Install Roof Jack
Klaudia Aricas
If I have a four inch PVC pipe penetrating my house roof, someone told me that a plumber had invented a roof jack that is installed from inside the attic. Does this exist, and is it as weather tight as the ordinary roof jack installed from the outside?
Some guys say the Kozy Kollars are o.k. and some can't stand them, I have a hard time trusting them after looking at there design. In the winter you still must go on the roof and clear the snow and ice off the shingles so you get the proper seal, if you must do that you might as well use a real flashing.
I see what you mean. The surface has to be cleared completely so the install has high integrity. This would mean clearing snow, ice, or even moss so you had a clean surface. Once that is done, then the rest of the install can be done from the inside.
Hello to all fellow plumbers,
in regards to the kozy kollar here in new england very few plumbers do not use the kozy kollar,
there are some projects with hundreds of them installed. the company i work for buys cases of them. on snowy roofs after cutting the hole all you need to do is clear a 2" lip around the hole with a rag and install the flange, we virtually never have a problem with them and never take out the extension ladders anymore. the heating contactors use them on their attic furnaces for exhaust and make up air, and the radon companys use them for radon mitigation. im really surprised to read this in the forum, i guess the kozy kollar might not advertise that far outside new england.
Space the jacks about 6 ft. to 8 ft. apart horizontally. Plan the jack positions so that one falls within 1 ft. of the ends of your staging planks. Also think ahead to avoid placing jacks where the joints between shingles and cutout slots will occur in the course immediately above.
Roof jacks have a long attachment strap with three or four teardrop-shaped holes or diagonal slots to drive nails into. The shape of the holes or slots permits you to remove the jacks later without removing the nails: Just tap the jack upward and the nail heads will be released. To permit the jacks to slide upward during removal, be sure to let them hang low enough when you install them; otherwise the plank support leg will bruise the butt edge of the shingle.
The backs of the triangular-shaped jacks will rest on the exposure portion of the shingle course beneath. With all the motion the jacks will absorb as you walk on the planks set on them, the backs can dig into or scuff the granules on the shingle surface, or worse they can cut through the shingles. For protection, place a piece of scrap shingle between the back of each roof jack and the roof shingle. You can also use pieces of wood-siding shingles as a cushion.
You hook the jacks on roofing nails in (or above) the top row of shingles, then you just shingle over them. Once you are done with the jack, you slide the jack up & over so it is no longer hooked & leave them there. The shingles cover the nails.
Maybe you use roofing nails. But since having them fail, I use 8d and try to hit a rafter. Watching your tools, watch, het, etc. tumble slow motion for 26' while you balance precariously on the very end of the staging plank that just happened to catch you initiates a review of jack fastening practices.
Yes, you should use all three slots. (Pro-quality jacks usually have four slots.) And make sure that you nail through the sheathing into the rafters or trusses. (If you're on 2x6 roof-decking, don't worry about hitting the rafters; the sheathing is solid enough.)
To install a roof jack, you fold back a shingle carefully so as not to crack it, then nail the jack on through the shingle in the next course down, through sheathing, and into the rafter. Then you smack the jack down-slope to seat it solidly on the nails, and let the upper shingle lie back over the tongue. Install the plank and nail it into each jack through the hole made for that.
When you're done and you want to remove it, remove the planks, then drive the jack upslope with your hammer until it slips off the nails, then lift the shingle carefully again and swat down the nails flush. You can daub the heads with pitch, but it's not necessary as the shingles in the next course will lie over them.
Use the width of plank the jacks are designed for; some use a 2x6 and some use a 2x8. Use rough-cut planks if you can get them; the extra grip you'll get under your foot won't be bad to have and they are thicker hence more solid.
Place jacks at least every 6 feet laterally, to limit the unsupported span on the planks. Place rows of planking vertically so that you're comfortable working. If you're 6'4", you won't need as many rows up the roof as if you are 5'1"....
Remember roof jacks are not designed to hold the weight of a pallet of shingles. Do not load more than a few (5 or 6 max) packs of shingles at a time onto a single run of jacks or you will be looking for serious trouble.
Have enough roof jacks to be able to set up two full-width runs of planks at a time, plus 3 extras. This will make staging your way up the roof a lot easier as you won't find yourself standing on nothing while you remove jacks to re-stage further upslope.
If you are not going to erect pipe scaffolding all along the eaves edge of the roof--I highly recommend that you do--leave one run of jacks and planks set up down near the eaves to catch you or any tools/whatever that get away and slide down the roof.
