How do you fix roof nail pops?
Short answer. Lift the shingle covering the popped nail, pull the nail out, drive a new roofing nail about an inch to the side into solid decking, seal the old hole, and reseal the shingle tab. Hammering the old nail back down rarely lasts, because the same hole no longer grips.
How to spot them
A nail pop shows up as a small bump under a shingle, a tab that will not lie flat, or a nail head poking through a hole worn into the shingle above it. Pops often appear in lines where decking panels meet, and they show up most on south and west slopes that heat and cool hardest in the Georgia sun.
The repair, step by step
- Work on a cool, dry morning. Shingles in summer afternoon heat are soft and scuff easily; cold shingles crack when bent.
- Slide a flat bar under the shingle above the pop and gently break its adhesive strip.
- Pull the popped nail. If it came out with almost no effort, probe the decking for soft wood.
- Drive a new galvanized roofing nail (12 gauge with a 3/8 inch head is standard) about an inch away, inside the shingle's nailing zone, flush with the surface but not cutting into it.
- Fill the old hole with roofing sealant and put a small dab under the lifted tab to reseal it.
- If the nail head wore through the shingle above, replace that shingle or slip a piece of flashing metal under the hole. Sealant smeared over a hole fails quickly.
When pops point to a bigger issue
Dozens of pops across a roof usually mean nails too short to grip, decking that swells and shrinks with attic moisture, or poor ventilation. The building code calls for roofing nails to penetrate at least 3/4 inch into the decking or all the way through it. If pops are everywhere, repairs turn into a treadmill; read about ventilation and roof decking before paying for round after round of fixes.