Roofing Repairs - Understanding What Your Roofer is Talking About
We don’t really think about the roofs on our homes until they have a problem. When they do, we call a roofer. Then comes the problem of actually speaking with the roofer. Why? Well, they have a language all their own. Here are some common roofing terms.
Truss: Engineered components that supplement rafters in many newer homes and buildings. Trusses are designed for specific applications and cannot be cut or altered.
Valley: The intersection of two sloping roofs joining at an angle to provide water runoff.
Vent: Any outlet for air that protrudes through the roof deck such as a pipe or stack. Any device installed on the roof, gable or soffit for the purpose of ventilating the underside of the roof deck.
Pitch: The degree of roof inclined expressed as the ratio of the rise, in feet, to the span, in feet.
Closed Cut Valley: A method of valley treatment in which shingles from one side of the valley extend across the valley while shingles from the other side are trimmed two inches from the valley centerline. The valley flashing is not exposed.
Dormer: A framed window unit projecting through the sloping side of the roof.
Boot: A piece of material preformed to protect roof penetrations from dirt, moisture and other foreign and/or damaging substances.
Hip: The external angle formed by the meeting of two sloping sides of a roof that have their wall plates running in different directions.
Exposed Nail Method: Application of role roofing in which all nails are driven into the cemented, overlapping course of roofing. Nails are exposed to the weather.
Gambrel roof: A type of roof containing two sloping planes of different pitch on each side of the ridge. The lower plane has a steeper slope than the upper. Contains a gable at each end.
Cornice: The top set of moldings just below a roofline, usually consisting of a fascia board, a soffit and appropriate trim moldings.
Telegraphing: Shingle distortion that may arise when a new roof is applied over an uneven surface.
Starter Strip: Asphalt roofing applied at the eaves that provides protection by filling in the spaces under the cut out’s and joints of the first course of shingles.
Asphalt Concrete Barrier: Asphalt based primer used to prepare concrete and metal for asphalt sealant
Edging strips: Boards nailed along eaves and rakes after cutting back existing wood shingles to provide secure edges for reroofing with asphalt shingles.
Eaves: The lower border of a roof that overhangs the wall.
Low Slope: Roof pitches that are less than 30 degrees.
Cant Strip: A triangular-shaped strip of material used to ease the transition from a horizontal plane to a vertical plane. Cant strips can be made of wood, wood fiber, perlite, or other materials.
Cool Roofing: A cool roof is defined as a roof surface that has both high reflectivity and high emissivity. High reflectivity requires the surfacing material to reflect solar energy away from the surface. High emissivity requires radiating heat energy away from the surface.
Self-sealing Strip: Factory applied adhesive that bonds shingle courses together when exposed to the heat of the sun after application.
As with any service, understanding the basic vocabulary involved will help you avoid communication problems. This, of course, helps avoid mistakes where you end up getting a bigger repair than you really ever needed.
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[...] Original post by Tom Burrell [...]