Is my "BEEF UP" M-A-M in jeopardy???

I started taking the insulation from my walls today for the ol' beef up party. I've got nails sticking out of my outdoor wall sheathing. They seem to have somewhat of a pattern being nailed about 8" to 1 ft above each other. Some cavities have several rows of 2 nails per row and some don't. The nails are pertruding 1" to 1-1/2" out of the sheathing. They look to be about 1/8" in diameter. Initially, I wasn't sure what the nails were securing. I decided to go look at some houses still under construction in my area and found that the homes with NO siding up yet does NOT have the nails. The homes WITH siding have the nails. I know the nails are not from the TVEK home wrap because I've seen them secured to the sheathing with some type of dusty gray screw that has a plastic washer holding the TVEK to the sheathing. Also, the TVEK screws only stick out about 1/4" on the inside of the sheathing. That leads me to believe the nails have something to do with the siding. Is anyone familiar with how siding is installed and if large nails like this are used to secure it? Has anyone else run into this problem with nails pertruding from a sheathing WALL? I did catch this post which is helpful, http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ght=#58942 but I'm trying to determine if I should bend the nails down flat with the sheathing or not. I thought about putting foam over the nails but when I somewhat "lightly" tried tapping a nail out from the sheathing, the nail went out fairly easily. That leads me to believe that if I decided to leave the nails straight and push rigid foam into the nails to cover them up I may end up pushing some of the nails out of the sheathing. If it ends up that I shouldn't bend the nails is there another solution for some type of cavity beef up? Monday I plan to call the builder to find out what those nails are securing, but for the time being I thought I'd see if any of you guys have any knowledge about this. I included some pics below. Thanx!

Looks to me from the close-up shot (and your testimony of being able to push some of them through really easily) that it could be two things, each related:

• Nails intended to secure the OSB shear wall sheathing to the studs
• Nails intended to secure siding to the studs

...but the framer "missed" the studs a few times. I dealt with some of those myself. The nailing pattern for shear wall sheathing is intense -- something like one nail every two inches or so. Zapping a mile-a-minute with a pneumatic nailer, it's bound to happen. Ordinarily I would not advocate grinding, cutting, or pushing through nails that are protruding like that. However, if I am right about my assumption, I think you may be able to do so safely in this case. If you have horizontal clapboard or cementboard siding, I imagine some of the sheathing nails will encounter some resistance at some point when you push on them, some moreso than others, depending on how closethe nail is to the overlap, whereas the siding nails may actually come out of the exterior of the house and would need to be pulled from the outside. Confirm my assertion, then lightly tap all of them with a nail until they are clear or you encounter resistance. Then use a grinder bit on your drill to grind off any remaining protrusions. Be sure to use eye protection! Sparks are gonna fly! 8) In the case of the nails attaching siding, you may want to drive a new nail outside into the stud. --Keith :mrgreen:

Thanx for the response Keith! I Googled info on how to install siding and found that you shouldn't tap the nails securing the siding solid against the sheathing. You should leave approximately 1/32" between the nail and siding to allow for expansion on the vinyl siding. This is another reason I think those nails may be used for securing the siding. Oh yea, Keith the siding is a double vinyl panel so there is very little resistance in pulling them. Some of the nails have no pattern, but most seem to be in the correct position to go through the top slot for nailing the siding to the sheathing. I also had a friend of mine come over to help me do some things and we called his brother (who has put siding up) and he stated it's not uncommon to use nails that large to secure siding (especially if that's all the contractor has at the time). When I tap on the nails to the point where they're flush with the sheathing you can't tell that much on the outside. The nails are evidentally secured under the siding where you can't see them. Most all the nails I tried were relatively easy to push through the sheathing. I'm leaning towards the fact they are for the siding unfortunately. I'd have to seriously think about cutting them, but even if I do, I'd have to cut them flush with the sheathing because as I said, if I use rigid foam as Rod suggested for problems with nails, I may push some of them out of the sheathing. The only thing that comes to mind is using a softer foam to push through the nail and go from there. Thing is, unless the foam is still categorized as "rigid enough" I won't end up with a M-A-M system. Any suggestions in the event I can't bend or cut the nails??

OK -- in light of the new information (I didn't know the siding was vinyl -- yes, those nails are indeed inaccessible and need not to be driven all the way), scratch all my earlier advice. Plan on using foam as per Rod's recommendation on these matters, but make one adjustment. Instead of planning to push the nails into the foam, drill holes on the foam where the nails would penetrate it. Even very large, oversized holes won't be a problem: a small pocket of air around a handful of nails in this wimpy mass layer shouldn't affect you transmission loss much or at all. You are wise to be concerned over pushing these vinyl siding nails through. --Keith :mrgreen:

That's a pretty good suggestion Keith! I saw some 2" Owens Corning Foamular sheathing I think I'll use. I'll make a paper template of the nail hole positions in each cavity and lay it on the foam. Then I'll drill an oversized hole in the foam for each nail hole in the template. I think that will work. I guess this is one of those unexpected occurances that makes you have to alter your plans and go a different route, but "ya gotta do whatcha gotta do" right?? Thanx for the suggestion Keith!

Making a paper template for each cavity would be really time consuming... I was thinking you might be able to dab some kind of goo on the tip of the protruding nail, apply the foam lightly, remove the foam, then drill holes where the goo marks are. Hot fudge maybe? ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

Ha Ha!! Fudge huh?? Well, uh, I think I'll find something like maybe some RED paint & use that! If I use fudge it'll never make it to the nails... most likely it'll end up on some ice cream or on a hot fudge cake...hmmmmm, hot fudge cake...oh oh...gotta go, I'm hungry... Seriously though Keith, that's a better suggestion than a paper template! Once again...THANX! :)

You're quite welcome, Stan. :-) I thought of paint too, but you want something that's thick and gooey because it needs to adhere with a big enough blob on the tip of the nail chisel. Maybe you can thicken the paint up with baking flour or something...? I'm truly not trying to make you hungry! :lol: (Although paint isn't very appetizing... Unless it's lead paint and you're, like 18 months old or something... :roll:) --Keith :mrgreen: