Mobile Tar Shingles

Shingle Roofers

Here is the thing about shingle roofers: the difference between a roof that rides out a Gulf squall and one that peels back like a sardine tin comes down to nailing. Six nails in the strip, driven flush, hit square in the nail line. Too high and the shingle is hanging on by glue. Overdriven and the head cuts right through the mat. You can't see either one from the driveway, which is exactly why it gets skipped.

We check the deck before anything goes down, because soft plywood under tar shingles will telegraph through in a year and no amount of good asphalt shingle roofing fixes rotten wood.

We came up doing walls, and Mobile Siding Installation is still half our week, so we've seen where water goes once it beats the nail line.

Asphalt Shingle Roofers

Here's what separates asphalt shingle roofers who last down here from the ones who move on after one summer: nailing. Gulf Coast wind doesn't care how pretty the color is. We hand-place six nails per shingle in the nail zone, not four, not high, not overdriven into the mat, with 1 1/4 inch ring shank coil nails that bite the deck instead of sitting proud. Every tab gets a hand check before we move up the slope.

Most homes in midtown or out toward West Mobile take us two to three days for a full tear-off and reinstall of tar shingles, weather permitting, and August afternoons rarely permit much past two o'clock.

We came up doing Mobile Siding Installation before we ever touched asphalt shingle roofing, which is why our step flashing at wall lines is soldered in properly, not caulked and forgotten.

Architectural Shingles

Architectural shingles are two layers of mat laminated together, which is why you'll also hear them called a dimensional shingle. They're heavier than a three tab shingle roof, they hide a slightly wavy deck, and most lines carry a 130 mph wind rating in this part of the Gulf Coast. That rating is not free, though. It assumes six nails per shingle, driven flat in the nailing strip, not four driven high and crooked. Get that wrong and the first tropical system that swings past Dauphin Island peels a course off like a bad toupee.

We stagger the courses properly too, so you don't end up with racing stripes running down the slope every time the sun hits it a certain way. The crew you'd meet for Mobile Siding Installation handles these tar shingles the same careful way.

Roof Services

Tar shingles get most of this page, but a roof is a system, and roof services covers everything the shingles sit on. That means tearing off down to bare deck, replacing any plywood that's gone spongy from a slow leak, fresh drip edge, valley metal, and new flashing at every chimney, wall and pipe boot. Cracked boots are the number one call we get after the first hard July afternoon storm, and they cost almost nothing to replace while the roof is open.

Then there's the stuff nobody takes a picture of. Rotted fascia, soffit pulling loose, gutters dumping straight down the wall. When the wall has been drinking runoff for a couple of seasons, that turns into a conversation about Mobile Siding Installation, and doing both while the ladders are already up beats setting up twice.

Roof Air Vents

Roof air vents are the boxes you see sitting flat on the back slope, and they only work if air can get in down low to replace what they let out. Rule of thumb we follow: one square foot of net free vent for every 150 square feet of attic floor, split about half intake and half exhaust. The intake comes through the soffit, which is why the guys on our Mobile Siding Installation side and the shingle crew talk to each other before anybody cuts a hole.

Get it wrong and an August attic here runs past 140 degrees, curls the tar shingles from underneath, and cooks your AC bill along with it.

Cutting in and flashing six box vents is a half day. Painting over blocked soffit vents is the mistake we find most.

Three Tab Shingle Roof

Three tab is the flat one. No shadow line, no layered look, just a single mat cut into three tabs, which is why it lays out fast and why a whole street of them can go on before the afternoon storms roll in off the bay. In our heat, expect fifteen to twenty years out of three tab shingle roofs, where a dimensional shingle usually buys you longer.

The failure is almost always nailing. High nails, above the strip, and those tabs peel in the first serious blow. We hit the nail line, six nails per shingle, hand sealed at the rakes.

Folks who call us about Mobile Siding Installation often ask about tar shingles in the same breath, because the same wind that lifted the tabs took a run at the wall too.

Roof Vents

Vents are the part of a roof nobody thinks about until the attic sits at 140 degrees in July and the shingles overhead start curling years early.

Exhaust only works if air can get in down low. Half the attics I open around Midtown have soffit intake painted shut or packed solid with blown insulation, so the roof vents up top end up pulling cooled air straight out of your house instead of hot air out of the attic. On a tar shingles tear-off we figure net free area against the attic square footage first, then set box vents, turbines or a combination, cut clean and tucked under the course above so nothing backs up during a Gulf downpour. If the soffit panels are chalky or crushed, we straighten that out during a Mobile Siding Installation and get real intake in the same trip.

