What to secure shingles with

I'm sure I could get someone at HD or Lowes to tell me this but, what would be used to secure shingles to the roof of a house. I have one or two to replace before winter hits. They are just your typical shingles that you find everywhere.

Sorry not a contractor so I don't know the technical names of the shingles.

John

Reply to
runsrealfast
Loading thread data ...

Galvanized Roofing Nails, 1 3/4" should be a good size.

JK

Reply to
Big_Jake

Thanks

Reply to
runsrealfast

As BigJake says, nails are the standard for attaching the tops of the shingles, up under the flaps of the row above. The bottoms of the flaps are held down by a heat-activated adhesive which will attach them pretty securely on the first hot and sunny day. If you are in a season where there aren't likely to be an really good days for melting adhesive then several dabs of roofing cement under the flaps will do the job as soon as you press them down. In those cases where there might be nail heads exposed after a repair, and there should almost never be such except around some types of flashing, a dab of cement over each head will ensure a decent seal. Typically the cement is black and comes in caulking compound tubes and is very cheap.

Oh, and when replacing shingles you may find that lifting the flaps on the row above where you are working may cause cracks if the roof is old. Great care is called for.

Reply to
John McGaw

A 3-tab shingle is typically held in place with 8 nails, 2 nails above each crack separating the tabs, 2 on each edge of the shingle, all in a row, and then another 4 nails from the row immediately above it. To remove the bad shingle you have to pop the nails for the shingle itself and then the nails for the row above it. The shingle should slide right out. That's assuming the tar strip holding the rows together has already been broken when removing the nails.

That means you have to bend up the row immediately above the shingle being replaced and the row above that to remove and later pound in the nails. This is tricky because old shingles are often very brittle and you end up breaking the shingles you want to remain in place. I just went thorugh this with my house and ended up replacing far more than just the one bad shingle.

You'll need a very fine prybar to get under the nail heads to pop them out. What works for me is an old flat screwdriver (my general-purpose do-anything-but-dont-use-to-drive-screws screwdriver) that I hook under the nail head and pry up on.

removing the nails also leaves holes in the remaining shingles so you'll need a tube of roofing tar to seal the holes and also to dab under the shingles to kind of glue them back down.

-dickm

Reply to
dicko

I'm surfing from the UK.

Words change their meaning travelling across The Pond. I guess "roof shingles" now covers most types of "tiles". I've sadly deleted the start to this thread and so do not know whether the OP referred to a specific type of shingle.

I think you are referring to a concrete shingle, (but I could easily be wrong!) - how wide are these? In the UK we use just two nails to clip them to the top of the batten - not eight. Our's are about 9 to 12" wide.

Once upon a time, all our roofing material used to come from N Wales - slate, which made for a pleasing appearance. Sadly, today most are concrete and bespoke homes are rooved with slate from China.

Reply to
clot

I think he's actually referring to asphalt shingles which are common in many parts of the US. I don't know if that's also what the OP was referring to or not.

We used to have slate roofs here as well; my grandparents' house (circa

1880) and barn had very pretty slate roofs. Sheetmetal roofs with raised seams, both steel and copper, are common in very wind-prone areas (enameled steel seems to be common in rural PA but some more upscale houses like to use copper,) but asphalt is by far the most common over here, and also the most likely to have bad shingles that need replacing (they really only last 20-30 years at best.)

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Here's a good video on how to replace roof shingles

formatting link

Reply to
Mikepier

Hmmm, Aluminum roofing nails?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Nit picking here but it is poorly worded. I had to read it a couple times and really think about the meaning (so I think slowly these days). Better would be:

Each is held in place by 8 nails. 4 when nailing each shingle - one on each edge, one above each cutout (slit) and the 4 from the next row up.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Thanks for the information, Nate.

Reply to
clot

NO - Galvanized Roofing Nails!

JK

Reply to
Big_Jake

A big wad of bubble gum........

Reply to
tony

Sounds like a good Redneck fix...

Reply to
runsrealfast

Yeah its the typical asphalt shingles.

Reply to
runsrealfast

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.