Shingle Your Roof For $60!

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I found I could finish 40 shingles in 20 minutes, and—after working four Saturdays and five week nights—I had the 2,000 shingles I needed.

In the years since this roof was installed, our heating and cooling bills have been less, and the homemade, interlocking shingles have weathered 80MPH winds and heavy snows. Yes sir, my "bargain basement" roofing has passed the test of time, and I still feel a glow of pride and accomplishment every, time I come home and see its beautiful, diamond-like pattern glowing in the afternoon sun.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was condensed from the author's 14-page pamphlet, How I Shingled My Roof for $60. For more information, write D. Simmons, Dept. TMEN, Box 7154 University Station,, Provo, Utah 84602.

My Shingle Mounting Method

I'm not a professional roofer by any stretch of the imagination, so what I'll say here certainly won't be the last word on shingle mounting. However, the method that follows did work on my own house, and can probably give you some idea of how to proceed.

First, since aluminum is slippery stuff—and because I didn't want to put too much stress on my lightweight creations—I planned to work from right to left and place the shingles (one above the other) in vertical strips . . . while I sat safely to one side on the old asphalt roof.

Here's the procedure: I hooked each plate's 1/8" "lip"—beneath edge "A"—over the top of the shingle below it, and slipped the right side "B" of the aluminum shake into the strapiron-formed pocket of the matching shingle in the row immediately to the right. This placed the upper right obtuse corner of the "new" tile beneath the upper left acute angle of the shingle in the preceding row. These two corners—"C" and "D"—were then secured with one nail (near enough to the upper edge to be covered by the next shingle), while a second fastener was used to hold down the "flap" at "E". In this way, all of the sides of my shingles overlapped, and two roofing nails were sufficient to secure three corners of each of my plates. Finally, any nailheads that—because of nonuniform shingles—were not covered by another aluminum plate received a waterproofing coat of black plastic sealant.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Although Mr. Simmons didn't use them, we recommend rubber-fitted roofing nails for this job.

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