Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RoofedItMyself #CollectiveBias
If you have been following along, for Father’s Day I decided to give my husband the shed that he has been dreaming of for the last 8 years. We picked out a kit, built it together, painted it and finally this weekend we finished roofing it. Roofing was a little scary to me, until I actually did it, which is why I put together this Easy Guide to Roofing to show you just how I roofed it myself!
We purchased our kit for the shed at Lowe’s and followed the directions to put everything together. The kit comes with everything except a floor and the roofing supplies. It does come with roof decking though. This is what our shed looked like after we had built it but prior to putting the paint and roof on.
Before we purchased our shed, I did a lot of research and knew exactly what supplies that we would need to purchase in addition to the shed. I placed a ship to store order with Lowe’s for our roofing supplies and decided to go with GAF Timberline® High Definition® Shingles and supplies. It was an easy choice after reading the reviews on the website and finding out that these were the shingles used on our house just last year. GAF shingles are extremely durable and made with proprietary, granular technology. This roof looks good and it is easy to see why GAF Timberline HD® shingles are the best selling shingle in North America. In addition, it was hard to pass up their awesome Lifetime ltd. warranty which you can read more about here!
We ordered 3 bundles of Timberline HD® shingles, 1 package of TimberTex® Premium Ridge Cap Shingles, 1 roll of Feltbuster® High-Traction synthetic roofing felt and 1 package of Pro-Start™ Eave/Rake Starter Strip shingles and had them shipped to our local Lowe’s store. Ship to store was super easy. I picked out what I wanted online, paid and waited a short time for a call to come pick up our order. We went straight to customer service, where they called the order up, then they loaded it onto a forklift and into our truck! We had the last of our supplies to complete our project and were totally ready!
The first thing we did was install our drip edge. My husband wanted to make sure we did this to code for our area and so our drip edge went on before the felt. We have read other places that the felt sometimes goes under the drip edge, make sure to look up the code for your area. A drip edge is very important for a roofing project because it helps prevent water infiltration and increase wind resistance.
We then painted our shed according to our HOA specifications. We matched our house exactly, which was easy since just last year we had to get our entire house repainted and re-roofed from a massive hail storm. Now we know the exact color of our house and shingles and we LOVE it. We did hand roll the paint on the drip edge, although it totally looks sprayed on. Not sure why it did that, but it looks cool.
After the paint dried, we measured out the Feltbuster® roofing felt and got to work installing it. First, you roll out the felt on the roof, then cut it to have 3/4 inch overhang on the eaves and rakes. With the print up, you then use 1 1/4 round plastic cap roofing nails and nail in the roof decking following the wonderful marks that GAF put on the felt!
Next, it was time to start installing the shingles. We decided to purchase the Pro-Start™ Eave/Rake Starter Strip Shingles to make this process easier with less cutting. We watched this video on how to install the starter strip and had the entire sheds eaves and rakes shingled with the Pro-Start™ Starter Strips in about 10 minutes. We made sure that the starter strip had an overhang of 3/4 of an inch inline with the felt. This was very easy.
We were ready to put the shingles on! This part was very exciting to me and I watched this awesome tutorial video from GAF on how to do this perfectly! My husband trimmed the shingles to ensure that our roof looked great and we did not have racking to avoid potential roof damage and shingle blow offs. GAF recommends that you start with your first full Timberline HD® shingle and place it on the roof atop the starter shingle with four to six 1-1 1/4 inch galvanized nails. The overhang should match your starter shingle. The second row of shingles you remove 6 inches with a shingle knife from the edge of your Timberline HD® shingle and place it on top, for the third row, remove 11 inches and place it above that and then the fourth row you remove 17 inches and place that above the third row. You can see above how everything is layered and cut and you can also see a video here.
Once we cut the shingles we then started laying the shingles from left to right (you can go right to left too) and nailing as described. My husband would hand me the shingles and then I would line them up perfectly and nail them down. We repeated this pattern until the roof was nearly done. It looked fantastic and our neighbors all came out to tell us how good it looked and how well we had done!
There was just one part we had not completed and I was probably the most confused and intimidated with this; the ridge cap. I had to ask my dad how to do this as he has roofed many buildings. Luckily, with dad’s advice and the easy perforated lines on the TimberTex® Premium Ridge Cap Shingles it was a much simpler process then I expected. The ridge cap took all of 15 minutes to install! You just layer them atop each other with one nail on each side straight back. Once you reach the end you nail through the last shingle and trim off any excess.
One thing that I forgot to mention is how important it is to wear protective gear. I had on old jeans, good sneakers, glasses, a hat and gloves for protection. Shingles are rough and sticky and you do not want to damage them as much as you do not want to damage yourself. Make sure to keep yourself safe and if you are working on a large project, do it with a partner and always spot someone on a ladder.
You can see how smooth the ridge cap looks and what a great finish it put on the entire roof. I am not sure why it intimidated my so bad, because it was probably the second easiest part of this roofing adventure. Our entire GAF roof is so durable and looks great. We are very happy with how it turned out and the ease of installment.
Our shed exterior is complete and it looks amazing. My husband told me it is the best father’s day gift he has ever received and that it has added a beautiful touch to our yard and our home. This shed is exactly what our large yard has been missing and it brings a smile to our faces every time we go outside. We have a few more things to do, including adding a ramp and building shelving inside the shed. It is a disaster in there right now!
Out of the entire build process, the roof was my favorite part so far. I loved the challenge of learning something new and was proud that I was the one that did the majority of the roofing. My husband helped a bit, but I was the girl with the hammer and nails! I truly did roof it myself.
Doesn’t our yard look great! If you want to learn more about GAF, they are super helpful and active on social media. You can check out their website and Facebook too.
So tell me, what type of DIY project could you use GAF Roofing on?
