suggested above.
Good luck.
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MUADIB®
Buy corks. They come in all sizes and are very inexpensive if you don't get the wine accessory ;>
Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!
Sounds like you have a working attic not a storage attic.
Meaning, that your attic is probly not suited for normal personel entry. I moved into my house and the previous owners thought out attic was a storage attic. Took me a few buck to repair all the damaged. They thought walking around on rafters and crushing insulation was a good thing. Besides my attic gets up to 150 in summertime, why would you store anything there?
Is your attic designed for personel entry?
tom
Hello Tom,
Bereschuim can help!!!
Use a dremel. A dremel is a hand held rotary tool.
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