Roof stripping is one of the nastiest, dirtiest, most dangerous jobs in renovation. If you can afford it, hire an insured contractor for this. Most roofing contractors know of tear-off crews that will obtain permits, rip off the old roof, and cart away the debris, or you might be able to subcontract the job through a roofer. Professional stripping takes at most a couple of days, and it’s money well spent to allow the start of new work.
If you must strip the roof yourself, remove all drain gutters and then minimize the mess by buying a heavy 6-mil plastic tarp to catch shingles and old roofing nails. So you won’t be picking shingle shards and nails from the lawn for years to come, lay tarps from the house to the Dumpster as well. To protect plants around the house, place sawhorses or 2×4 frames over them and cover with bed sheets or cloth drop cloths. Caution: Don’t cover plants with plastic or they’ll bake. Finally, lean plywood in front of windows so falling objects don’t break them. When the job is done, rent a magnetic roller (also called a magnetic nail broom) and roll the lawn to locate roofing nails—before your lawn mower does it for you.
And don’t forget the inside of the attic. Spread plastic tarps over attic floors, especially if there’s insulation between the joists. During tearoff, an immense amount of debris and fine dust falls into an attic.
Unless you catch it in plastic and remove it, you could breathe it or smell asphalt — shingle residue for years.
Other than that, stripping is mostly grunt work. Most strip
pers use a specially designed tear-off shovel, starting at the top and working down, scooping shingles as they go. Tear-off shovel blades have a serrated edge that slides under nail heads and a fulcrum underneath that pops nails up. Be sure to tear off all old building paper (felt or rosin paper), too.
Once you’ve stripped off roofing, survey the sheathing for damage and protruding nails. As you pound down nails, be sure to place your feet directly over rafters. Probe suspect sheathing and replace any that’s soft. Cut bad sections back to the nearest rafter centers. For this, wear safety glasses and use a circular saw with a carbide — tipped, nail-cutting blade because the blade will hit a lot of nails. Replacement pieces of sheathing should be the same thickness as the original.
If the old roof was wood-shingled, it probably had skip-sheathing, which is 1 x4s spaced 5 in. on center. Skip-sheathing allows air to circulate under the shingles. If the boards are in good shape, you can nail on new wood shingles after stripping old ones. But many contractors prefer to sheathe over the 1 x4s with J2-in. exterior-grade plywood (for rafters spaced 16 in. on center) or 58-in. plywood (for rafters 24 in. on center). This stiffens the roof and makes it safer to work on, but plywood virtually eliminates air flow under shingles. Consequently, some builders install a synthetic mesh, CedarBreather®, over plywood to increase circulation, before nailing on wood shingles.
Run plywood lengths perpendicular to rafters, centering plywood edges over rafter centers. Nail every 6 in. with 8d galvanized nails. Elsewhere, use H-clips to support panel joints and create Иб-in. expansion gaps. Sweep the roof well and hammer down nail pop-ups.
