Tile Roof
Tiles which border the hips should be cut close against the hip board, and elastic cement used to make the joint tight. All hips and ridges are finished with specially designed ridge and hip roll tiles, and the interior spaces should be left empty and not be filled with pointing mortar as is sometimes done.
ASBESTOS SHINGLES
Asbestos shingles are applied in practically the same way as slate. Over the roofing-boards should be laid slater’s felt as for a slate roof, and a cant strip ¼ by 1½ inches should be nailed along the eaves line to start the first course of asbestos shingles, which should be a double course and overhang the eaves 1½ inches. The average size of asbestos shingles is 9 by 18 inches by ¼ inch for the lower layer of the first course, and 8 by 16 inches by ⅛ inch for the upper layer of the first course and the other courses. They are laid about 7 inches to the weather, and the ridges and hips may be finished with the Boston hip, or by a specially designed ridge and hip roll. Where the hip roll is used the ridge-pole should project above the roof, or a false one be added so that a substantial nailing can be had for this tile.
The most widely advertised asbestos shingle roofs employ shingles which have rough edges, and which have various shades of coloring, some gray, some red, others reddish brown, and others grayish brown. The causes which led to the development of this type of roof were the artistic failures of the first asbestos shingle roofs. These early roofs were made with shingles which had edges as smooth and sharp as steel plates, surface texture as slick as a trowelled cement floor, and colors of either gray or pale red that were so perfectly matched that at a distance the individual shingles blended into one dead-level plane, so that the roof of the house looked more like the armored plate of a battleship than anything else—it was so perfectly made.
ASPHALT SHINGLES
Before laying asphalt shingles the rafters should be covered with tongued and grooved roofing-boards, and these covered with black waterproof building-paper, lapped 2 inches.
ASPHALT SHINGLES
There are two types of asphalt shingle units. One consists of a unit of twin shingles, so arranged that the butt ends which show to the weather appear as two individual shingles, and the other consists of one shingle unit. Both types are usually laid 4 inches to the weather and nailed with 1-inch galvanized nails No. 10 wire with ⅜-inch heads. At the eaves should be nailed a galvanized-metal drip edge, and over this a double course of shingles for the first course. Hips and ridges are finished with what appears to be a Boston hip, but the shingles are bent over the hip line. The valleys and gutters are best when they are lined with strips of ready roofing similar to the shingles themselves.