The Helping Hands Roofing Standard

After tear-off

Every shingle and all the debris comes off first. Then the decking is inspected properly, board by board: gaps wider than a quarter inch, delaminated plywood, and rot. Owens Corning's Duration installation instructions (Pub. 10014283-L, July 2026) say: "Minimum 6 inch roof deck boards, minimum 3/8 inch plywood, minimum 7/16 inch OSB sheathing spaced minimum 1/8 inch and maximum 1/4 inch." Where a gap runs wider, we repair or replace the boards. Rot we find is photographed before it's replaced. What we are confirming is that the decking is a solid nailable surface the new roofing system will fasten to and hold to. The entire deck is photographed before any underlayment goes on.

After underlayment

Ice and water shield is not installed to a minimum. It goes in two rows at the eaves, one row in every valley, around every protrusion, and up every roof-to-wall transition before the step flashing goes in. At every change in slope, and where a shingle roof meets a metal awning, it goes under 24-inch metal coil flashing: anywhere with real failure potential. Rolls are not cut down to land exactly on a code figure, so the coverage runs to where the material covers, which is generally past the line.

Then two layers of synthetic underlayment, overlapped twenty-four inches, twenty-six on low slopes. Once all the underlayment is on we go over it again, checking the overlaps and the cap nails, and photograph the underlayment: the ice and water shield and the synthetic underlayment both.

At completion

A final inspection and photographic documentation of the entire roof, confirming it was installed properly and to The Helping Hands Roofing Standard.

Between Two and Three: The roof is measured off so the courses run straight and chalk lines are snapped. Then starter course, field shingles, ridge vent, hip and ridge cap.