The Install Sheet in Your Shingle Bundle Is Part of the Spec

Every bundle of Malarkey shingles carries an installation sheet, usually printed on the wrapper or folded inside the bundle, and it is the closest thing a homeowner has to a written spec for how the shingle should go on the roof. The sheet tells the crew how many nails each shingle takes, where those nails sit, how the rows are exposed, what slope the product is rated for, and what conditions the self-sealing strip needs before a shingle can bond. Most homeowners never see it. You can ask for it, and you should, because it is the reference the work gets measured against once the crew leaves.

Read the sheet for the product on your roof

The instructions are written for a specific product line, and the line matters. A standard laminated shingle and a higher-wind or impact-rated product from the same manufacturer can carry different nailing and sealing directions. The bundle wrapper names the product, and the instruction sheet should match that name. If the product on the roof is different from the product on the sheet, the crew is working from the wrong instructions. Older bundles from a discontinued line can also carry sheets that no longer match what the warehouse is selling, so check the product name on the wrapper against the one on your quote. Ask the roofer to confirm the product name on the quote, the product name on the bundle, and the product name on the instruction sheet, and check that all three agree before the first nail goes in.

Nail count and nail placement

The sheet states how many fasteners each shingle needs and where they go relative to the cutouts and the sealant strip. Nail placement is not a matter of crew habit. A nail driven outside the nailing zone printed on the sheet can leave the shingle with fewer holding points than the product was tested with, and it can sit where the course above will not cover it cleanly. A nail driven too deep can cut through the shingle's reinforcement and weaken the hold, while a nail left proud of the surface can lift the tab in the next storm. The count can differ by product and by wind zone, so read the number on the sheet rather than relying on a rule of thumb from a neighbor's roof. Fastener type and length matter too. The sheet should name a nail suited to your deck thickness, and a crew using a different fastener than the one named has departed from the instructions even if the count is right.

Walk the first slope with the crew present and look at a few nails in the first course. You are not checking the roofer's skill with a hammer. You are checking that the nails sit inside the zone the sheet describes, because a mistake in the first few courses repeats across the whole slope.

Exposure and the chalk lines

Exposure is the distance from the bottom edge of one course to the bottom edge of the next, which controls how much of each shingle shows. The sheet gives the exposure for the product. Crews normally snap chalk lines to hold that exposure across the roof, and a line that drifts over a long slope shows up as a wave in the finished field that no amount of trimming hides. The sheet's exposure figure is the one to measure against. If the chalk lines do not match it, the roof is not following the spec even if every nail is in the right place.

Ask to see the chalk lines before the shingles go on. A roofer who snaps lines from the sheet's exposure figure will have no trouble showing you the pattern, and a roofer who cannot show it has not started from the spec.

Sealing and the conditions the sheet names

The self-sealing strip on the back of each shingle needs warmth to bond, and the sheet states the temperature conditions under which the strip is expected to seal. It also says what to do when the day is cooler than that. Some products call for hand-sealing when the strip is not bonding. A crew that skips the sheet's sealing step because the afternoon is cold has departed from the manufacturer's instructions, and you can check that by asking what the sheet says about sealing and what the crew did in response. Sealing is one of the few steps that leaves no trace once the roof is covered, which is why the sheet's conditions are worth reading before the work starts rather than after the first wind.

Slope, and where the sheet stops

The sheet gives a minimum roof slope for the product. Below that slope the shingle is not the right covering without a different method, and the sheet will say so. The sheet does not decide everything, though. It does not replace the underlayment decision, the flashing at walls and penetrations, or the ventilation the attic needs. Those are separate spec lines, and a shingle sheet is silent on them. If a quote says the shingles will be installed according to the manufacturer's instructions and says nothing about underlayment, flashing or ventilation, the quote has covered the shingles and left the rest of the roof open. Read the sheet for what it governs, and read the quote for what it leaves out.

What to ask for

• A copy of the instruction sheet for the exact product on your order, with the product name printed on it.
• The nail count per shingle and the nailing zone, written on the quote or attached to it.
• The exposure figure, and a confirmation that the chalk lines will be snapped from it.
• The sealing conditions, and what the crew will do if the strip is not bonding on the day.
• The minimum slope the product is rated for, checked against each slope on your roof rather than the roof as a whole.

Keep the sheet on site, or ask the crew to leave a photo of it on your phone. Compare the work against it at the points the sheet names, not just at the end when the roof looks finished, because most spec deviations are invisible once the last course is down.

If you want to see the sheet before you sign, call Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333 and ask for the instruction sheet for the product on your quote. The sheet is printed for the homeowner to read, so asking for it is an ordinary part of comparing a roof before you commit to it.