How long can bundles of shingles be left out in the sun?

I will be ordering GAV Sovereign shingles soon and will be applying them myself with some help (I’m the nailer, helpers are the labor). I know that I can’t get the entire roof done in one weekend and won’t have help until the following weekend but I plan to keep nailing them down during the week. My question is how long can the wrapped bundles be left on the roof in the sun before they stick together? From what I’ve read, the GAF shingles are paper wrapped. One poster said if they stick during the day, when they cool down they can be separated with no problems (for instance, the next morning). Is this true? If so, I can open as many bundles as I think I can apply in a day and spread them around so the adhesive strips are not touching another shingle. Can anyone help answer my question?

Thanks

Yes.

There is a strip on the back of the shingles that keep them from sticking together while in the package. No need to spread them out when shingling either.

What kind of temperatures are you dealing with?

I don’t recommend opening them at all until you are ready to use them. Are you ordering a roof top delivery? Are your “helpers” capable of carrying them up onto the roof one bundle at a time? If so, have them ground delivered, in a shaded area near a low point of the roof if possible.

No need to worry about it they will be fine. They won’t stick together in the bundle cause of the strip selfinployedslave was talkking about. If it makes you feel better you can stack all the bundles you are not using and tarp them till you are ready for them.

Thanks all for the info.

  1. I must have them roof top delivered. We’re not about to run 91 bundles up a ladder. I’m 74 and not in that kind of shape. I can arrange them and nail them down with my nail gun, but lifting bundles is definitely out for me.

  2. The weather is reaching upper 80s now. My helpers are delayed until May 10 so I’m delaying the delivery until May 6. I’ll probably start putting shingles down on the rear of the roof before they get here, doing as much as I can each day, which won’t be a lot due to my age.

  3. The shingles are wrapped in white plastic, which should reflect most of the sun’s hear anyway. I don’t plan on opening a bundle until I need more shingles. At least not more than one bundle ahead at a time. I am about to replace a 20’ x 20’ white tarp on my portable garage and can cut the old one nto five 4’ wide strips to cover the single bundles.

BTW, my house has 2x6 rafters, not trusses, with 1x8s, 1x10s, and 1x12s as sheathing so I don’t expect any problems with the weight of bundles on the roof.

I “URGE” you to hire someone to do the roof for you!

I know of 2 deaths and multiple permanent injuries that occured to elderly homeowners trying to do work on their own roofs.

With the heat being around 90 by the time your “helpers” come along it will be nearly unbearable on the roof for someone your age except the very first few hours starting from sunrise.

It simply is not worth it.

PS: It sounds like you may be nailing over the existing roof. This is also a bad idea!

LuckyChucky, I would agree with you if I had the means to have it done. But, when you’re a retiree living on social security, who had most of his savings wiped out by the recession following the 911 debacle, and has a terminally ill wife who is in and out of hospitals, getting cancer treatments, with bills piling up, owing four hospitals at one time, then you have to do what you can.

ELDERLY??? I may be 74 years old, but I’m an active, healthy guy who only visits a doctor once a year to have my pulse and blood pressure taken, my cholesterol checked, have a finger stuck up my butt, and told to come back next year to repeat the process. My Dad, at age 88 was still going up on his roof to fix his old TV antenna. He continued to mow his own large yard and changed the oil in his truck as long as he drove it and that was close to age 90.

In the past few years, working alone, I’ve constructed three boats, a camping trailer, a storage shed, and numerous smaller wood working projects. Nailing down shingles will be one of the easier tasks I’ve done lately. This isn’t my first roofing job either. I do appreciate your concern, knowing that it’s all good advice, but it doesn’t change my plans.

you can bend a bundle to help unstick shingles.

Ok, Cracka! :stuck_out_tongue:

But you could at least not work on the roof unless someone else is up there with you in case of an emergency.

Also it’s not the doing of the work that can be harmful, but rather the OVER doing of it!

Best Wishes to you and yours! :smiley:

Cracka said: In the past few years, working alone, I’ve constructed three boats, a camping trailer, a storage shed, and numerous smaller wood working projects. Nailing down shingles will be one of the easier tasks I’ve done lately. This isn’t my first roofing job either. I do appreciate your concern, knowing that it’s all good advice, but it doesn’t change my plans.

This reminds me of my Uncle James who was like a 2nd father figure to me growing up. He was a home builder all his life and not today’s version either. He did almost all the work on every house he built personally. He sub-contracted the concrete, brick and roof work but did all the rest himself.

He retired at the age of 65 and by age 68 he was back at work building houses again. He told me that he got fat and lazy in those 3 years and wasn’t happy.

I called him just to chat one night. He was bragging to me about being 72 yrs. old and still putting out X number of houses every 6 months. Little did I know this would be the last time I would ever talk to him.

Two weeks later he was working on a house alone when he suffered a heart attack and died!

cracker where are you located ? if close to me by chance i’ll have a crew do it for you .

Often times, shingles (especially 3 tabs) sit outside at supply houses for MONTHS before getting used. another couple of weeks isnt going to hurt anything at all.

You sounds like an awesome guy cracker, and I hope when I’m 75 that I am 1/2 as active as you are. If you were close to Tulsa, I’d come lend a hand.

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Good thing they are only 3 tabs. If they were GAF Timberlines, they would be stuck together, like mine were today. I had to literally grab both shingles, and gently pull them apart. Because as we all know, Timberlines are as thin #30 felt and tear like nothing when they’re warm.

When my shingles were loaded onto roof we would cover them with plywood…it helped keep the sun off them till we were done…

Good Call, Kage.

we put on thousands of squares of timberlines last year, and we had a couple months in a row of 110+ degree days. no problems here. Maybe you got an old batch.

[quote=“Agape”]

we put on thousands of squares of timberlines last year, and we had a couple months in a row of 110+ degree days. no problems here. Maybe you got an old batch.[/quote]

Nope, not an old batch. In the morning they are fine, but once that sun hits them and it got over 27C (80F) they would start to stick together. When I pulled them apart the tar would stretch like gum, about a foot lol. I noticed this last year with GAF as well. Charcoal colour didn’t help anything either.

[quote=“bcdemon”]

we put on thousands of squares of timberlines last year, and we had a couple months in a row of 110+ degree days. no problems here. Maybe you got an old batch.

Nope, not an old batch. In the morning they are fine, but once that sun hits them and it got over 27C (80F) they would start to stick together. When I pulled them apart the tar would stretch like gum, about a foot lol. I noticed this last year with GAF as well. Charcoal colour didn’t help anything either.[/quote]

Over the yrs what I have found with GAF is that they have poor packaging and their pallets are crap.

This matters because the packaging doesn’t keep the shingles aligned in the package, this causes them to shift and the tar line is no longer over the release strip.
This causes the shingles to stick together, sometimes you can’t get them apart without damaging them.

The pallet matters because on each pallet is roughly 3,000 lbs of material.
Poor quality pallets allow the shingles to sag and form an arch in them.
This matters more in cold weather than it does in warm weather but the point is that the pallet is insufficient to properly hold the load of the shingles without deformation.

Combine this with the loose poor quality packaging (and a cheap shingle…) and you get problems.

GAF changed their adhesive and the way it is applied to the shingle a couple years ago in order to correct problems.

These " new problems" are the result of that change. :roll: