I know very little about electricity, but I am a firefighter and I know the dangers surrounding it. I recently heard about the dangers of tight staples on romex so I did a pass through my attic, and I came across some problem staples on a cluster of romex. I backed the staples off and found some slack for the wires, but I also located a small nick as well. (Photo links below) To the best of my knowledge, the damage appears to affect outer insulation and brown paper. I took a small plastic flexible spoon, and upon further inspection, I was unable to tear away or look beyond the brown paper. Is there a safe solution such as electrical tape that would be effective, or should I just spring for an electrician to replace the damaged section along with any other nearby romex with potential staple damage? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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You can just wrap it with electric tape as long as insulation of inner wires are in good condition.

 

If the paper isn't torn, then the wire insulation wouldn't be in that case. If you want to restore the outer covering as well, that wire is typically sold by the foot in hardware stores (and its specifics should be printed on the outside, besides being color coded). I'd just cut and peel some of the jacketing off of a scrap piece, and then wrap it around the damaged section and tape it in place with UL listed electrical tape. I didn't use staples on mine, but it was rounded and fit well within one-hole conduit straps. However the jacketing can tear on just about anything if it slides against a rough spot. I've never seen that damage the inner wire though (I guess it kind of rolls out of the way as the outer part catches).