Toe boards have been used forever. Just in case you don’t know what a toe board is in the roofing world these are
Yes toe board holes are this small!
typically 2x4s that are nailed on top of the shingles to give the roofer support on steep pitches.
These toe boards are clearly a safety devices. No toe board – No Roofer. Without this support the roofer slides right off the roof. It may not happen today or next year but eventually one roofer is going to slip without the help of this support board.
Simple enough – toe boards are must! If you are roofing in Atlanta like EverDry Roofing is then you know that every residential roof you stand upon is steep. You can’t afford not to have this type of support. Add in an old roof with loose asphalt granules, a little morning dew, the pure unrelenting heat of a Georgia afternoon and a lot of sweat and someone without support is sure to fall.
So what is “Your Roof’s Hidden Problem” when using toe boards?
The problem is you can’t place a 2×4 in a horizontal position on a asphalt shingle roof with nails and expect it not to leak in just a few short years. If the shingles are pliable enough they may self-seal for a while and if the roofer remembers to reseal the holes with roof cement you may actually get a few years out of it. But eventually as you can probably guess it is not a good idea to poke holes into a brand new roof.
The picture shown above has happen throughout my entire neighborhood. This community is about 18 years old and everyone’s roof is failing in the same manner. These very small holes caused a whole lot of damage. We all should have gotten 25 years out of these structures but it was not to be… The dreaded toe boards holes were not resealed.
There are alternatives to the old toe board system!
Don’t think that since there are alternatives to the toe boards that all roofer are being sold or even being taught how to use them. While studying other articles for this practice of nailing toe boards I ran into a current DIY website that mentioned the same thing.
David Peterson – Editor Roofing Atlanta and Remodeling Atlanta
