Production & pay rates for shingling

Lanny, that is a heck of an idea for seperating the shingles. I will try it next time. As far as tearing off shakes, you were humping to do that. I would have used our forklift to take the plyqwood up on the roof. My legs wouldn't handle the carrying. Good show.

2 squares an hour on shakes is smoking! I assume that you had some good shakes then. Most of them now seem to be only about 6 inches wide. We would have thrown them away in the day, and now that is about all you can get, at least in Michigan.

---Here is how we repair modified sealant. I have a torch and trowel which I heat with the torch. I then take the hot trowel and slide it through the sealant. It will slide right through like butter and allow us to lift the edges and pull the fasteners. Lanny

---Old School ---great story on how fast the crew can shingle. Iv'e seen it done and most roofers wouldn't believe it. But I learned to roof from some very fast nailers. One guy could stick nail shakes all day long at 2 sq/hr. My speed increased just watching them roof. I saw how it could be done and pushed myself until I could come close to their speed. ---We seldom roof buildings big enough to match those numbers. But just seeing it pushes you up a notch on a regular old rambler 25 sq.

---We just finished sheeting a 40Sq house in 2 days. That is pretty good for my 2 boys and a helper. We start off with everybody tearing off the shakes on the biggest side. I put 2 of them on sheeting for the rest of the day and I just keep tearing off. In 2 days I tore off at least 30 sq all by myself including hauling it all to the truck. My youngest was on nail patrol pounding down all the nails. We kept ahead of the sheeters all the way to the last side. The worst part of the job was getting 120 sheets of plywood up on the roof which we all did the first day in the morning.

---I know about the "well oiled machine..." I have always enjoyed the challenge.

Old School Said: Kind of difficult to repair the shingles with the modified sealant. they just tear.

Kind of difficult? :laugh: Try Impossible!

Kind of difficult to repair the shingles with the modified sealant. they just tear.

We put Duration on one time. Within minutes my men said "look, the plastic is breaking loose where a nail hits" Properly nailed, gun or hand nailed it did not matter.

So. what happens without the plastic that the sealant adheres to?

And ......what O/S said (Except the part about the 60's 'cause I was in diapers then.....)

Also looked at a 4 week old Duration job. Got to tear it off, NO WAY are they salvagaeable. But then again, the same could be said about a LandMark roof that has been exposed to multiple 90 degree days.

Funny thing is, one guy told the homeowner it was fixable.... B)

I first saw shingles pyut on that ay in Akron Ohio by my cousins. We used to lay the shingles on our knees and hand nail them as we went up the roof. When we switched to staples, we just kept on doing it the same say; big mistake.

My cousins were telling me how fast they were and since I was down there in Akron for a week, I told them I wanted to come to work with them for a day and we would see. I was fast, Right? They struck lines every 15 inches, delivered the shingles and dinked around setting up the compressors and the hoses. We never started to shingle until 10:45 in the morning. We were working on 2 identical buildings, 2 straight sides, and 70 2/3 square of shingles each, plus ridgevent. We quit for lunch at 12;20, and we had on over 80 squares of shingles, and I was by far the slowest shingler. We had 4 guns running and 3 guys laying the shingles in piles of 3 for us. I have NEVER seen shingles go on that fast in my life. My cousins Larry and Dan and 14 year old Frank, plus a hired man finished their 70 2/3 square building in one hour after we got back from lunch. 2 hours and 35 minutes for 70 2/3 squares. We finished those building and also went out and roofed a 24 square house before we quit at about 4:00 pm. 165 squares on in one day, and all of us didn't even go to the last house.

We use this method now, but it doesn't work very well on anything over 5-12 because the shinlges want to slide on you, and they get in your way. About the fastest I ever installed was 13 squares in 65 minutes on a straight gable side. One guy was laying out the shingles for two of us with my brother-in-law shigling on the other side. We were racing, and I "won" That is a square every 5 minutes or 12 squares in an hour. Those kinds of things are probably a good reason i hurt so much now that I am older. Good times. for sure

Wow lanny!....ditto here....two of us shingling. w/a helper....felting, installing drip, laying out stacks of shingles in front of us....if he was good, while he was resting, he'd cut our "books" at the rakes, and maybe hand-nail the firt few shingles on at the eave....I was a tyrant when I was on the roof....barking consistantly w/newbies...."more shingles"...."too many"...."Hey! do you hear the gun going?", etc....

