Replacing the Roof of your Home
Roofing a house can be a very easy job which you can just do it yourself. This project just need you to have necessary tools, also have the necessary materials you need to make a complete roof and the most important is a guidebook which will help you to know what you need and how you can fix everything accurately. What you should know is that there are more things to consider when roofing more than just putting up roofing materials, there are some small details which are very important that you keep them in mind as you install your roof.
Some of the tools that you will need to accomplish your project include; extension ladder, air compressor, roofing stapler caulk gun, hammer and scaffolding among other many safety tools. The materials you need include; roofing nails, shingles, drip-edge, waterproof underlying and roofing sealant among other minor ones. Once you have these tools and materials, you can follow the guide keenly and install your traditional roof yourself; here are the necessary steps you need to follow.
Strip off your old roof
This is the very first step you need to do, make sure that you are doing it safely not to injure yourself, this step is applicable if you are replacing your roof, but if you are installing a new roof on a house that has never had a roof before then you will need to jump to the next step. However, don’t forget to clean the debris that has fallen on your wall where the roof is going to stand. And don’t forget to get out all the nails that are protruding or you can drive them in and flatten them.
Apply an underlayment
First before you apply this underlying, make sure that the surface is very clean and there is no debris, and make sure that you are using an air compressor to flush out any of the dirt, the underlying must be applied to a clean surface. Install your underlying material on the sheathing of your roof, you should check and confirm that you material is self-adhesive and waterproof too because it is mainly installed to prevent water from passing through.
Add on a tar paper
This is added on top of the underlying material, it is also called a felt paper so don’t get confused, the felt paper is treated mostly with asphalt to make sure that it doesn’t allow any water to pass through. You will not find a tar paper that is big enough to cover your roof just once, this means you will have to overlap, during overlap, make sure that the overlap is 2 inches on top of each other so that no water can find chance to enter the roof through the overlaps.
Install a flashing
A flashing is very important on a roof; it is installed at the edges of your roof along the eaves to make sure that there is no material that is curling over the edge, also it prevents the water to get into the roof in case there is a stormy rain with a lot of wind blowing the water towards the roof, apart from that it also makes the roof look good. You will also require flashing other parts of the roof like the chimney and the valley.
Lay the first layer of shingles
Shingles are applied in two layers according to professionals. The first layer is very sensitive; just make sure that it is in a correct way because the final layer of the shingles relies on it heavily, the rows that will come after this layer will have the base here. To make this work you will need to use a chalk to divide the roof into two parts from the middle so that you can work with layers both on the left and the right, meaning that if you put a layer to the left, you put another one to the right, this method will give you a very uniform.
Lay the final layer of the shingles
This is the final layer of the shingles that will be seen from outside and so it should be installed with a lot of keenness. First divide the shingles because they come when they are 3 in one tab, the shingles have their self-adhesive layer, and this makes it easy to apply them on the initial layer. As you apply make sure that they are facing up as they go along the eaves. As you apply the final layer just make sure that you are leaving an overhang of the internal layer with something like a quarter an inch. Generally you should be very keen when installing this final layer to make sure that the shingles are overlapping in the required manner.
Nail the two layers
The overlapping layers might not be very tightly held together to withstand a harsh weather, this is the reason why you should consider nailing them together to the base of the roof, when nailing you should note that it must be done on the flush so that water cannot penetrate through the material from the small spaces left behind by the nails
Cap the ridge
The ridge is put at the very top part of the roof to make sure that the two sides of the roof are have a smooth meeting that won’t allow water to penetrate into the roof. The capping of the ridge is very important so that the ridge can get enough protection
Seal the nails and remove any dirt
This is the final step, don’t just leave everything like that, and check if there are any nails that are still protruding out and drive them in, also you should clean all the dirt that might have stuck on the roof before you get down.
In Awe Roofing Limited is an Award-Winning, family owned and operated Vancouver Roofing Contractor with over 17 years of roofing experience. We serve the entire Lower Mainland area, from Whistler to Chilliwack, employing a team of professional staff members. Our team has won numerous awards including Best of Homestars for the last five years, and Three Best Rated six years in a row. Learn more
