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Best way to tarp roof?

20577 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Scuba_Dave
I'm going to reroof (or I hope to have someone reroof) my house when I tie in an addition to my house. I'm doing the addition/tie-in framing and sheathing myself and foresee the need to tarp the roof temporarily to keep thing dry -particularly the tie-in area over the existing house.

In theory I could rip off the old roof (double layer of course) in the tie-in area and frame and sheath it in one day and have roofers there the next. But lets get real, I know it could easily take me longer and the roofers might not be able to make my time schedule. So I want to be ready to tarp off the tie-in area every night while I'm working on it and for any delays until the roofers can get out here.

I read the pros on here all the time saying tarp off the roof. With the wind around here (35 mph is not rare) I think keeping a tarp on the roof will be tricky. I suppose I could nail down the edges using some 1x4s, but if I need to pull it up and put it down a few times won't the tarp get trashed pretty quick with all the nail holes? You pros must have a way to secure the tarp without trashing it so it can be used on many jobs. Do you have any advice on securing tarps to the roof in windy areas?

And as far as tarp size, do you recommend getting really big tarps (say 30x60') to cover the largest area I might need to cover or is it better and easier to handle multiple smaller tarps (say 16x20') and just overlap them as needed?
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Thanks GBar.

The cheapo tarps at Menards and such seem to snag and open on any wood sliver or bump so I know those are a waste of money. Do you have any advice on what kind of tarp to get that will only be used a few times by a DIYer? It probably doesn't need to hold up as well as something that pros would use every day. Is there any tape that can be used to fix a stray hole or in tarps?

I've got quite a bit of leftover very heavy poly from my concrete slab work. It's wide enough and plenty long for the opening I'll have. From working with it I know it's tougher than those cheapo tarps and can be patched with the right tape. It might be too slick to walk on but it's a 4/12 roof and I could probably avoid walking on it. I could wrap the edges around a 2x4 to nail down. Do you think that would work or bad idea?
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