The Roofing Process

If you feel up to the job, you’ll want to set aside an entire weekend for a roofing project. A full roof will take two to three full days to complete. If you have help from a friend, you might cut it to a day and a half, but it’s quite a labor-intensive process. Here’s a breakdown of the steps involved in the roofing process:

Shingle Removal

Because shingles only last so long, most roofing jobs take place when shingles have worn out and need to be replaced. If the wood base of your roof has developed a hole or is otherwise compromised, even that will need to be replaced, but for any roofing job you’ll need to strip back the shingles.

While some old roofers prefer the simplicity of a clawed hammer to pull back the old shingles and rip them away by hand, a shingle ripper will save you a lot of time and effort. Simply scrape at the underside of the shingle, pull back to pry the nails from the plywood, and move along the entire strip of shingles, repeating the process. If the whole row doesn’t simply detach and slide down the roof, you can give it a gentle nudge and it will give way. Repeat this process for all the old shingles on the roof.

Plywood Base

If the base of your roof has deteriorated beyond repair, it will need to be replaced. Purchase several large sheets of plywood, measure the surface area of your roof, and cut your sheets to size. You may need a helping hand to hold the wood in place as you nail it to the roof supports, but the process is fairly simple, though the oversized sheets of plywood can be expensive.

Sheathing

Sheathing is the process of laying tar paper on top of the plywood to create a buffer and a protection against the forces of nature. Get yourself some good rolls of roofing felt or tar paper and lay it down in strips across the plywood surface. It’s best to start this process at the bottom of the roof and work toward the top.

As you lay the roofing felt or tar paper, attach it to the plywood with roofing nails. These are galvanized to stand strong against the wind, and each nail has a plastic cap that gives it a wide surface area to hold down the tar paper. Contrary to some construction processes where you entirely complete one step before moving on to the next, you’ll want to attach a layer of new shingles to each row of freshly lain tar paper before sheathing the next row.

Flashing

Flashing consists of laying thin sheets of metal where the roof meets and creates a valley around vents and surrounding chimneys. These sheets of metal offer an extra layer of protection and encourage water runoff from these sensitive areas. Use tin snips to cut your metal into the appropriate shapes and sizes and nail into place.

Shingling

Oddly, shingling is probably the simplest part of the roofing process. To complete this step in the project, simply lay a line of shingles on top of the tar paper, taking the tops off each as you go. As you progress vertically, you’ll want to offset the vertical parts of each shingle so they don’t match up.