Finally, we are ready to install the main asphalt shingles on the roof. Lining up the bottom edge with the starter course and the right-hand side with the vertical chalk line hammer four nails in the shingle, just below the self-sealing strip about 10mm above the cutout. Now you can see the reason behind the starter course – two layers of asphalt roof shingles at all times.
TIP “For this roof the owner didn’t want to see the nails protruding through the plywood, so I bought a 20mm shank x 10mm head galvanized clout nail. 17mm plywood was also used.”
Thought I’d put this in for a bit of a laugh. Getting your Dad to video your roof installation blog – perhaps not a good idea!
OK, this video shows how we line up the asphalt roof shingle on the vertical lines. It also shows a little trick with the IKO asphalt roof shingles.
If you hold the asphalt roof shingles by the outer edge and feel with your thumbs, you will notice small cutouts on the sides. This measures the exact height of the shingle on the lower course. Push down on the cutout and slide the shingle down until it hits the previous course of asphalt shingles.
TIP “IKO asphalt roof shingles have a factory-made cut out on the side and one on the top of each fibreglass three-tab asphalt shingle. These can be used to place the roof tile in the correct place on the roof. Don’t use these cutouts as the only guide, be sure to use the chalk line every 3 -4 courses.”
OK, just a continuation of the previous video. Four nails per asphalt roof shingle 10mm up from the cutouts and but the shingles close together.
TIP “In standard installations, we use 4 clout nails per asphalt shingle. In high wind areas, you can use 6 nails per asphalt shingle. Two nails on either side of the cutout approx. 10mm and 1 nail on either end. “
Every 3 – 4 courses you should make yourself a horizontal chalk line to make sure your asphalt roof shingles are straight. With the IKO asphalt Roof Shingles, we measure 140mm up from the previous course on both ends and create a chalk line. This becomes the line we follow to keep the horizontal lines straight.
TIP “This becomes more of an issue on a larger roof where your lines can go astray if you are not careful.”
Cutting the capping pieces off the standard three-tab asphalt roof shingle. Here on this video, I am cutting the capping pieces for the hips and ridge if there was one. Each three-tab asphalt shingle creates three capping pieces. You will notice I cut the capping pieces with a hook blade and backwards on a slight angle. This gives the hip line a much neater line and also folds the hip caps over nicely.
TIP “Each bundle of 21 pieces of IKO Marathon Asphalt roof shingles can be cut into 63 pieces of hip and ridge capping. 63 pieces of hip and ridge capping cover 8.8 lineal meters of hip or ridge.”
And that’s all you need to do! Not yet. I just wanted to show you how to cut straight down the hips with a special hook blade knife. This tool is essential as it enables you to cut the asphalt roof shingles straight through the top.
TIP “One of the most important tools for building a DIY roof is the hook blade knife. – Rush out and get one today.”
Here we cut our capping pieces off our main three-tab fibreglass asphalt shingle. After cutting the pieces, we snap a chalk line on one side of the hip 160mm from the centre line. This gives us a nice straight line to run our capping pieces against. The first capping piece will overlap over the bottom of the hip – this will be cut later. From here we hammer the capping pieces up the roof being sure to align in the same way as we did on the standard shingle. At the base of the hip, you can use your hook blade knife and carefully cut the protruding edges off.
The same principal applies when you are installing the ridge capping pieces.
TIP “You may need to use a longer clout nail here as you are nailing through three layers of shingles.”
Courses of asphalt shingles running up the roof
The courses of asphalt roof shingles are installed up the roof – easy to place shingles on the hip.
Here we follow the same formula and install the asphalt roof shingles courses up the roof. On or close to the hip line, it is often a good idea to hammer a couple of nails in these pieces to hold them in place. The IKO Dual colour Marathon asphalt roofing shingle gives the roof some definition and depth, whereas flatter colour shingles lack depth.
TIP “When walking over an asphalt shingle roof, it is a good idea not to wear your pair of heavy working boots as you may leave marks in the asphalt shingles. Many roofers use tennis shoes to grip to the roof surface.”
The easiest way to run the asphalt shingles to the hip is to layover and cut at the end, down a string line. If you have large pieces over be sure to cut these off and use them somewhere else.
Running a chalk line down the hip makes cutting easier
Run a chalk line down the hip to make cutting straight easier.
Clean cut down the hip with a hook blade knife
Cut straight down the hip. Easy stuff… Are we there yet… Nearly.
Re use the diagonal cut on the felt on the other side of the roof
Here you can see that you can use the felt roofing material on the other side of the hip with the same cut.
Finishing the last hip
Great feeling. Finishing the roof. Without all of the photos and videos, this roof took 2 days to complete. The owner finished the roof off with a small fascia board which gave the roof a little more bulky feeling. It was also painted on the underside of the plywood and electricity, and lighting was installed so it could be used on the warm summer nights.
The underside of DIY Gazebo painted with lighting installed
Light coloured paint finishes underneath with lighting installed.
Here is the finished product. What do you think? Not a bad result. The asphalt roof shingles really give the structure some class and strength.
TIP “The owner built the structure with decent sized pieces of wood which helped to create a solid structure and the careful selection of Woodland Grey for the posts and a Marino colour for the rafters finished the project.”
Thank you for reading my DIY Asphalt Roofing guide – please leave a comment or feel free to contact us to ask any questions
