Thread: Roofing Question

I inspected a new home today. There were numerous rows of shingles about 3’ down both sides of the ridge that had plastic strips covering the self adhering strips. These shingles could easily be lifted. The ones without the plastic were sealed very well. The plastic strip said Do Not remove and Dade County Approved. I have never seen this before and I’m assuming the strips will eventually deteriorate and the shingle will adhere. I have always been told one should never assume. The roof has been on for a couple of months now. Thanks in advance.

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After a few months they should all be stuck together, especially in Florida. The plastic strip will deteriorate, its main purpose is to keep the shingles from sticking together during shipping and storage.

If the shiggles have not adhered to each other by now, it will be an issue later down the road as they will most likely not stick to each other at all. They can be secured with a few dabs of sealant under each shingle.

Scott,

Thank you for your reply. I'm not sure why the plastic stips haven't broken down by now. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by Matt Hawley

had plastic strips covering the self adhering strips.

Hopefully, you do not mean exactly what you wrote.

If the plastic strips (which are on the underside of the shingle on top) is "covering" (i.e., exactly over) the sealant strips on the shingle below, then the shingles are installed improperly, or, (and this is highly unlikely) the plastic strips were placed in the wrong location at the factory. I say highly unlikely for a couple of reasons, a) because the shingles all go down one production line, and to get the plastic strips applied at the wrong location, the shingles would get all mangled up, and, b) that would mean the plastic strips were not over the sealant strips on the singles below when the shingles where stacked in bundles, meaning they would most likely have sealed together and would have torn the shingles apart when the installer tried to separate those stuck together shingles.

Regarding the plastic strips, they will, along with everything, eventually deteriorate. But not in a long, long time. While they are not made to be sunlight resistant, they are not exposed to sunlight, thus they will be there a very long time. I've seen old shingle roofs ripped off and the plastic strips are still there and intact, because they are basically never exposed to sunlight.

Those plastic strips, if placed properly at the factory, will not interfere with the shingles adhering together once the shingles are laid.

*IF* you are positive the plastic strips are aligned with and over the sealant strips, I would take a photo and send it to the manufacturer, include a tape measure in the photo so the manufacturer can tell the location of the plastic strips to the shingle, if they were manufactured incorrectly, the manufacturer will most likely replace those shingles - those shingles would be "defective".

I can see this happening on a few shingles during transit or storage IF the plastic strip was not properly adhered to the BOTTOM side of the shingle at the factory.
If this was the case, it could happen in isolated cases when the plastic strip adhered to the tar strip on the top side of the shingle below it when still in the bundle.
Now that is a possibility, but I have never seen it.
If the tar strip is covered by plastic, leaves or other debris, it is wrong and the shingle will never self adhere.
The purpose of the plastic strip is to keep the tar strip from adhering to the shingle above when in the bundle.

Thank you all for the replies. When I figure out how to download pictures on the message board I will post the pic. Thanks again.

Heres a photo. Thanks again for your input.

That is wrong.

Thanks for the photo.

I can tell you what happened, and that it is an installation error, the roofer needs to correct it. It is not a manufacturing defect.

The top few courses you say?

Those would be the shingle bundles stacked near (probably on) the ridge and the ones which stayed there the longest. They were probably even 'folded' over the ridge some from setting there.

When the sun heated the shingles up, the sealant strip stuck to the plastic strip, and when the shingles were separated and pulled apart, the plastic strip stuck to the sealant strip on the shingle below instead of to the underside of the shingle above.

Manufacturing defect? Sure, in that the plastic strip should has stuck to the underside of the shingle above.

Installation defect? Sure, the installer should have looked where they were nailing and said 'Whoa ... Hey, Joe, lookeehere, make sure you pull these plastic strips off before you nail the shingles in place.', but old Joe is smarter than that, he can read, and it says "DO NOT REMOVE", so he did not.

Okay, now fast forward to today ... who is responsible?

The manufacturer? They will acknowledge the defect, and say the installer should have caught it. The installer should have.

The installer? They will say 'But it says right there "DO NOT REMOVE", so we did not.'

Who is at fault? The manufacturer gets 50% of the responsibility assigned to them, the installer gets 50% of the responsibility assigned to them, then, the installer "should have read the installation instructions and should have known how to install shingles (or not be installing shingles), so the installer should have, at a minimum, checked with *someone* to find out what to do if they did not know what to do (and, apparently, they did not know what to do), so, for their lack of 'finding out what needs to be done and making that decision themselves', the installers assume at least 50% of the manufacturers responsibility.

End result: The installer would have "at least" a 75% responsibility for the problem (in my book, they assume all of the manufacturers responsibility because *they should have know what to do*, or, *they should have called someone to find out what to do*), leaving the manufacturer with (at most) 25% responsibility.

The manufacturer sends out, at no charge, 25% of the number of shingles involved, with the installers picking up the tab for the other 75% of the shingles and all the labor.

Yeah, right. But that's how it *should* work out.

P.S., without the photos, what I now think happened never entered my thoughts. Shame on me for jumping the gun.

Jerry,

You are absolutely BRILLIANT!! This was the first time I have ever seen anything like this. I was stumped on this one to say the least. Thank you all for your input. We shall see what the builder says about this one. Thanks again.

CertainTeed, building materials manufacturer of Insulation, Roofing, Vinyl Siding, Fiber Cement Siding, Vinyl Windows, Composite Decking, Vinyl Fence, Vinyl Railing, PVC Pipe

They have two great manuals both at my favorite price--$0
The Shingle applicator's Manual 8th Ed. and the Shingle Technology Manual 7th ed.

I ditto Mr. Peck's CSI conclusions. Regardless of the condition of the shingles, a properly trained and supervised installer should know what to look for and stop when things are not kosher. The mfr. should do more to train suppliers and installers in proper handling including the sequelae for mis-handling.

These shingles are improperly nailed. That right nail is way too high. Largest single cause for tear-off failures.

Jerry, If that were the case that the strip was transferred from one shingle to the other in the package, wouldn't the words on the strip be reversed and not readable as they are?

Only if the strip was put on right-side-out at the factory. No guaranty they were.

Get one little twist in that plastic tape as it goes through the machine and it gets put on the wrong way, with the lettering backward. Think of your seat belt getting twisted in the seat belt guide. You've never twisted it, yet, over time, you find your seat belt twisted and have to go to great pains to un-twist it through the guide. At least it's happened to me many times on many vehicles.

I've seen the lettering facing up, facing down (how in heck does that happen? was the plastic roll printed wrong?), don't recall if I've ever seen it applied with the lettering backward, but it would have been.