On Dec 4, 4:29 pm, wrote:
On Dec 3, 9:14 pm, "Pat" wrote:
On Dec 3, wrote:

I live on the Oregon coast, and I am watching the shingles blow off of
my roof. This doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough that
I want to find a better way than just nailing them back on one at a
time.

My roof has "architectural" shingles, which to me just means they
don't lie flat, and they make it a lot easier for the wind to get
under them. It occurs to me that I could greatly reduce the chance of
their blowing off if I nailed them down withfurringstrips every
couple feet or so, i.e. 8' long, very light 1x2s running vertically
from the peak to the gutter. I know it wouldn't look great, but the
biggest problem is with the part of the roof that faces the back yard,
so they wouldn't be visible from the street. And if I painted them
dark brown, they might not be visible at all unless someone was
looking for them.

I realize that it would hurt the resale, but a) I have no plans to
move, and b) it wouldn't take much extra work to pull them up when I
get a new roof, which I would have to do if I sold the house anyway.

So, comments? Other than the looks, is there any structural or
practical reason why they wouldn't work?

Once the shingles start flapping in the wind the roof needs to be replaced.
Gluing the shingles back down with roofing cement is the correct way to
proceed as a temporary repair until summer when the roof can be replaced.
However if you prefer to nail them down with boards go ahead. Or simply
skip the boards and nail the flaps down. May make the roof a little harder
to replace but I can't see any harm. Consider it a temporary repair until
you get some dry weather.

Thank you for your helpful reply, which I didn't realize would be so
hard to come by in this group. Everything you said makes sense, but
the roof is only five years old. The people who put it on are pretty
much the only roofers in this very small town, so I have no reason to
expect they will do it any better than the first time. To be fair to
them, my house is on top of a hill, and apparently sits right square
at the apex of a funnel formed by the terrain, so I get the strongest
winds around here, which is saying something. I had an anemeometer
rated for 80mph that broke.

In such a high wind area you should have used shingles with a higher
wind rating and used an increased nailing pattern (six nails instead
of four per 3' shingle). Basically all information necessary is right
on the shingle package wrapper.

I have a pension lump sum payment coming in a couple of years, and
when I get it I'll probably replace the roof with something designed
for the high winds, but I can't afford a replacement until then. For
now, I've just been nailing the shingles back on (which is what the
"pros" did for the first two years, then they said I was on my own).

I've been using very short nails which I don't think are long enough
to go all the way through the plywood on the roof.

The kiss of death for any roof. The nails _must_ penetrate the roof
sheathing.

At any rate, I've
nailed a lot of shingles up there over the past three years, and I
haven't seen any leaks. And like I said, I put tar over the nails.
Should that work for a few years if I refresh the tar every summer?

There is a definite correlation between amount of time spent on a roof
by amateurs and decreased life expectancy. You're asking people to
guess on your skill, roof and climactic conditions and predict an
outcome it's still a guess. Should it work? For a while, maybe.
Will it work? Not for any appreciable amount of time.

I guess I could go over the whole roof and glue every shingle, but
geez that sounds like a lot of work.

It is. Doing things right the first time is a helluva lot easier.
And easy repairs often equate to shoddy repairs.

A lot of them *are* glued,
because when I was watching the storm a big section of them, about the
size of a car door, was flapping as a unit. That's what made me think
that nailing furring strips over them might help. I think the problem
is that it rarely gets up to 70 degrees in the summer here, so the
glue doesn't melt well. And I could probably get away with just
putting the strips on the windward edges, because that's where all the
damage was.

You're roof is doomed and was from the day it was put on. If you have
sections of shingles flapping in the wind and there's not a hurricane
directly on you, the problem is with the installation. My guess is
that either you reroofed and the roofer used too short nails or
skipped nails because they're negligent/incompetent.

Furring strips will cause far more problems. There are better
solutions for borderline emergency repairs. As someone else posted,
just nail right through the shingles and forget about the furring
strips, then use a elastomeric roof coating over the whole shebang.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...c+roof+coating

One of the comedians here accidentally made a helpful comment about
leaking from under the furring strips.

I'll be appearing here all week. Tell your friends.

If I put some gobs of tar on
the shingles, then put the board on top of the tar, and then nailed
throught the board, tar, and shingles (before the tar dries), would
that make it waterproof? Would using silicone sealant instead of tar
make any difference?

Thanks for any help, and sorry to bother the other guys.

You're not a bother. But asking why a roof would leak after you Rube
Goldberg it up and punch holes all over it is rather funny. From
where I'm sitting, you're the comedian.

If the roofing company did screw up your roof you could and should go
after them for a replacement - even at this late date. You need to
determine exactly how the roof was installed, nailing pattern, size of
nails, underlayment, etc., document it and work up how the roof
company was negligent. Then send them the package of materials with
photographs and explain how their errors and omissions damaged you and
that you expect them to remedy the situation. If they're dragging
their heels, have a lawyer draft up a strongly worded letter and send
it to them. The objective is to pressure them into replacing the roof
without getting the lawyers too heavily involved. If lawyers do get
involved, well then you'll be hiring a roofing company from outside
your area to replace the roof. It will cost much more than the
original roofing company cost and the original company would be
looking at possibly laying out approximately three or four times the
amount of cash than it would take them to put on a new roof for their
cost. It's all about risk.

Please be aware that your amateur repairs are damaging the roof and
will hamper any efforts to have the roof corrected at little or not
cost.

R

BTW, I really am hilarious - and not just looking.