How to Put Shingles on a Garden Shed

Installing asphalt roof shingles on a garden shed keeps the shed's contents dry and eliminates structural water damage to the shed's wood components. To form a water shield, asphalt shingles need to be properly installed. This includes paying attention to small details like nailing locations and shingle overlap at the edges of the roof. Failure to carefully install the garden shed roof will cause the roof to be ineffective in keeping water out of the shed.

Things You'll Need

• Utility knife
• Chalk line
• Straightedge
• Roofing nails
• Hammer
• Ridge vent
• Tar caulk tube
• Drop-in caulk gun

Instructions

1. Measure the length of the garden shed roof. Cut the tabs off enough shingles to line both lower edges of the roof. Leave the tar line on the cut shingles. These partial shingles will be installed as a starter strip for the roof. The starter strip fills the voids left by the notches on the first course of roof shingles.

2. Secure the starter shingles to the low edge of the roof with the tar line on the shingles facing up. Place the roofing nails 2 inches from the top of the shingle. Use three nails per shingle. Complete the starter strip on both sides of the roof. Measure from the low edge of the roof where the starter strip is located up 1 shingle width minus 1/8th of an inch and place a pencil mark there. Repeat the process at each corner of the garden shed roof. Snap a chalk line between the marks on each side of the roof. The chalk line will be parallel with the low edge of the garden shed roof.

3. Place the first full shingle at the lower right corner of the roof, with the top of the shingle on the chalk line. Examine the notches on the shingle. Make sure that the notches on the shingle do not line up with a joint on the starter strip. Cut the length of the shingle down so that the notches and starter strip seams alternate. Realign the first shingle and nail the shingle in place. The nails need to be just below each shingle's tar line. Use four nails per shingle. The shingle should overhang the fascia board 1/8th of an inch. The fascia board is the vertical board that intersects the drip edge of the roof. Continue nailing the shingles to the garden shed roof until you have completed the first course.

4. Secure the second course of shingles to the garden shed roof. Again, make sure that the seams and notches do not line up. Cut a shingle if necessary. You do not have to complete each course of shingles to progress to the next course. To make the job faster, you can work in a pyramid fashion. Continue securing the shingles to the roof until you reach the roof's peak. Let the last course of shingles lay over the peak.

5. Trim the last course of shingles to be even with the open gap for the ridge vent. Place the ridge vent over the ridge vent opening and secure it with roofing nails placed in the preformed holes. Cover the ridge vent with ridge cap shingles.

6. Cut the nozzle of the caulking tube containing tar. Apply dabs of tar on any loose corners of the ridge cap shingles. Clean up and dispose of any pieces of shingle that you've cut off.

References

• HammerZone: Installing Asphalt Roof Shingles