Laminated Fiberglass Roofing Shingles now dominate a large part of the market today. Their Shingles have the appearance of wood or slate and cost a lot less than the real thing.

GAF, CertainTeed, IKO, Tamko and Owens Corning are a very popular roofing shingles on the market. They have grades like Good, Better and the Best and warranties are from 20 to 40 years.

There is a wide range of colors and styles that have the look of slate, shake and dimensional that have striking looks and lasting beauty of your roof or your basic strip look.

There is also a wide range of ice and water barriers, deck protectors like Deck Armer and Shingle Mate. Install a high quality one that your new roofing shingle manufactory recommends and here are some more tips below.

1. Always use ice & water barriers along valleys, dormers, skylights, chimneys, vertical walls and plumbing vents.
2. Always install dry materials when repairing or they will distort your barriers, deck protectors and maybe your roofing shingles.
3. If applying new deck sheathing, use high quality exterior plywood that is 3/4 thick.
4. When installing new plywood allow for a 1/8 space between the seams to allow for plywood expansion or plywood could move and create a bubble that will push up roofing materials and also stagger your plywood when installing.
5. It is important and critical to install drip edge for a finished look to keep your roof watertight and custom spray the drip edge to match rake boards.
6. I recommend that drip edge to be installed along the eaves edge.
7. On the rakes, apply drip edge on top of roofing ice and water barrier.
8. Drip edges must be nailed down thoroughly into place.
9. I recommend if your house is near the ocean that roofing shingles are hurricane nailed, which means using double the amount of roofing nails per shingle being installed and to install ice & water barrier on entire roof.
10. I always recommend to do a roof in the late spring to early summer or the beginning of fall, the new roofing shingles must seal before winter by the warm weather and sun. I don’t recommend when its to hot because installers can mark the roof up and get heat stroke if it gets to hot. I don’t also recommend installing right before winter because you take a chance of your new roofing shingles blowing off your house and then you could have a big problem.
    Let a professional do the job, Call Bruce today for a free estimate.