Shingle Roof Replacement in Alachua, FL, November 2024

What you are looking at

The first photo was taken from the roof at one end of the house. Two hips, the sloped ridges that run down the outside corners of a roof, climb from the eaves and meet the main ridge, and each one is finished with a row of cap shingles. From there the ridge runs away from the camera with a ridge vent tucked under the same caps.

Up close the shingles are a gray blend. Each shingle mixes light silver gray with darker charcoal patches, which gives the slopes a checkered look underfoot. In the front view the same roof settles into a darker, even gray.

That front view shows the overall shape: a long hip roof with a lower section stepping down on one side, set against tall trees hung with Spanish moss under a partly cloudy sky. Photos Brehm took from the yard also show the brick walls and an attached garage under the same roof.

Photos Brehm took during the tear-off show the old shingles stripped down to the wood deck. A few sections of deck were cut out, leaving the rafters open, and new plywood sheets were fitted in where they had been. A light gray synthetic underlayment went down next, held with red plastic cap nails, and white metal drip edge, the trim that finishes the roof edge, was fastened along the eaves.

The ridge vent runs under the cap shingles along the top. A ridge vent is there to let warm attic air escape at the peak, and moving air through the attic helps limit heat build-up under the Florida sun. A black half-round hood vent sits on one slope, photos Brehm took during the install show a wide black slant-back vent going in, and a close view shows a black vent pipe with a screened top and a ribbed boot sealing it at the shingles.

The last photo looks past the electric service mast, the metal pipe that brings the power line into the house, which also comes up through the roof with a black boot at its base. Beyond the roof edge are a wood privacy fence, a strip of lawn and a concrete sidewalk.