laying shingles sideways

Oct 18, 2005 17 Replies

hello, i was wondering if anyone could answer a question. I hired my handyman to put a new roof on my shed, its about 9by9ft and it has two low pitched sides. I see he has started laying one side, about 4 by



9ft, about 15 degrees angled down. He is laying the shingles sideways! i dont pretend to know about roofing, but isnt it wrong to lay shingles sideways?

The slots in the shingles should be parallel to the direction of water flow. Tom

It's OK to do it that way as long as you don't mind the roof leaking...

Doc

Is he doing all of the shingles that way? If it is just along the edges (rake), then they are just starter courses and the rest will be laid correctly. If all of them are like that, then your handyman ain't so handy.

I've never seen it done that way and can't think of any reason to do it. Did you ask him why he is doing it?

Harry K

....

More significant, did OP tell Mr Handy to stop before he ruined all the new shingles and do it correctly????

Given some of the things I've seen, I'd not put anything past some of the more _creative_ :) "handy"men...

When I doubt my sanity, I just need to get back to a.h.r and all is well again :o)

Too late now, he's finished.

According to Harry K :

I believe that it was a fairly common practise for roofers to lay a single course of shingles "sideways" along a gable end edge, but certainly not across the main portion of the pitch.

A simple substitute for tar paper, and gives a cleaner edge...

These days it's done with tar paper or weather shield.

I'd say it's perfectly fine for a small shed.

But if it's more than just the eave edge, it's not right.

[Unless the OP is confused, and thinks that "horizontally" is "sideways" or this isn't shingles, it's tar paper, and the shingles go over top.]

no handyman is that stupid.. IOW if he can do anything at all, he can probably shingle a shed

Well, yes, if it is a starter course and covered the normal way with shingles laid correctly.

Harry K

Please take photos and post them on the web. I really got to see this. How anyone can be that f*cking stupid is really worth noting. Be sure to take a photo of the guy too, so no one else hires him.

Common Ransley, it doesn't take a pro to know how to lay shingles. It show it directly on the packages. This guy isn't a handy man, he is a know-nothing, can't even follow simple drawings.

It's customary with some people to immediately discard instructions, and in some cases, destroy them beyond hope of legibility before placing them in the trash can.

I would like to thank everyone for responding! i went ahead and talked to him.he had told me he was doing that way so all the shingles would be laid the same way, no I am not kidding! I literally had to climb the ladder and show him how other roofs look and to lay the shingles the way of the slope. It took several minutes of repeating myself, but he went ahead and corrected it. Its looks really nice now. I just assumed he knew which way the shingles should be laid. on a tangent, in august/sept I'd had the roof on the house done by a "roofer", not going to trama/drama of that, but i was tapped out of cash to the roof done by a pro, so i took a chance on my handyman, and he wound up doing a good job after that misdirection.

But anyway, I just wanted to say that I am glad the roofs were done when they were. with asphalt being a petroleum by product, there is not telling how much they will be in future, and as for the wood sheathing. the entire roof on the house needed wood sheathing. in august the OSB was 9 dollars a board for 44 boards, by the time I bought the 6 boards for the shed after the gulf tragedy, it was 15-17 dollars a board.

Just so we can laugh, please tell us if the shingle package had the instructions printed right on it - a diagram of how to lay them on the roof. Please?

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