Roof replacement tips and tricks are designed to remove the old shingles when installing a new one!
We all know that roof will eventually wear out and need replacement. And, as such, you will face the task of removing old shingles so that new ones can be installed. If you have never had to replace a roof before, then there are many things that might surprise you about how it’s done:
how difficult it is; the amount of time required; how much work is involved, and what kinds of equipment is needed to do it. With this kind of knowledge in hand from the start, each step of your project will go more easily and smoothly right from the beginning until completion. But first off let’s take a look at why roofs get holes or leaks anyway? Why does my roof leak? A lot of the time, a broken or missing shingle is the cause of a leak. But it could be from pretty much anywhere on your roof, including areas that shingles are not supposed to cover. If you have a flat roof that leaks, then it’s likely the flashing around your chimney or skylights has come loose and needs replacing. Or maybe just one of them isn’t fitting correctly anymore. Even if you do have an older asphalt roof with lots of layers of old shingles on it, all those layers can make finding the source of a leak very difficult for home owners because these problems can hide under all those other layers until they get really bad!
At the end of the day, there is no reason why you should not be able to DIY the job of replacing your own roof!
To remove a shingle, a pry bar is used. These come in various lengths and widths so you can choose one that best suits your needs for the task at hand. The most common type of pry bar is a flat-head style which looks almost like a big putty knife with a typically steel or aluminum handle, but some have wooden handles instead. This tool slides under the front lip of an existing shingle and then you just use it as leverage to lift up on the existing shingle to break the seal between it and its underlying nails. Then you simply slide all those nails out from underneath it from both sides before gradually working your way further down until you have removed the entire length of the shingle. Once you have done that, then all you do is simply pull it out from underneath and toss it aside or take it with you as trash to dispose of as well as those nails!
A pry bar can also come in a “J” style which makes removing shingles much easier since you don’t have to be quite as careful about scratching up your roof while creating a wider area for the head of the tool to slide under. You just set one edge on top of a shingle before sliding this type of pry bar under another so it’s easier to pop one right after another loose without hesitation.