Why roofing fasteners are a big deal and three important installation techniques we do on every job.

At Ernie Smith & Sons we hand-nail all our roofs without exception.

Air guns are fine for installing sheathing and framing homes, but composite shingles are quite malleable and easily manhandled by powerful pneumatic tools. Fasteners can be overdriven when shingles heat up and the opposite occurs when temperatures outside are cool (even from morning to afternoon). Adjusting for air flow and pressure is only minimally helpful.

We install six nails per shingle on all our roofs, no matter where you live. 

Not all cities and counties near the Gulf Coast are considered high wind areas and therefore only minimal fastening is required. However, hurricane force winds can easily extend as far inland as Harris County, so we follow high wind application guidelines as designated by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) for every roof we install.

At Ernie Smith & Sons we not only insist on hand-nailing our roofs but we also use exclusively ‘hot-dipped’ galvanized roofing nails.

The vast majority of roofing companies use less expensive electro-galvanized nails which have a much thinner and more precise coating of zinc. Hot-dipped nails are actually dipped in molten zinc and provide superior resistance to rust from salt air and also from capillary retention of moisture so problematic on sloped roofs.