Exposed Nails In Roof Eave

How are you going to deal with exposed nails in your roof eave? It's not uncommon to see these on homes all over the United States. Sometimes you will see longer nails, and in a situation like the picture above, the nails aren't sticking through very far. It could be worse.

First let's look at the cause, of the exposed nails in your roof eave. Why are these nail sticking through? In a situation like the picture above, it's hard to tell, why there is only a small group of nails, instead of , lots of nails sticking through the entire roof overhang.

The nails are sticking through, simply because someone used nails that were too long. A smaller nail, wouldn't be sticking through. An experienced roofer, will visually inspect the roof overhangs, to make sure that there aren't any nails sticking through.

Home Repair Tip: You can cut the nail tips off that are exposed and this can be done with nail cutters or a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting saw blade.

I don't advise bending the exposed nails over or tapping them back through the wood. When you bend the nails over, they will be difficult to remove, when the time comes to remove the old roofing and replace it.

Tapping the nails back up, will usually damage the roofing materials. The only time that there will be structural damage to the house, is when every nail that is used to attach the roof shingles, is sticking through the plywood or other wood sheeting.

Most of the time, when a nails are exposed in the roof overhang, the damage is cosmetic and will rarely affect the structural strength of the home. In other words, it simply looks bad.