How to Shingle a Roof

If you are looking for roof construction on your house and you have choose a shingle roof style and now looking for how to shingle a roof, then you will surely get good idea after reading this article. There are two common patterns that are used, so you have to decide which one you wanted to go for. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages as well. Following is the brief information about both types. You will be in a better position to decide about the pattern you wanted to go for after reading below.

Racking Method

Placing the roof shingles in columns is known as racking. You can see that this method is very old even since the use of shingles. This is used for making a straight line because shingles will only look good if these are placed in straight line. If it is not then it doesn`t give a good look and even your neighbor can find the defect with one simple look. So to keep shingles straight you must go for racking as it can help you to eliminate any defect in alignment with next column.

tips how to shingle a roof

On the other hand manufacturers don`t like this racking method, they will tell you to go for stair step method because in that if there is any little variation in colors and shadings it is less apparent.
Another thing that you have to be careful is about your building control rules. Racking is a popular method, but it can bring some issues, as the manufacturers asked you to go for stair step method and they issue instructions specifically for that method, so if you go otherwise it can cause problem for you. For this it is better to check with your local roofing inspector before going for racking method.

Stair Step Method

The biggest problem that comes with how to shingle a roof is stair step method is that it becomes very difficult to keep shingles aligned. The best solution for this problem is to go for architectural shingles which are also known as laminated or dimensional. These are specifically designed to be placed in stair step method.

An added advantage that you can have with these architectural shingles is that these are bigger in size than normal shingles. It means that you have to spend less time on their installation. Further these also not have side gaps, which is a real drawback of normal shingles because they start wearing out from this place.
One thing that you have to be careful is to read the instructions on the wrapper and follow these strictly. It doesn`t means that if you cannot use these vertically so you can use these in any which way. If you don`t follow the instructions then you may face problem while installing them. You must also be sure of nail placement so that these are installed properly.

So now after reading about both manners of how to shingle a roof, you may be in a position to decide about the best one for yourself.