reroofing

I have a ranch style home, and the roof is 24 years old. It does not leak, but the asphalt singles are showing some wear. Can I lay another layer of shingles over the existing ones? The existing ones are still n decent repair,ie not curved upwards or torn. If I can are there any tips to know about starting or finishing the cap that I should be aware of?
Thanks for the help,
Jim Hughes

 

To:
Jim Hughes;
Good news,you can lay a 2nd layer over the 1st,as long as there hasn't been any cupping or curling of the exsistning shingles.
O.K. 1st. step real simple.Go to the ridge of you house and remove the caps using a flat bar or hammer.
2nd.] Safety first make sure you have a good working platform where you're going to start.usually along the front going from left to right
take 5 shingles,a razor knife,and a square.turn the shingles over,bottom facing up.The shingle are layed out in 6"(see bundle wrapping for further instructions)
place the square on the shingle and cut 6" off the first shingle and separate the two pieces. next you're going to cut off 12" off the 2nd. piece,18" off the 3rd. piece and so on, until you have to sets of 5 shingles.One set of starters and one set of finishes.The starters have the cut edge on the left looking at the the shingle.
3rd.]standing on your staging starting on the side of the foof,take a full shingle,turn it up side down line it up flush with the drip edge and the edge of the rake board and nail it down at the top
Now you're going to start the stepping process of roofing.Take the larger of your starters and lay it over the shingle you had nailed on up side down.
take the next largest shingle and place it 5" up from the first one,now you see the stepping process.contiue these steps all the way up to the ridge
If this project is too big for you ,the home owner ,to handle I suggest a professional.Remember to get more than one estimate. If your roof is in good condition a lay over is the way to go it will save you some money and you won't have to strip shingles off your roof and create a huge mess to clean up aleast until you go to roof your house next time,I wouldn't put more than 2 layers on a roof

Good luck
Gump
P.S.I'll follow up on this if you have any more
questions.

 

Check with your local bldg. dept. before you add a second layer of roofing over the existing. It ain't legal to do it in many areas!

 

I have roofing information at my website http://morethanacarpenter.bigstep.co...68&PRID=178842

But if you are going to layover with shingles disregard the 5" step and just butt he shingles up to the bottom of the next course. This eliminate water traps.

 

You have been given good information by the boys, but there is one thing I noticed that they did not mention. Yes, you can do an overlay. Many do. But if you do, you can expect to have a wavey roof in about 2 or 3 years. It will not look flat. No matter what you do. Another thing is if you do not tear your existing roof off first, how are you going to know if there are any rotten spots in your sub roofing ?
Tearing off a roof is very quick and very cheap.