How to install roof sheathing on a shed

Driving rain will then be able to enter the eaves of the shed, causing drips and run-off in the interior wall area. Putting drip edge over or under the roofing felt in the wrong spots can cause the OSB sheathing to swell with moisture. When the sheathing swells, this causes cracks and fractures in the roofing felt and shingles. Cracked shingles result in extensive leaks throughout the interior of the shed.

Thus, proper placement of drip edge is critical. While drip edge might seem like a simple piece of construction material, it comes in many different varieties. The type of drip edge you purchase depends on your roofing material and the shape of the roof. Your shed will also require drip edge above your door and windows, depending on their design.

The cheapest and most durable material for drip edge is galvanized steel which offers suitable protection for a shed. Galvanized means that the steel has a coating of zinc that makes your hardware less susceptible to rust. Down the road, you may see your galvanized drip edge begin to rust.

When installing drip edge on a home, most professionals choose aluminum. By far the cheapest option, vinyl drip edge is also the most likely to falter. Vinyl is not metal, but it does offer easy handling and installation. If you have vinyl siding on your shed, you can purchase a drip edge from the same manufacturer to match the siding.

Vinyl is often used in tandem with vinyl gutters, or as a drip edge retrofit of an existing shed roof. Copper is the least common, and most expensive, type of drip edge. Typically, the only time you would use copper would be to match an existing copper gutter or roofing system. While copper is durable and easy to bend, the cost makes it impractical for use on a shed. Shapes of drip edge vary, and the names can be confusing. It features an L-shaped profile.

Keeping a solid roofing layer of shingles is an important way to avoid. In order to make your roof water tight and to eliminate wind infiltration, first place tar on the bottom edge of the roof and lay a row of roofing shingles upside down all the way across the bottom of the roof.

The new metal roof will cover all the nail holes that are in the roof of the shingles. Use a chalk line to align the starter course of cedar shingles; The tarp helps protect the house and makes cleanup a whole lot easier.

Your email address will not be published. About Contact Privacy Police. How to. Toggle Navigation. Share your thoughts Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Today the most common types of sheathing are plywood or strand board. Plywood is more expensive but slightly stronger. Dimensional lumber is not used because it would be much more expensive and provides a lesser surface for nails or screws due to gaps between all the boards.

Many builders who are redoing a roof that has original dimensional lumber as a roof deck will put plywood or OSB over the top before finishing the roof with new roofing material as it is simply a more reliable substrate than many pieces of lumber on end. OSB is the better option for roof decking because it is cheaper and comes in a wider variety of larger sizes than plywood. Strand board does not react as well to moisture as plywood does, but it will have a more consistent thickness and fewer weak spots — like knots — than plywood.

If you are concerned about moisture getting into your sheathing, then plywood may be a better option. Plywood dries much faster than OSB because it is not as dense. There are usually only several layers of plywood per sheet while there are up to 50 layers of wood chips in a sheet of strand board, plus much more adhesive than a sheet of ply.

Since there are so many layers in OSB it is somewhat heavier than plywood. It takes water longer to penetrate it, but once it gets into the sheet then it takes a much longer time to dry.

A board that stays wet longer is prone to sagging, which is why strand board tends to sag over time on many homes. In that case, strand board is best instead of plywood.

When installing sheathing, use 8d roofing nails. An 8d nail is 2. If you opt to use screws, then 10 wood screws would work. Make sure they are 1. At that thickness, you can economically sheath your shed while still getting an extremely solid roof substrate that will stand the test of time.

OSB board is preferable to plywood for sheathing a shed. Battens, however, are cheaper than solid decking and totally adequate for a simple, unheated shed. Underlayment is not necessary, as mentioned above, for an unheated shed.

You can screw your metal panels directly to the surface of your sheathing. Mark it out but do not cut a hole yet. You will make your cut after the roof is installed to ensure the sheathing and metal roof panel cut align perfectly. Install the underlayment as per the instructions by the manufacturer. If you are installing edging, which is essentially flashing that works with your metal roof panels, then you should first install the eave edging. Screw the eave edging to the underside of the eave, through the lip of the flashing.

Then nail the faces with stainless steel finishing nails of the same color as your flashing. Then install your underlayment so that it covers the eave edging edge. Install the rake edging over the underlayment. It attaches in the same way as your eave edging, except that you use roofing screws to face screw the rake flashing. Ensure the eave end of the rake edging goes over the eave edging. Note that some rake edging may go over the installed metal panels, not under. In that case, install the metal panels first and the rake edging afterwards.

It depends entirely on the manufacturer of your metal roofing panel. Installing the metal roof panel depends on the type of metal roof product you have, but start at the edge and make sure your first panel overlaps the existing edging by an inch, if applicable.

The top of the metal panel should be flush or no more than an inch below the peak of the gable roof. Screw in your panels according to manufacturer directions. See above for rules about how many screws to use — our rule was 80 per square of roofing. If screwing into the rib of the metal panel, be careful to not screw too far and dent the rib and overly compress the neoprene washer.

If you have metal panels overlap at a rib you can also use metal lap screws, which connect the panels but do not go into the sheathing. These are also used for roof edging that go over metal roof rake ends.

If your metal roof product says you need mastic tape and sealant to put beneath the panel seams, then go ahead and apply. Do it slowly as the tape can be difficult to work with. Chances are your final piece of roof will need a lengthwise cut to fit the width of your shed roof. If so, a circular saw with a metal cutting blade works really well. You can also use tin snips but cutting long pieces with snips is awkward and arduous.