My neighbor is FINALLY having his roof replaced (it’s been faling apart for over a year and our houses are separated only by my driveway. Guess where the debris ends up!) Anyway, the roofers did a complete tear off and have started shingling. However, they’ve only put down one course of roofing paper along the bottom, and are nailing the shingles directly to the roof above the first course. Is this standard practice? Should I say anything to the wife, since the neighbor is not home and she wouldn’t have a clue about this? I figured she could ust call her hubby if this is bad practice. we are in Northeast Ohio with severe weather conditions at times.
Asphalt shingles. I don’t know anything else about them except they look like regular asphalt. It also looks like they didn’t do anything around the vent pipe but they only have one shingle up against it so far and now they’re on a break, so I don’t know if they’re planning on doing anything under that shingle. I just don’t want my neighbor to get a bad job. He really can’t afford it (hence the long wait to repair the roof when shingles were literally falling off).
3 tab. BTW, they’re back from break and I notice they aren’t using any safety equipment. No jacks or safety lines, just gingerly crawling up the roof. If one of 'em falls off onto my driveway, I’m not responsible, right?
Use of underlayment might be part of code in your state/county.You could phone and find out.I don’t think you would be responsible if someone fell on your driveway,you might have to clean up the mess though,lol.
I personally haven’t installed 3-tabs in about 5 or 7 years.Code where I am (B.c Canada)use to only require a first row of felt.I just checked and every where I read requires full underlayment.
Thanks guys. I did call the building inspector just now and they couldn’t give me an answer without seeing it. I feel kinda creepy about calling but I know this guy is in the process of putting in a master suite in the attic and I don’t want him to do all that work and end up with a leaky roof. Torn between being a good neighbor and being a jerk.
This company is a trip, though. The guys have drug my hose over to use as a drinking fountain and taken a towel from my garden area (we left it outside because it had some gas from the tiller on it) and used it to wipe their sweaty faces. I’m not complaining. Had they asked, I certainly would have given them what they need, but it’s cracking me up. This is a heavily Slovakian area and only one guy speaks English so it’s been a comedy to watch!! LOL
I’m leaving the felt issue up to the building department since the guy I talked to said it was general practice to put felt over the entire roof. I hope they don’t run into any permit issues. Somehow I don’t think these guys got one, but it doesn’t say on the building site that it’s necessary.
Sounds like a budget job,lol Ice & Water shield and felt paper was not in the budget…
In any area where snow and cold climate are common I would Ice & Water shield 2 rows, and felt the rest…
I have lost plenty of jobs to low baller that left old felt, and just replaced shingles, and this wreaks of that …I would be a good neighbor and tell them they are getting short changed!
felt is code, and is a shingled roofs last layer of defence against wind driven rain.All good shingle manufactuers require it as well as any self respecting roofer.
Last winter, I tore off a roof in CT and under the 3 tabs no paper. No rot anywhere. On the north side, there was ice up under the shingles all frozen directly to the plywood. We had to hack it off with a hammer claw but no rotten plywood. Weird.
I ended up asking the neighbor if the roofers were supposed to use paper under the shingles. He said they were supposed to use the membrane for the first course and then use paper on the rest of the roof. He also had a question about the drip edge that was supposed to be put on. He called the roofer and the roofer is here now talking to him (11 pm!) So I don’t know what the outcome is.
Thanks everybody for your help. I’m glad I talked to the neighbor.
A couple years ago my wife and I spent a little time up in the Thunder Bay Ontario area. From a Perkins I watched a crew of roofers doing a 2 story 6/12 large 100sq+ building. I didn’t see the bottom few feet as they were already up 1/3 of the way and they were putting what looked like 25yr 3 tabs over osb. They were stairstepping them tow courses at a time with gun nails. This is the only time personaly witnessed strip shingles being installed over raw decking. (except for the guy shingling on the top right corner!)
In MN if it’s a heated building it needs ice and water 2ft inside the interior wall and in valleys and 15 pounds on the rest. (Minumal code) If it’s an unheated building than just 15 pound.
Torn off roofs without felt but they had cedar shakes or shingles with spaced decking. Also every now and then a home owner built and roofed shed or garage.
Well, my neighbor is very happy I said something to him. The roofers…not so much. Today they are ripping off the entire side of the roof they shingled yesterday so they can put down the 15lb felt they were supposed to do BEFORE putting the shingles on. Oh yeah, and the drip edge.
