Installing Shingles on Your Roof

The one part of your home that you depend on the most is often the most neglected and abused. This would be your roof. The roof takes a constant beating by the elements and is exposed to the brunt of nature's attack. It is also one of the most valuable parts of your home. No matter what type of home you have, it would not be worth much, nor would it be much of a home, without a roof. The roof is also one of the easiest sections of your home to fix and maintain. Whether you are tarring it, using a white coating, or installing new shingles, you can easily do this yourself. Roofers charge a large sum of money to work on the roof for two reasons. The first reason is that many people believe it is a hard job, and secondly, it can be tedious and a pain. Roofing is actually simple and the most novice of Do-It-Yourselfer's can tackle this task.

There are several different coatings you can put on the top of your home. One of the most common is the one that we will look at today. This would be shingles. There are some intricacies in choosing the right shingles and some things that you want to keep in mind when installing them. Before you can start slapping them on your roof, you need to choose which ones to purchase.

Here is where we make out our shopping lists. Two things are needed for all roofing jobs: roofing nails and tar paper. When it comes to nails; buy many of them. They can really come in handy and you never know how many you will need. Any spare ones can always be loaded in a nail gun in case your daughter brings home some undesirable prom date. Tar paper is something that takes a little more thought. The first thing that you will need to consider is how much rain you get. There are different thicknesses and types of tar paper. You will want to find one that suits your area for rainfall. You will then want to measure the size of your roof. The tar paper should cover every inch of the roof and every row of the paper should overlap. Three feet wide rolls are the most common in the U.S., but you need to overlap it by at least a foot so only use two feet in your calculation. The paper should run parallel to the ground, not up and down. You will now need your tiles. This is really a matter of preference. One thing to keep in mind though is what you plan on doing with the home. Darker tiles tend to make any problems with your roof less visible. If you are planning on selling this home, use darker tiles. If you are going to live there for a while, use lighter tiles so that you can spot problems quicker.

Once you have all the supplies, you can start your roofing project. You will want to have a flat shovel on hand to help with the first step. This is where you start ripping the old shingles and paper off the bare wood. If you are not going to be able to finish this in under a week, you will want to hold off on it. You will need to finish in a week or less and be fairly confident that there will not be any rain. Exposing the bare wood of your roof to the elements is not a good idea.

You can use the flat shovel in an uphill manner to get under the tiles and remove huge sections at a time. This will make the process go much smoother. While you go ahead with the flat shovel, you can always have your kids or an unsuspecting volunteer use a slaw hammer to get the little pieces that were missed. You will want to go back over the roof and not only make sure the old stuff is gone, but check for any water damage or dry rot to the wood. Soft spots are usually evident by a darker color of wood. Do not stand on dark spots, as you may be inadvertently installing a new sky light when you do so.

Now that you have everything cleared, you can start installing. You will need to lay the tar paper first, and you want to do so immediately after removing the old stuff. If a storm were to happen, the tar paper can at least offer a little protection. Starting from the very bottom of your roof, lay the first roll of paper down so that it is an inch or two away from the side of the roof and two or three inches past the bottom of the roof. You want to start it this way since you can easily trim any excess. You want the starting edge to be on the top of the roll as it is laying down. Flip the leading edge off the roll. You want the paper to hang over the side by an inch or two. Secure it with a roofing nail every six inches except for the top foot. The top foot of paper will be held down by the next layer's nails. Now you can unroll the paper all the way out or until it is at the opposite side of the roof. Just like the first side, make sure it hangs over by an inch or two and tack it down to the roof. You can then tack it down to the bottom edge of the roof with a nail every six inches.

Once you have it tacked down around those three edges, go to each stud and tack it down. Remember that you will not need to tack down the top 12 inches. The next layer of paper will take care of this. Go back to the starting side and position the roll the same distance from the side, but overlapping the prior layer buy a foot. Unroll it in the same manner and then tack it down the same way. Repeat these steps as needed to cover the entire roof. Once you have reached the top, lay any excess over the peak and leave it to be tacked into the other side. Once both sides are covered, you can now run one last strip of the peak of the roof and tack it down. Now you just have to cut the excess from all sides of your roof and you are ready to move on.

Now it is time for the shingles. Just like the tar paper, you want to start your shingles form the bottom up. They are usually color coded to show you how far to overlap the shingles. Cover the dark part with the row that is above. You will want to have the same inch or two of excess hanging off your roof as the tar paper. This will help to make sure you have the entire roof covered. I would rather waste a row of shingles now, than have to rip it all out and patch the roof in a month or two. Once you have each side covered in shingles, it is time to do the roof cap. Most shingles come with a cap set or have a matching cap set that you can get at the same store. If yours do not, however, do not be scared. It is easy to make your own cap shingles. All you have to do is cut the shingles where the slits are and cut off the dark section. Now you can fold these little pieces width-wise over the peak of your roof and nail them in.

That is all there is to shingles. This is actually a very simple task to do on your own. The biggest problem with this project is the time that it consumes. It is rather long and tedious and can get boring quick. These are the reasons that the pro's are called in. Many people do not have the time or energy that this project takes. It can actually be done in a weekend and is not that hard to do.