Roofing Felt In Cold Weather

For contractors in northern areas it means it s time to adapt to the winter roofing season.

Roofing felt in cold weather.

The background on cold weather roofing. Yes asphalt shingles can still be installed successfully in cold weather providing a few important changes are made to the usual practices. Typically contractors avoid cold weather roofing for three specific reasons. The rolls of felt are quite heavy and to avoid damage must be handled with care.

If the temperature dips below freezing frost ice and snow become a serious safety factor on the roof. Roofing in cold weather is unlike roofing in any other temperature. For roofing contractors in the southern states it s a welcome relief to the brutally hot summer roofing seaso n. Extra care should be taken when handling and or installing asphalt shingles when the air and surface temperatures are at or below 40 f 5 c.

People who want to use a nail gun for this purpose must be experienced because when they use it for roofing in cold weather it is not uncommon to injure themselves. Eaves protector membranes and roll roofing casma recommends using winter weather membranes to seal your eaves valleys skylights vents and plumbing pipes rather than warm weather roll roofing which can buckle or wrinkle when applied in cold weather. I know that cold weather is not really going to shrink felt a whole foot but for the sake of clarity let s say cold air shrinks the felt by 1 foot. Shingles installed in cold weather may not immediately seal until warmer temperatures are present for the sealant to activate.

In fact roofing in the cold weather requires special preparations and procedures. Ice dams are one of the most typical problems for roofing when the temperatures are low. The best time to lay a felt roof using cold applied adhesive is when the weather is warm but this means that working on a flat roof can be exhausting work with the sun s heat and the heat reflected from the felt already laid. We will assume that the felt is originally 10 feet long by 10 feet wide.

The cold weather shrinks the felt to 9 feet long by 9 feet wide. Weather adhesives and tools.