5 Most Common Mistakes in Shingle Roofing

in my years as a roofing contractor I've inspected literally thousands of shingle roofs on all types of buildings in an all manner of disrepair during those visits I've noticed that most problems people are having related to their asphalt shingles are related to just a few common installation mistakes in this short video I'm going to show you what these mistakes are and how to avoid them for more information on the correct installation techniques please refer to the appropriate section in my video on installing asphalt shingles at roofing intelligence com the number one mistake people make when installing shingles is using the wrong nail pattern or not using enough nails most common among these mistakes is placing the nails too high on the shingle when you do this you miss the top edge of the shingle blow and leave too few nails in that shingle for most asphalt shingle profiles the nail needs to have at least 8 nails holding it on when you place your four nails in the face of the shingles too high the shingle below is left with only four nails instead of eight this can lead to big problems down the road as this shingle is now vulnerable to pulling off those nails and just falling off the roof make sure to follow the exact manufacturer's instructions on how many nails to use and where to place them in the shingle one of the other more common mistakes that I see with shingle roofs are using them on rules that are too flat shingles are designed to be installed on roofs with a pitch greater than two over twelve that's nine and a half degrees and they really perform best on roofs with a 4-12 pitch or greater that's eighteen and a half degrees while you can get away with installing shingles down to a to twelve pitch with special precautions I'd strongly advise you to avoid any applications below of 412 the fact is the slower the water is moving off your roof the more likely you are to have problems especially important to take into consideration is the design of the lower sloped roof if the roof is cut up with many valleys and weird angles or there are good many penetrations like pipes or god forbid a skylight please steer clear of installing shingles on that section of roof trust me you're just asking for trouble another common mistake that I see all the time involves flashing pipes I bet that 50% of all the leaks that I have ever looked at have come from around a pipe flashing many times the flashing has just worn out and the rubber has split around the pipe letting water in just as common though our leaks that come from nails that are placed too close to the corners of the flashing over time these nails work themselves loose and allow water to flow under the edge of the boot and leak into the hole created by the nail you can avoid this by placing your nails further away from the edge of the boot and better yet use one of these gasketed screws which also resists backing out watch the section in the main video that covers pipe flashings to learn about my technique for doubling up your pipe boots to avoid problems caused by the rubber wearing out and splitting another common mistake that I see involves an incorrect overhang of the shingles so many times I've gone out to look at a roof even a new installation and seen the shingles hanging way too far off the edge of the roof while they might have looked okay at the time that they were applied shingles that are left to overhang the roof more than an inch and a half are prone to do some serious sagging well this not only looks bad for years to come these shingles that are left to flop over the edge of the roof are gonna crack over time and open up those areas of the roof to leaks and rotting of the fascia and soffit while manufacturers and shingles differ somewhat most shingles are designed to hang over the roof only 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch for best success use a pre-sub drip edge like this and follow your shingle manufacturers specific installation instructions the last common mistake that I see all the time involves applying architectural shingles with a racking pattern while applying shingles vertically like that is an acceptable technique for 3 Tabb shingles you should never use this method for architectural style shingles while the shingles go on fine and they look normal when you they're applied this way years later they will develop serious cracks along the seam that lead to leaks and premature failure of the roof system in this section of the video on installing shingles I give you a technique we'll work well with both three tab and architectural shingles I'd also note that all shingles come with specific installation instructions printed on every package they're there for a reason enjoy this video but still wondering how to roof the rest of your house go now to roofing intelligence com where you can instantly watch the entire 17 part series I've created that covers all aspects of shingle roofing

Channel: RoofingIntelligence.com

Views: 1,953,664

Rating: 4.5528884 out of 5

Keywords: how to install shingles, how to repair shingles, roof repair, roof replacement, diy, how to, asphalt shingles, three tab shingles, architectural shingles

Id: jdGqWS4zrCI

Length: 5min 37sec (337 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2016