During the winter moisture is present if there is frost on the nails.
Attic nail stains.
Get a garden sprayer hit it with a two cup to one gallon of water bleach solution on a few spots and see what happens.
This usually occurs on the underside of the roofing structure.
In the summer rust can be seen on the tip of the nails and sheathing around the nail protrusion.
This latter phenomenon occurs when the house is too humid and the warm moist air seeps into the attic where it condenses and freezes on cold attic areas.
In a reasonably well insulated and vented attic stains may appear due to condensation.
On attic mold visible on pine tongue and groove roof sheathing near the building eaves.
When this humid relatively.
If it goes away it is mold.
Even in warm or dry weather you often will see stains around roofing nails penetrating the roof sheathing or condensate drip spots on the attic flooring or insulation left photo below.
Also notice the condensation stains at the shingle nail more evidence of a history of attic moisture which was a factor in this mold growth.
Stains and rust around protruding nails are strong evidence that there is a high level of moisture in the cavity surfaces.
This is sure evidence of a condensation problem.
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This is caused by moisture condensing on the roofing nails and dropping to the surface below.
The mold shown in the attic photographed above was identified as aspergillus sp.
One good way to check if this is going on is to inspect the nail heads in your attic.
Random stains on your ceiling with no evidence of roof leakage usually mean that you ve got a condensation problem in your attic.
If enough of it forms and settles on the attic floor it will eventually migrate down to your ceiling.
Click photo for larger image.