2 Table of Contents Common Roof Shapes______Pg 3 Terms and Components You Should Know______Pg 5 Troubleshooting Shingle Roof Problems______Pg 7 Common Installation Mistakes to Avoid______Pg 9 Roofing Shingles & materials Extreme Applications______Pg 12 Accessories Matter: Shingle Roof Accessories______Pg 14 Curb Appeal of a New Shingle Roof______Pg 16 Best Roof Shingles at Every Price Point______Pg 18 10 Questions to ask Before Hiring a Roofing Contractor______Pg 21 3
Common Roof Shapes When you are either deciding to build a home or deciding on getting a new roof, one question that the roofing contractor might ask you is the shape of your roof. This helps also in deciding what type of roofing material you would want to have on your roof. Some designs or shapes, do better with certain materials and some materials do not do so well with certain shapes. Knowing this information is helpful to your contractor and informative to you to learn something about your home. Each shape gives a different characteristics and many are more popular with variances to them from historic homes and now in present unique designs. For now let’s cover the basic shapes. ! The first is the Gable or pitch shape. This is one of the most common shapes you will see which is the triangular shape you come across most often. These roofs are especially used when the building plans call for an attic area.
The next we have is the Hipped roof. These are also popular in homes and they often have shady eaves, these are also meant to offer more resistance to strong winds. You will see that there are also hipped and valley roofs that means they consist of the hipped design with multiple ones which is what makes the valleys. The next we have is the gambrel shape. This is most commonly used for barns and other agricultural buildings that has been used for barns for a long time now. There are some residential homes that use this shape as well. The next that we see a lot of is the flat roofs, especially in commercial buildings. 4
These roofs you do not shingle or use metal, instead you use other roofing materials like PVC, and EPDM. Another shape popular is the shed or skillion shape. It is known for shed most commonly because used to be most sheds used the shape and they are used in some homes and can be very steep. Another that you will see a lot of is the pyramid shape where the roof comes to a point in the middle. These we see especially in smaller homes. These also have attic space.
The saltbox is also a shape that you may see where one side of the roof is longer than the other. These also have attic space. Lastly we have the next common shaped that is the mansard. With is much close to the hipped but can have the flat top in the middle, or the edges of the roof comes down at a lesser angle that the hipped. These are also used for homes with attics. These shapes are the most common used especially in residential home designs. There are more designs that have come around or have been around and becoming popular again that give a different charter to homes likes domed, curved or arched roofs. Many monumental buildings have some of these other designs and as you can see they give a unique look to buildings all over. 5
Roofing Terms and Components You Should Know There are many of us that know everything we need to know about your roof and understand the components and terms when it comes to roofing, but there are also many of you that either never had to deal with it or are new home owners and this information will be extremely useful for you to understand the components and terms used by contractors when it is time to replace or repair your roof. ! Let’s start with the roof system components for steep-slope roof systems. There are always five basic components to these: roof covering, sheathing, roof structure, flashing and drainage. The roof covering is the materials your roofed is covered in that we all know well for majority of homes are shingles, but there are other types of coverings like the tile, slate or metal. These coverings protect the sheathing that is underneath from the weather. Which brings us to the next component sheathing, these are the boards or sheet material that is fastened to the roof rafters to cover the building. The roof structure is the rafters and trusses constructed to support the sheathing. Then we have the flashing which is sheet metal or sometimes other material that is installed into the roof systems various joints and the valleys to prevent water seepage. Lastly, the drainage is the design features (shape, slope, and layout) that affects the ability for the roof to shed water. Now that we have covered the basics of the roofing components for your home, lets go over the terms that you will definitely hear when taking to a contractor. Decking is the surface that materials like plywood or oriented strand board (OSB) are applied. Then we have the dormer which is a small structure that projects from the roof like windows that stick out. Drip edge, this is an L-shapped strip that is installed along the edges of the roof that allows water to run off the deck, eaves and siding. This brings us to the eave which is the horizontal lower edge of the sloped roof. The fascia is the flat board, band or face that is located at the corners outer edge. Louvers are slatted devices that are installed in a gable or soffit that is under the eaves to ventilate the space below the roof deck that equalizes air temperature and moisture. Oriented strand board as we covered is the roof deck panels that are installed lengthwise in layers and are held together with a resin glue. Penetrations are 6 vents, pipes, stack, chimneys or anything that penetrates the roof deck. Rafters are the supporting frame the roof deck is attached. The rake is the inclined edge of a roof over a wall. Then we have the ridge which is the top edge of two intersecting sloping roof surfaces. Lastly we have square which is the measurement for the roof area. Any contractor that gives you an estimate or if you order materials will use this term. And finally the valley is the angle formed at the intersection of two sloping roof surfaces. Knowing the components and terms will help you make sure you know what is going on when working with a contractor.