Capping, with shingles, the point in a pyramid roof.
WolfDaddy
| Posted in General Discussion on
I searched for this here, but the only suggestion I found was to have a metal cap made. I don’t want to do that, I want to use shingles.
I just shingled two garages with pyramid-style hip roofs using architectural style shingles. I normally do interior remodeling, so am not a roofing expert, this is maybe my 6th time and the others were gable. It went great until I got to point at the top where the four hips meet. I got it covered, but don’t like the way I did it or how it looks.
Oddly, the shingle manufacturer has no direction for this, and I was told there is nothing in the ARMA (The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association) installation instruction booklet either. I searched the web, and again oddly, came away with nothing. It’s like everything I found shows the hips being shingled up to the point and then stops.
The cap shingles are 12×12″ but only one half (6×12 – the exposed portion) is the color of the shingles.
Suggestions? A picture/drawing would be worth a thousand words.
Thanks!
Replies
A picture/drawing would be worth a thousand words. So where's your picture? What did you do on the hips themselves?
This isn't a pic of my job, but it is identical to how I did the hips and the cap shingles used. The difference is that this picture is two hips meeting a ridge. My roof is 4 hips meeting in a point. Notice that the cap shingle in the picture is at least all some shade of gray. Mine are gray on the exposed half, brown on the other (apparently manufacturers don't care about the granule color on the covered portion of a shingle). If the whole cap was gray, it would probably be easier to figure out. As it stands, I only have a 6" x 12" piece to work with to cap the point.
I know I could use copper, as bing0328 mentions below, but that's not typical around here and not the way the house is done (the house has 2 hips meeting a ridge, as shown in the pic, only the garage (detached) has a pyramid roof).
If it was mine, I would put a copper cap on it. Then I know it's waterproof. It's kind of like the back of the dollar bill pyramid
Agree, but that's not the way I want to go (and my wife just plain doesn't care for copper on a roof). It is common around here to "shingle" the point and it doesn't seem to be a problem on other structures. I just can't figure out how to lay the shingle caps (see my not above to mikemahan3 ).
This is my thought. Take four hip shingles. Take the pitch degree and slice each hip shingle so that you are left with a shingle that lays done the hip ridge and is cut so that the next ridge shingle cut the same way lays next to it and there is a seam pointing straight down the roof. Do that for all four. Next take some 30# felt and make a piece of felt that fits inside of both hip shingles to cover the seam use some Henry's to glue together so at the end of the day you have a cap that you can set on top of all four hips. Henry that in place. I hope the above makes sense.
Yes, I get it, your description makes sense.
I have 3/4 of a package of the hip cap shingles left, so lots to play with. I think I'll mock up some scrap 2x6s so I can work it out on the ground first.
Thanks.
PS I don't think pyramid roofs are that unusual. At least around here, I see it on lots of garages. Wonder why there is no guidance out there on how to do this, nothing from the shingle manufacturer (I talked to them) and nothing from ARMA (Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association). Maybe it's because going with a cap, like you suggested out of copper, is just a better way to go? But then you would think they would sell pre-made caps. I checked with Menards and two roofing suppliers and they don't have anything. The suppliers gave me the same answer: just cover it with a hip/ridge cap shingle.
Cut a triangle out of a shingle for each surface of the roof, l so that each one laps the next on one side about 2 inches. Bend this two inch lap over the adjacent shingle and stick it down with mastic. The chance of the top of a pyramid leaking any significant amount are very small.