Like mike4244, I never use roofing nails for this. The heads are just too weak.
Anybody can become angry - that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everyone's power and is not easy. [Aristotle]
Yes, the heads on roofers are thinner than those on commons or sinkers. But a strong head won't do you much good when it slips right through the slot on the jack. Maybe your jacks have narrower slots than mine, but I can lift a jack straight off a common nail by just wiggling it slightly.
Once there's downward pressure on the jacks, I don't see how they could slip over the nail head. It generally takes a fairly good wack to slide the things back uphill and wiggle them off the nails.
Beer nuts are about a dollar, and deer nuts are under a buck.
in both cases the jacks were installed by someone else.. now .. we don't go on roofs unless we install the jacks... too many people using roofing nails, or nailing into the sheathing , or using 8d nails
in the one case, the homeowner who installed them went down with the plank, fell into the foundation area for his new addition and broke his leg... he was lucky.. as he also fell right between two pieces of rebar sticking up 3 feet
Wow, all the time I worked as a framing carpenter and we did roofing, we just used one 16d nail per jack! Never had a problem. Guess we were lucky! If you use all the slots though, how can you bend the shingle up enough to nail them all home when you're done?
Sorry this photo is outta focus; too much light in the shop to use a flash; to little not to, dagnab it. That's the pro-model jack I use on steep roofs; if you look carefully you can see that each slot is enlarged at the end, which is why the heads on commons fall through. But it's got four slots instead of three; every second slot is staggered so all the nails don't go into the same line on the stud and split it, and it's made for a 2x6. The spec sticker on it calls for one jack every four feet, but I'm a skinny-arsed bastid so I cheat and go to one in six....
Not different enough to persuade me to take that kind of a chance. I have rolled a jack right off the common nails one of my boys used by mistake one day. Good thing I wasn't standing on it while it happened.
Maybe I'll get ambitious sometime this winter and drag all 45 jacks down into the shop and braze over the loops in the ends of the slots and then grind 'em down flat and re-drill 'em to fit commons. In the meantime, I'll stick to roofers as they've been working for me for 10 years without a single incident.
Do you know the heads can pop off of roofing nails when they are drawn up tight against the steel of a roof jack? I have some roof jacks designed for 8 to 16d nails. You would never be able to release them if you used roofing nails. It is a keyhole tab instead of an open ended slot
I guess mine were designed for roofing nails. You can see how a 16d will roll right out of the enlarged hole in the upper end of the slot. (An 8d will drive right through it in a straight line.) If I want to use commons with those roof jacks, I would have to use 4" spikes, which would mean putting an awful lot of fat metal into a pretty small area in a rafter....
There are only two sorts of roof jacks on the shelf up here; the ones I showed in my pix, and a DIY-grade made by Superspike, which has three slots, is made of much thinner steel, and only comes in 12/12 for 2x8. I have four of those, left over from many years ago. I don't use them very often. The yellow ones I use are available in two fixed pitches or in an adjustable model with four pitches. I can't remember the name of the Mfgr offhand....
I am aware that the heads can be pried off new roofers; it happens every once in a while when I try to pull a long one out of dry timber with a hammer. But it takes a fair amount of force to do it, even so. And a roofing jack can't put anywhere near the leverage on the nails holding it in place that a long-handled framing hammer can. It would require the planks to be grossly overloaded, so much so that the shafts of all four nails started to bend down and transfer the load to the heads.
Funny, the older roofing nails seemed to have a more resistant head on them than the stuff I get nowadays. I've never popped the head off a nail when stripping an old roof. They were dipped, too, instead of electrogalvanized....
un-freakin'-believeable!We'll haveto put this one down to regional differences and say that you Canadians get better nails than we do. I have torn off roofs where a third of the nail heads popped under the spade.I do see that your jacks have a wider slot than any I have ever seen. I have six old steel jacks that must be what were called slaters jacks earlier. They have adjustable angles, hold a 2x10 plank, and have cross wings welded at the bottom to keep them from tiolting so as to pull out a nail.But the failure i refer to is , i think, caused when driving the head of the roofer tight against the hard steel at the slot. A good whack can propel the shaft ofd the nail deep into the wood, while the head is restrained by the steel surronding the slot, causing the fracture that may not be apparant immediately.I also have oak and metal combo jacks that are common here. They have the pattern that denies me use of roofers, butr the metal is also softer and more maleable, so it would deform and follow a nail when whacked too hard. After much use, most of them have divots surronding the nail head so it nestles in nicely.
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