How to Re-Roof Your Home

Removing the Old Roof

• 1

  Position tarps at the bottom of your walls to catch the old shingles, felt and nails for easy disposal. Scrape the old shingles from the roof with a flat shovel, starting at the bottom edge.

• 2

  Pull nails that do not come up with the shingles, using a hammer claw or flat nail bar.

• 3

  Scrape the old felt from the roof, using the flat shovel. Allow all of the shingles and felt to slide off of the roof onto the tarps.

Installing the New Roof

• 4

  Inspect the metal drip edge and replace any pieces that are badly rusted, bent or missing. Cut the new piece with tin snips so that it overlaps the existing drip edge on both ends. Align the new piece with bottom of existing drip edge. Nail through the top face with roofing nails.

• 5

  Roll out new roofing felt to underlay your shingles horizontally, starting with a row flush with the bottom edge of the roof. Cut the felt to length using a utility knife. Nail the felt to the roof with 1-inch nylon washer roofing nails. Roll out and nail each subsequent row so that it overlaps the previous row by a a couple of inches.

• 6

  Install a starter row of shingles along the bottom edge of the roof, with the tabs toward the top and the square "top" edge facing down, aligned with the edge of the roof, to provide a weather-tight edge. Cut the last piece to fit with a utility knife.

• 7

  Starting at one end, align the outside edge of a full shingle flush with the edge of the gable. Make both sides and bottom are flush with the starter shingle. Nail each shingle in place with six, 1-inch roofing nails that are evenly spaced across the top half of the shingle and above the horizontal adhesive tar line.

• 8

  Butt the next shingle tightly up to the edge of the first shingle. Straighten and nail this shingle in place in the same manner. Add full length pieces across the roof as far as you can. Cut the last shingle to fit with utility knife, and nail it down.

• 9

  Return to the other side of the roof to start the next row. Cut one-half of a tab off a shingle to avoid lining up the shingle's "flutes." As you go up the roof, alternate between full and half-tab shingles as your initial shingle.

• 10

  Move back to where you started. Add rows of shingles, overlapping the previous row to several inches below the adhesive tar line on the row below. Use the notches cut on the sides of the shingle as gauges for your overlap. Nail all shingles with six roofing nails. Work up to where the exposed portion of the shingles are within 2 or 3 inches of the peak.

Installing Ridge Cap Shingles

• 11

  Take a full, leftover shingle and place the utility knife at top of flute (the space between tabs). Slice to the top edge of the shingle to create a single-tab, ridge cap shingle. Cut enough of them to cover the length of the entire peak.

• 12

  Fold pre-creased ridge cap shingles to conform to the peak. Position the first shingle at one end of the peak,with exposed portion flush with the edge. Nail. Place each shingle across the peak to overlap below the tar strip. Nail each ridge cap shingle on the back corner.

• 13

  Install ridge cap shingles from either end toward the center one at a time until you have a small gap between at the middle. Install one final shingle that overlaps the ends of both rows. Nail through the face to attach it at all four corners of the shingle. Smear tar on the exposed nails.