How To Shingle The Peak My Roof

Hook blades are used for cutting shingles.

How to shingle the peak my roof.

Hammer a roofing nail on each side of the shingle five inches from the bottom edges and one inch from the side edge. Many pros shingle in a vertical line up the roof because it s much faster. The shingles at the peak of your roof are commonly called cap shingles. If the overhang is more than a foot cut some off and use the remainder elsewhere.

Cut and bend a shingle to conform to the shape of the peak of the roof. Leaving one side of the cut piece straight bend the other side to match the peak of the roof as shown below. Overlap the shingles to cover the nails on the side edges and use roofing cement to cover the nail heads on the shingle at the end of the roof. Put in one 2 inch long nail back 6 inches from the edge of the cap shingle.

When you reach the peak either bring the ridge edges together with a ridge capping layer or cut regular shingles into 3 tabbed equal pieces and bend them so they fit on the roof peak. They fit into any standard utility knife just like straight blades. Then snap a chalk line and trim them off with a hook blade in your utility knife. Preparing the peak capping a roof is the last thing done during a roofing project.

Later you will cover it with a ridge shingle. Use roofing cement to secure this piece and a single nail in the base. Butt the edge of the first cap shingle along this line. It must be completed at the very end of the shingle run to overlap the uppermost shingles and form a weatherproof.

If your shingles are standard three tab shingles the caps are made by cutting one shingle into three separate parts. This nailing area is right where you see the dabs of black asphalt cement that are just above the tab knockouts. Measure down 6 inches from the center of the roof ridge and chalk a line parallel with the ridge. Known in the trade as vertical racking or staggering this how to lay shingles method enables the roofer to install a single column of shingles all the way to the peak without the wasted back and forth motion necessary to fill several rows of stair steps.

Nail the shingles with no tabs such as precut pro start shingles and apply asphalt cement from a caulk gun in many dots along the drip edge under the edge then press the tab less shingles down onto the line of asphalt cement dots with adequate spaces between the dots. If you hit a stack vent or chimney interlace the shingles with the flashing to allow water to run down the roof.