Shingling A Roof In Winter

Asphalt shingles have a seal between them designed to firmly bind and secure the shingles together when exposed to sun and warm temperatures.

Shingling a roof in winter.

The worst roofing job ever. The suns radiant energy is of significant importance in heating the roof surface to a minimum of forty degrees in the winter. That means roofers must take extra precautions when working on a roof to wear roof fall protection equipment work methodically and carefully and wear high performing gear like winter rated work boots which have been tested for wet cold conditions. Asphalt shingles can be installed in the winter but extreme care must be taken by roofers installing it not to bend and crack the shingle as well as not to trap moisture under them.

The metal roof installation process varies from other materials like shingles. If the roof shingles and all accessory roof components are arranged and overlapped with this in mind the roof should successfully shed water. Again 40 degrees is not a magic number nor is it concrete it s a safe temperature for installing shingles. One of the benefits of installing shingles in the winter in colorado springs is the abundant sunshine.

This tops anything i have seen in 25 years of roofing duration. Metal doesn t use these adhesives so winter has no impact on our process. The problem with installing asphalt shingles in the winter is that they get brittle. For shingles projects the adhesives become the biggest concern in lower temperatures.

Intuitively roofing in the winter doesn t seem to be such a good idea right. Every tab should be sealed with one or two dabs roughly 1 inch in diameter of asphalt roofing cement. In the winter time a professional roofing contractor may choose to hand seal the shingles with an approved asphalt roofing cement or other adhesive that s provided by the manufacturer. Let s sort this out by looking at three components that affect the final result.

Cleaning ice after 2 days of freezing rain. Installing brittle shingles makes them more susceptible to breaking or cracking during the installation process. Metal roof installation is fine during the winter. However during winter installations both of these rules are frequently ignored by roofers causing premature roof failures.

Understand the physics of how a sloped shingle roof works. First there are human beings that will work on that roof. Asphalt roofing shingles simply rely on the force of gravity to shed water from rain or snow melt. In the dictionary to shingle is defined as to lay out or arrange so as to overlap.

Roof surfaces can become slick and slippery thanks to snow ice or frost.