You may be handy, but trust us—roof shingle repairs and replacements are not as cut and dried as they may seem. If roofing isn’t your area of expertise, learn about all that goes into shingle repairs, then you’ll understand why you’re better off hiring professionals for the job.
Roofing Services Are Best Done by Professionals
In the wake of COVID-19, many of us have been discovering hidden capabilities and realizing how resourceful we are. Putting newfound skills to the test and taking on DIY projects has kept a lot of us sane and occupied during our days spent isolating at home. Although making an attempt to fix things around the house is a new commonality among quite a few of us, some projects should still be left to the professionals—for instance, replacing roof shingles.
You may still be contemplating doing your roofing project on your own and thinking, “How hard could it be?” Learning how to patch a shingle roof or how to replace shingles may seem simple. However, roof work is a monotonous and daunting task, which worsens if your roof has sustained a substantial amount of damage. One shingle replacement alone is a seven-step process, at the very least. The more shingles you need to replace, the more you have to repeat this laborious operation.
Shingle Replacement: The Step-by-Step Process
If you’re convinced you’re better off without professionals and are ready to complete this task yourself, make sure you have the tools and materials needed: a flat pry bar, asphalt roofing cement, replacement shingles, and roofing nails.
A brief explanation of each step in the shingle replacement process is as follows:
- Identify your “target” shingle—the one with the most obvious damage from roof pests or from the impact of a falling object. You’ll need to break the seal on the target shingle by sliding the flat pry bar under the shingle’s edge, carefully lifting it from the roof’s deck.
- Once the target shingle bond is broken, the same step will need to be done to remove the overlying shingles by breaking the adjacent seals to expose the nails.
- Remove the nails by lifting the shingle and the nail together. Trying to pry out the nails from above the shingle damages its granular surface.
- Once all four nails have been removed from the target shingle, you’ll notice it’s still stuck down to the surface. That is because the shingle was reinforced with a second row of nails to help keep the roof wind resistant. So, you must also remove the adjacent nails.
- After the sealant bond is broken and all the nails are removed, the target shingle is finally free and can be removed from the roof’s deck.
- Slide the new shingle into position in the same place where the damaged one was. Nail the shingle into place, then re-nail the overlying shingles where other nails were previously removed.
- Lastly, apply asphalt plastic roof cement under the new shingle’s tabs, then press flat down into place.
