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Tile and slate are relatively brittle, expensive, and easily damaged if you don’t know what you’re doing. And they’re slippery when wet. In most cases, hire a pro to make repairs. Tile and slate are so durable that they often outlast the underlayment and fasteners. So when repairing or replacing these roofs, prolong the life […]

To remove wood shingles, use scrap blocks to ele­vate the butt ends of the course above. Work the blade of a chisel into the butt end of the defective shingle, and with twists of your wrist, split the shingle into slivers. Before fitting in a new shin­gle, remove the nails that held the old one. […]

Most roofs are repaired in response to leaks caused by a missing shingle or, more often, worn — out or missing flashing. Or, in some cases, it’s necessary to disturb shingles to install a roof vent or a plumbing vent. When removing a shingle, or a course of shin­gles, disturb surrounding shingles as little as […]

Because pneumatic nailers can easily blow nails through shingles, some codes specify hand nailing. And it’s safer to hand nail the first five or six courses along the eaves, where stepping on a pneumatic hose could roll you right off the roof. Wear goggles when using nailers. Those concerns aside, pneumatic nailers are great tools […]

After attaching drip-edge flashing to the eaves and rolling out underlayment over the drip-edge, install the starter course along the eaves. You’ll cover the starter course with the first course of shingles. Running starter courses along the rakes isn’t imperative, but it’s smart because starters stiffen the overhanging shingle edges and create a cleaner line. […]

On residences, two primary types of asphalt shin­gles are used. Until recently, most were three-tab shingles with two slots dividing the exposed part of the shingle into thirds. But today, laminated shingles (also called architectural and dimension­al shingles) are gaining in popularity. Consisting of two bonded layers, laminated shingles are thicker, more wind resistant, and […]

Skylight flashing is discussed in Chapter 6, where you’ll see an installation from framing to flashing. As a general rule, follow the instructions in the flashing kit provided by the skylight manufacturer. Traditionally, ridges were flashed with a con­tinuous strip of 12-in.-wide, 30-lb. building paper folded lengthwise, which straddled the ridge and overlapped the top […]

Chimneys must be counterflashed(see p. 74). The upper pieces of counterflashing are usually tucked into chimney mortar joints and made to overhang various pieces of base flashing, which are nailed to the roof deck. Counterflashing and base pieces overlap but aren’t physically joined, so they can move independently yet still repel water. (This independence is […]

There are basically two types of valleys: open, where the valley’s flashing is exposed, and closed, where flashing is covered by shingles. Each has advantages. Open valleys clear water well, are easy to install, and work especially well beneath wood shingles, shakes, and laminated asphalt shingles, which are thicker and harder to bend than standard […]

Because underlayment directs water away from sheathing, it’s technically flashing, too. More often, however, roof flashing refers to sheet metal that protects building seams or edges from water penetration or diverts water around pipes, chim­neys, dormers, and so on. Metal flashing is widely used because it’s durable and relatively easy to cut and shape. Always […]