If you’re looking for information on how to install roofing shingles, you’ve come to the right place. But first, a short history…
22 years ago I made a career change, going from a comfortable air-conditioned desk job to working as a roofer in the sweltering heat of Southwest Florida in August.
My first job was installing a second layer of shingles on a small house in Cape Coral, Florida. Once the boss was satisfied that I knew how to properly install roofing shingles, he let me do the job on my own.
I’m sure I had no idea it would take so long. I had three things against me…
First of all, he was out of shape and not used to working outdoors in the heat. Second, he was too picky and sought perfection instead of excellence.
But my biggest problem was installing thousands of roofing nails with a hammer because I didn’t have a nail gun. Hand fast nailing is an art and I was no artist!
So every day the boss would come by to see how he was doing. The quality was fine, but my progress was painfully slow. However, I was a pieceworker, so he didn’t really care how long it took.
But as the days went by, it became a big joke. Not only the boss passed by, but other roofers and friends of the boss also passed by. None of them could believe how long it took me to install the roofing shingles and each of them had to see for themselves. I remember them trying to hide their smiles from him.
Finally, after nine days, the job was complete. When the boss paid me my $200, he asked me if he was sure he wanted to install roofs for a living. When I said yes, he told me I better get me a nail gun… because he was going to starve me at that rate!
Since he had a wife, three children, and a large mortgage, he couldn’t have agreed more.
The next job was much faster and easier, thanks to the pneumatic roofing nailer. I found that I could drive roofing nails six times faster with the nail gun than I could with my hammer.
If you’re roofing your own home, you can save thousands of dollars… but it’s hard work. You need to be able to justify getting the tools that will make the job faster and easier. And no tool will help you install roofing shingles faster and easier than a nail gun and compressor.
There are many good models available, but my preference is a Hitachi NV45AB2 for the nailer and a Porter Cable 150 PSI pancake compressor.
You could rent them, but the prices have dropped so much that you probably better buy them. That will also allow you to work at your own pace and you could sell the tools after the job, recouping much of their cost.
Some veterans still prefer to hand nail because they say a nail gun promotes putting nails in the wrong place. But I say you can put the nails in the right place or the wrong place with either tool.