I remember working for a home bldr, who built 2nd homes in a vacation/retirement community aprx. 80 miles from our home town....We insisted he have two houses ready before we would venture out....It was the norm for myself, another roofer and a helper to stuff in my 84' Ranger....Drive there....complete two homes, (granted they were typically 4/12 & 25sqs +/- each)....50sqs +/-; Felt, drip & shingle, and return home that eve.

We were extremely efficient, a smooth running machine on the roof....and everyone made plenty of $....opposite of today's scene, it seems....A real positive work environment, "back in the day"....

---Hey, I started roofing with an AJC hatchet. We still use them whenever we run 5" exposure because the gun gauge will not go that small. Great tool although we never use the knife...cut my leg just too many times having the hammer in my lap. And I still have at least 12 AJC hatchets and extra gauges and parts. ---Snapping lines...Never have in 40 years of roofing. Doesn't anyone use the gauge on your gun??? We stay on that gauge and always turn out perfectly straight courses. ---I never put the tool down when shingling. I use the gauge to set the shingle. It is not that hard to put down 10 shingles in one minute that way. I cannot average that of course but no hand nailer can compete with a gun on the straight go. ---I hand nailed for 15 years. We all got reasonably fast back in the day. But it was hard work to nail off 20 sq in a day. Today I don't work near as hard because the gun makes it so much easier. The gun just eats up the straight go and it is so much less wear and tear on my body. ---What we like to do is have our helper lay out piles for the 2 of us who are shingling. He lays them out exactly as we require so we don't have to move them. We yell at him if the shingles are misplaced and of course he has it figured out what we want. When we are going he works hard just to keep up with us. He catches up when we hit a protrusion and have to stop and cut a couple of shingles. Otherwise we can nail them faster than he can open bundles and lay them out for the 2 of us.

Lanny

Humbled, My Grand father was Anthony Joseph Crookston, and he invented the "AJC" hatchet. My Dad and his brothers (my uncles) all used the hatchets and all of us grandchildren (my cousins) also. I am not sure how many of the great grandchildren my second cousins still roof, but I am sure a few do. Grandpa had 8 boys and 3 girls, and when Grandma died about 30 years ago, she had 101 grand children and also about that many great grand children. There are hundreds of us!

I grew up roofing in front of dad, and by the time I turned 9 or 10, my younger brother took over and I started to nail my myself. When you are nailing in front of the guy setting the shingles and helping to cut the tabs and such, you learn why things are done the way they are. It didn't hurt to have the proper "genes" either. Shinlging and Crookston's seem to go together.

Well, I'm relieved to find I might not be too anal after all. :) Clipping valley shingles, (rake edges, I insist on a precut so no more than an 1" will later be cut to prevent any sagging look, etc. There are others like me! Join the anal club guys! :laugh:

I think that they only use chalklines for ridge caps and valleys here. Sometimes anyway

I feel your pain humbled

Damn OS....I would kill to get shingle production like that now a days, I would not mind selling shingle jobs if I could turn em like that and turn em right!

Back when I ran the new-steep crew for pops...with laminates we chalked a starter line...2 22 1/2's then 45's all the way up. We used the 5 5/8 gauge on our AJC hatchets.

On 3-tabs we popped 20's.

Now a days on shingles I make guys pop 11 1/4s and 10s. I tried to show em how to use the gauge on their guns but they just do not get it for some reason, so hell with it....cant keep em straight with out every other course lines?......every other course gets a line!

Between the new generation of roofers being untrained and unwilling to learn, the cost of shingles and everyone getting a free roof with out paying their deductable...I rather focus on metal roofing, flat commercial roofing, and repairs.

After the 300th melt down on a shingle job about cutting dog-ears/points/tips whatever you want to call em out valleys and against walls....I just do not want to mess with shingles if I can get away with it....always seems to be a referral job though.

We snap lines every 4 courses for laminates, or every 22 1/2 inches. With 3-1's it was every 20 inches or 30 depending on how I felt. When we used to hand nail all the time, we could get some great production. I remember when I was 14 I worked with my dad and two younger brothers on a 50 2/3 square roof. Dad and I shingled, my brother Denny who was about 11, nailed the last two nails on the shingle that dad laid, and I followed them up the roof shingling and I only had to nail in three nails. My younger brother carried shingles and set them on our knees and when we had shingles he nailed the ends of the course in front of me. We did that roof in 7 hours, or 3 1/2 squares per hour per nailer, plus my younger brothers labor. Quite fast!