Cellophane Tape On Shingles

No, it's true. Go to a home improvement store and read the instructions on any package of shingles. You to NOT need to remove anything from the shingles when installing them. Your shingles are blowing off for some other reason. Did you own the house when they were installed?

Correct, that cellophane strip is applied to the back of the shingles to prevent the adhesive strip of the shingle below it in the bundle from sticking. When the shingles are installed with the normal exposure the adhesive strip on the top of the shingle is aligned with a clear area of the shingle above it. The area under the cellophane tape on the back of the shingle is not intended to stick to anything but the cellophane tape.

Why not read the instructions printed plainly on the shingle bundle? Clue: it says you don't need to remove the strip.

Harry K

I am afraid that you are incorrect. This is from the shingle installation instructions found here:

Cellophane Tape Do not remove parting strip of cellophane tape from the shingle underside. Its purpose is to prevent the shingles from sticking together while in the bundle. It does not affect the application or the effectiveness of the product and, when removed, creates needless waste.

End Quote

And from the Tamko shingle instruction PDF found here;

IMPORTANT: It is not necessary to remove the plastic strip from the back of the shingles.

End Quote

Perhaps you have an off brand of shingle that requires the removal of the strip, but I have never seen a shingle that required the removal of the strip.

If indeed the cellophane strip is over the top of the asphalt adhesive on your shingles, then the shingles were installed so incorrectly that the cellophane strip is the least of your problems. In order for that to be true, they had to be installed over each other exactly like they were laying in the bundle.

: The shingles mystery -- it pops up every three months. What IS that clear tape on the back of shingles for?!! To remove or not to remove ... that is the question ... answered here!

I was having a discussion with a couple friends about installing a shingle roof. They both said the clear cellophane tape on the bottom of the shingle is to be removed before installation. I say that is an integral part of the bonding system and should be left on. What's the story?

Thanks, Ron Tyson

DEAR RON: This is a fairly common question and I feel you will be surprised by the answer. Both you and your friends are wrong. The tape's sole purpose is to prevent the shingles from sticking to one another when they are stacked on top of one another in the pack.

You can clearly see the pieces of tape line up with the blobs of asphalt cement on the tops of the shingles. These dabs of asphalt cement indeed are the glue that allows the shingles to bond together once the roofing is installed. But think for a moment. When you install the shingles, the cellophane tape is five inches up the roof from the dabs of cement and it does nothing to help bond one shingle to another.

You do not have to remove the tape. That would be an enormous waste of time.

Clark...

Forgive me for continuing the beat a dead horse and I really appreciate everyone's help here, you guys are the greatest, but yes, the cellophane strip which belongs on the underside of the shingles was on top of the asphalt adhesive on shingles that were on the ground.

Incidentally, two roofs are involved corresponding to two house additions. One addition with the bigger loss of shingles was 1993 while the other was 1996, same contractor. Guess it's a wonder that the shingles involved didn't fly off sooner. And yes they used staples.

It is conceivable that when the shingles were removed from the packaging at the time of installation, the cellophane strip, instead of sticking to the underside of the shingle above in the packaging, stuck to the tar strip on the shingle below. This scenario requires a manufacturing defect and a really clueless installer.

Cheers, Wayne

Windswept@Home (Jack W) wrote in news:47b1affa.8613234@news-

The shingles were junk or they were allowed to get hot sitting in the sun right before installing. I had some handfulls I pulled from a bundle and laid down. Too sunny and hot. Pull the individuals apart and strip/partial strips will indeed stick to the sealing areas. I threw them away or just used them as partials. Your installer didn't.

Wayne Whitney wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@pizza.private:

Bingo!

Stupidity abounds. The house inspector we used when we bought our house told us a story about a guy who has a "home handyman" radio show, who really ought to know something about roofs.

Apparently, somebody installed shingles on a house with the courses starting at the peak of the roof, not the eaves. It looked good, but leaked. The show's handyman couldn't figure out what was wrong.

(For people who haven't looked at a roof closely, the problem is that water flows downhill, and with the roof installed as described, the water flows off one shingle and *underneath* the one in the next lower course, thus soaking the roof deck instead of reaching the eaves. On a properly-installed roof, water flows off one shingle onto the *top* of the next lower course, repeating this all the way down to the eaves.)

Dave

snipped-for-privacy@cs.ubc.ca (Dave Martindale) wrote in news:fot0bp$1sk$ snipped-for-privacy@swain.cs.ubc.ca:

Sounds fishy. No one is that damn stupid. This was probably one of those friend of a friend of a friend stories where one of the friends totally screwed the story up because thay had no idea wtf they wre hearing.

In reality it was probably just a roof that was improperly installed top down and leaked...just like bottom up sometimes leaks. S*it happens.

Top down shingling:

Wrong. I've seen home "improvement" things which prove otherwise.

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:mbpsj.3968$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

You're right Joe. Someone posted a link once to a site where a home inspector posted pics of massively stupid s*it he found over time.

Last year, a friend of mine had her furnace replaced. When the contractors cranked it up and began checking whatever they like to check, they realized something was really screwy about the air flow. The previous owners of the house had stuffed tightly packed chunks of foil backed fiberglass insulation into the cold air returns. Over the years, they'd slid down just far enough so nobody could see them. Fortunately, she replaced the furnace because it was an ancient rusting piece of junk. If it had been a reasonably modern unit that just wasn't working well, hopefully some smart contractor would've noticed the air flow problem.

In both of my homes, prior owners have painted door hardware, sometimes 2-3 times, based on the colors I found while scraping it off. Some may consider this to be minor stupidity, but it's not. It's the home improvement equivalent of having anal sex with a goat with toddlers watching.