Replies

1. 
   Mongo_ | Sep 12, 2001 01:00am | #1

   *
   You can run a row of red cedar shingles. Have them overhang the sheathing. Then have your shingles overhang the cedar by a quarter.

1. 
   bill_burns | Sep 12, 2001 02:22am | #2

   *will customer sign off liability for future damage?

1. 
   Andy_Engel_ | Sep 12, 2001 02:53am | #3

   *Drip edge? We don't need no stinking drip edge. Actually, I'm not sure that it gains you much. I never saw a new house with drip edge in a dozen years as a carpenter in NJ. I suppose that it might serve as a capillary break, but I can't say as I've seen a roof edge damaged by the lack.andy

1. 
   Norm_Kerr | Sep 12, 2001 06:15pm | #4

   *Drip edge is insurance.You may never actually use it, but would you drive your truck, or run your business without it?A carefully roofed structure may be ok without it, and homes built many years ago were more carefully built because they had no choice then.Think about what can go wrong if you leave this simple piece of insurance off. Massive water damage can develop over long periods of time due to rather small leaks that don't get noticed...I looked at a house last weekend that had a slapdash re-roof. They left off the drip lip and during the rain on Sunday I watched the rain running right behind the siding (the shingles were not hanging far enough over that edge). Drip lip would have avoided that proplem. Properly installed shingles would have also avoided that problem too.

1. 
   Bob_Walker | Sep 12, 2001 08:16pm | #5

   *"... but I can't say as I've seen a roof edge damaged by the lack [of a drip edge]"Isee it maybe 20% of the time there's no driop edge, with higher odds with plywood sheathing and higher yet with OSB.As a home inspector, I call it out as a defect.

2. 
   Andy_Engel_ | Sep 12, 2001 09:01pm | #6

   *Regional differences are funny things. In Jersey, I literally never saw drip edge installed. Roofers also always hung the shingles a good inch and a half past the edge.Of course, common practice isn't always good practice....Andy

3. 
   Alan_Kim | Sep 12, 2001 09:43pm | #7

   *I cringe at the thought of snow piled high on roof and packed full in the gutter.

4. 
   Jeff_J._Buck | Sep 12, 2001 11:18pm | #8

   *Here in Pa....with hot summers and cold snowy winters.....just about every sagging, rotted roof edge I've dug out has had either no drip edge, or too shallow a pitch for shingles. If the pitch looks OK....I can pretty much tell the customer before hand that the drip edge is missing. I wouldn't consider a roof with out it. Jeff

5. 
   Mike_Willms | Sep 13, 2001 01:44am | #9

   *In past reno's all the roof's without drip edge have either rot or at the very least mold on the first 1/2" of the sheathing. OSB just turns black. Drip edge is awful cheap, and it does what it's supposed to.

6. 
   piffin_ | Sep 13, 2001 02:17am | #10

   *I agree that you should use drip but I'm into customer satisfaction too. Iwould be sure the undrlayment is sound and overlays the fascia, then use cedars as mentioned above. If this is a gable instead of hip. then you may need to protect against wind driven rains at the edges. You could perhaps use a caulk there for insurance, and overhang the asphalts by about an inch. Any more than 3/4" - 1" and the asphalt will soften and sag down in the heat which will look terrible after a couple years.

7. 
   blue_eyed_devil_ | Sep 13, 2001 04:27am | #11

   *Dang Ron, you make me feel old.In the olden days, we never used drip edge. I don't like the looks of it either. It is a cheap mass produced version of the old fashioned wood drip edge.We did however, always install a starter board. The starter board was a 1x6 pine. The raw edges of the sheating were never allowed to be exposed to the weather. To facillitate the creation of the capillary break, we would always project the starter board at least 5/8" past the fascia board. The gables never received metal either. I absolutely hate the look of metal on the gabels. To protect the edges of the ply, we would always install a brick mold that was flush with the top of the roof ply plane. I've never seen a brick mould rot. I have seen many starter boards rot. But there is a sinister reason why the starter boards rotted. They were almost always inferior #6 utility board. Hell, they were almost deteriorating as we installed them. If we had used #2 white pine and kept it painted like the rest of the house, the starters wouldn't rot. Tell your client you can use a good starter board and some sort of brick mold on the gables. Today, we use 1x2 (almost all of our exterior trim is rough sawn sprucee) on the gables. It will stand the test of time, as long as he keeps it painted as good as the rest of his exterior trim.blue

8. 
   Andy_Engel_ | Sep 13, 2001 01:36pm | #12

   *Well I guess that I stand corrected, drip edge it is. I'll admit that I didn't use it on my own house, but that was against the recommendation of my Yankee roofer. I would have sprung for it on the eaves, but I have copper gutters and feared galvanic corrosion. Also, I hate the look of the stuff. Very cheesy. Probably should have bent some up myself out of copper.I did use a 2 1/2-in. PT fascia board (exposed rafter tails so no standard soffit/fascia) and rake trim, and there is no evidence of any edge deterioration. The roof is also an 8 pitch, so the runoff does so with enthusiasm.Andy

9. 
   Stray_ | Sep 13, 2001 05:13pm | #13

   *We're getting ready to replace a roof on some modular apartments. The roof's only 12 yrs old, shingles are mostly fine but the flashing details (lack there of) were rotting the place out.NO drip edge was installed, and shingles just stuck out 1-2" beyond sheathing (7/16 OSB). These shingles cracked at the edge over the years and allowed water to run down the facia boards.Drip edge, or the cedar idea, just gets the dripping water that much further away from the wood trim.Do the clients just not like the standard drip edge? I like Andy's idea of copper. Maybe even just a custom bent drip out of kynar sheet stock would please them?Maybe black drip edge could be "lost" under the shadow line of the shingles?

10. 
    Mongo_ | Sep 13, 2001 05:36pm | #14

    *Copper drip edge is available and it's what I recommend when using copper gutters. If you have a brake, bending your own is much more affordable. It does add up ($$) but it's part of the "you can pay me now, or you can pay me later" scenario.

11. 
    Art_B. | Sep 13, 2001 09:23pm | #15

    *20 YO cabin in PNW rain forest, no drip edge 'cause of extreme cost limitation. 1" roll roof overlap, moss grew enough that it wicked water under overlap so much that first 2 ft of roof sheating rotted.

12. 
    Gene_Leger_ | Sep 14, 2001 04:11pm | #16

    *As Piffin said "... then you may need to protect against wind driven rains at the edges.".GeneL.

13. 
    Frenchy_Dampier | Sep 14, 2001 04:37pm | #17

    *Did anyone bother to check the pitch of the roof? Steep pitched roofs don't need no stinkin drip edge. The shingle acts as drip edge. Shallow pitch need all the help you can give it.

2. 
   Ron_Letourneau | Sep 14, 2001 04:38pm | #18

   *
   We've always used preformed aluminum drip edge, painted to match the color of the fascia, along the shingle line. However, a new client does not want to see this. So, what are the alternatives? Old-timers say to simply overhang the asphalt shingles a bit extra. Opinions?