NOTE: Because roofing is a very difficult and dangerous job, we strongly recommend the use of a professional roofing contractor to install your new roof. 

If you choose to complete your roofing project yourself, the following is a list of things you'll need. 

1. A good, sturdy ladder, long enough to safely reach the roof; and a rope to secure the ladder and to serve as a safety line. 
2. A roofer's hatchet or a hammer. 
3. Roofing nails through the deck a minimum of 1/8" inch galvanized 11 or 12 gauge nails with large heads at least 3/8" in diameter. Nails should be long enough to penetrate through the shingles and 3/4" into the roof deck, or completely through the deck. Normally you should use nails that are 1 1/4" long for new roofs, 1 1/2" long for reroofing over old asphalt shingles, and 1 3/4" long for reroofing over old wood shingles. 
4. A pouch or nail apron and a tool belt. 
5. Asphalt plastic roofing cement. 
6. Metal drip edge for rake and eave. 
7. Fifty foot tape measure. 
8. Utility knife (for cutting roofing). 
9. Tin snips for cutting metal drip edge and metal flashing. 
10. A straight edge. 
11. A caulking gun and putty knife. 
12. A chalk and string line for snapping straight guide lines. 
13. A pair of gloves. 
14. Mineral surfaced or coated rolled roofing material for valley installations.
15. Metal flashing material as described in the section on flashings. 
16. Soft soled shoes to prevent slipping on the roof. 

Roof areas are measured in "squares". A square is an area of roof which is 100 square feet. Very simply put, if your roof area is 2,000 square feet, then you will need 20 squares of shingles. If this is a new roof, you will also need 20 squares of underlayment. Add about 10% additional material for trim allowance. 

In order to estimate the area of your roof, measure the dimensions of each plane on the roof including dormers. By multiplying the width times the length of each plane, you will derive the area (square footage) of that surface. Add together the area of each plane and the result will be the total area of your roof. This may be difficult to do if you have a steep roof, so an alternate method would be to measure the exterior walls plus the overhang for the length of the house parallel to the ridge, then throw a rope over the ridge and mark it on each cave. This will give the width dimension to use in figuring your area. This should be done on each roof section containing a horizontal ridge. 

The most common type of shingle, called a three-tab or strip shingle, is generally packaged three bundles per square. Underlayment usually comes in rolls of four squares each; therefore in the above example, you would need five rolls of underlayment. No underlayment is needed if you are applying shingles directly over an existing asphalt roof. 

You will also need to know the amount of nails needed. Generally you should use four nails per shin. With regular three-tab shingles, this would require 320 nails per square high wind areas or when shingles being applied to a mansard, six nails per shingle are required (480 nails square). This is based on 80 shingles per square. Other styles of shingles may require more or fewer nails F shingle and may have more or less than 80 shingles per square. Refer to the application instructions on your shingle wrappers for the correct ring pattern. 

Nails are purchased by the pound, ask your dealer for the correct amount of nails for your size roof in the ler you specify. 

Measure the lengths of your rake! and eaves to determine the amount of drip edge needed. 

KNOW YOUR SLOPE: 

You will also need to know the slope of your deck. In order to determine this, measure the vertical rise of the deck in inches over a 12" horizontal distance. If this rise is 4" then you roof slope is 4 in 12. Roof slopes is always expressed with the vertical rise mentioned first and the horizontal run (12") mentioned second. 

Proper installation requires the use of appropriate tools and materials.

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