Installation of Shingles



The installation of shingles is a job that can be performed without too much difficulty. If only a few shingles need replaced, it is even much easier than re-shingling an entire roof. Common tools include a ladder (should always be secured at the top when working), hammer, carpenter's apron, chalk line, tin snips for cutting flashing, tape measure, work gloves, clean up cloth and soft soled shoes, safety rope, and a level.



The materials will include composite shingles, 15 pound felt paper (enough to cover the roof), copper or non-corrosive flashing material, asphalt roofing cement, # 90 mineral surface roofing, and roofing nails (2 ½ pounds of 1 ¼ inch to 1 ½ inch hot dipped galvanized nails for every square for new roofs, and 1 ¾ inch nails for old roofs. Peter is a typical home owner and he decided to re-shingle his own home. It went something like this.

Peter thought that the family installing a new roof on the house would be a great idea. But, holy cow, was he wrong. The kids were not strong enough to lift the squares of shingles, and they could not hammer straight. His wife was afraid to climb three rungs up the ladder. A call to his buddies remedied the problem and he soon had his own roof crew up on top of his house, removing the old shingles and putting on new ones.

They weren't sure if they had enough shingles, so they did some quick calculations. The measured the length and width of the roof, multiplied to get the area, divided by 100, then added 10%. This was the number of packages (squares) of shingles they needed. Then they figured the amount of felt paper they needed, which was the same number of square feet of roofing area, plus 10%. The talked to the store manager to determine which asphalt type shingle should be used in their area with the type of weather they had, and also for the type of building. They were soon back home with shingles and felt paper.

Back at the house, they rolled out the felt as they went along, nailing it down with a bare minimum of nails because it would soon have hundreds of nails in it from the shingles. They marked a blue chalk line down the middle of the roof, from the top to bottom. They then cut off the tabs of enough shingles to lay down as a starter row. Tabs are created by knock outs, those thin vertical spaces in the shingle. This starter strip would go underneath the first row of complete shingles. They laid nailed them down, starting at the chalk line and working one direction, with four nails from end to end.