Ridge Vents On Roof

A ridge vent is just a slot cut along the peak, but the slot is where crews get lazy. We cut back about an inch and a half on each side of the ridge board, not a scratch through the shingles, and we stop the cut short of the gable ends so wind driven rain coming off the bay doesn't get a free doorway.

Then a baffled vent, capped with shingles from the same bundle as your tar shingles so it disappears into the roofline.

Here's the part people miss. Ridge vents on roof peaks do nothing without intake below them. No clear soffit, and you've built a chimney with no draft, so the attic bakes past 130 in July and cooks the shingles from underneath. We check intake before we cut, the same way we check it on a Mobile Siding Installation job.

Asphalt Shingles Installation

Tear-off first. We strip to bare deck, because you can't judge plywood you can't see, and around here the soft spots hide in valleys and along chimney sides. Bad sheathing gets replaced, then synthetic underlayment, then peel-and-stick membrane at the eaves and valleys where wind-driven rain wants to run uphill.

Then nails. Six per shingle for our coastal wind zone, driven flush and inside the nailing strip. Overdriven nails cut through the mat, high nails hold nothing, and that's how a roof that looked fine at Mardi Gras loses a slope in September.

Asphalt shingle roofing is simple work that punishes shortcuts. Tar shingles seal with heat, so a July install tabs down fast while a January cold snap takes its time.

Most houses run two to three days. If the walls are next, we line up Mobile Siding Installation right behind it so the flashing details match.

Dimensional Shingle

Folks around here still call the whole family tar shingles, but a dimensional shingle is really two layers laminated together, which is where the shadow line and the extra weight come from. That weight matters on the Gulf Coast. When a storm pushes up the bay and leans on your ridge, a heavy laminated shingle sits tight while an older three tab shingle roof starts peeling tabs halfway down the field. We hand six nails into the common bond line, never above it, and we cut hip and ridge caps from matching architectural shingles rather than scrap.

Overdriven nails are the quiet killer. The gun cuts the mat, the shingle holds fine until the first real August blow, and then it doesn't.

Most homes here take one to three days. The crew handling your Mobile Siding Installation is the same crew on the roof, so the wall and the roofline actually agree with each other.

What the job involves

Every tar shingle job starts with a tear-off, down to bare deck. That's where we find the soft plywood, and after a few Gulf summers there's usually a sheet or two, most often in the valleys and around the chimney. We swap it out, then set drip edge, ice and water membrane at the eaves and valleys, synthetic underlayment, and a starter course before the field goes on. Six nails a shingle, not four. Wind off the Bay doesn't care what the minimum says.

Architectural shingles run a little slower than a three tab shingle roof, since the ridge cap gets cut and stacked, and intake has to balance the ridge vents on roof lines or your attic bakes.

Two days on a straightforward house. If we're doing your Mobile Siding Installation as well, the roof goes first so the wall flashing laps right.

What it costs

Nobody likes a runaround on price, so here it is straight. Most shingle roof cost in this area lands between about $3 and $6 a square foot installed, and a full cost to redo roof job usually falls somewhere from $3,000 to $14,000 once you factor size, pitch, and how many layers of old tar shingles have to come off first. A three tab shingle roof sits at the low end. Architectural shingles run higher because there's simply more material in every bundle. Soft decking, new ridge vents on roof lines, and flashing around a chimney move the number too, and I'd rather find that at the estimate than on day two. Call us at (251) 551-3653 and we'll price your actual house. If the walls are tired as well, pairing it with Mobile Siding Installation means one setup and one cleanup.

Why choose us for this

You've got tar shingles cupping at the edges after another swampy Mobile summer, and what you really want is to hire somebody once, not babysit a crew from your driveway all week.

So here's the deal.

No creeping numbers: what I write down is what you sign, unless we open the deck and find rot, and you'll see that board before I replace it.

No sign-today pressure: my quote is good next week, and the week after.

No jumping to another job: my shingle roofers finish yours before they start anybody else's.

No mess: nails get magnet-swept out of the grass and the flower beds, not left for your tires.

I'm not the cheapest bid you'll get. Stripping to the deck and setting roof vents right takes hours some crews skip. The estimate costs you nothing and books you into nothing, same as with our Mobile Siding Installation work. Nine years of that, roughly, and it still works.

Frequently asked questions