Slate or tile shingle and method of hanging a shingle to a roof using a nail gun

Abstract

A shingle and a method of hanging the shingle by a fastener driven by a nail gun. The shingle can be formed from slate or made of clay, ceramic, glass, or concrete. The shingle includes at least one aperture for a fastener. The aperture is spaced a predetermined distance from an upper end of the shingle.

Claims

1. A method of installing a roof, comprising: positioning an underlayment on a roof deck of the roof; aligning a starter strip proximate to a lower end of the roof deck; affixing an interlayment to the roof deck over the starter strip and the underlayment; aligning a first course of slate shingles with a lower end of the interlayment; driving a nail from a nail gun through an aperture in a slate shingle of the first course of slate shingles, wherein the nail has a length of no more than approximately 1.5 inches and the nail gun drives the nail into the roof deck such that a head of the nail is between approximately inch and approximately 9/16 inch from the roof deck, wherein the slate shingle has a thickness of less than approximately 0.5 inches and has a length of from approximately 8 inches to approximately 14 inches, and wherein the aperture is positioned between approximately 1.75 inches and approximately 3 inches from an upper end of the slate shingle; and overlapping the first course of slate shingles with a second interlayment and a second course of slate shingles affixed to the roof deck.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the nail has a 10 gauge shank.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the aperture of the slate shingle is positioned between approximately 2.75 inches and approximately 3 inches from the upper end of the slate shingle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the slate shingle has a thickness of between approximately 0.125 inches and approximately 0.5 inches.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising overlapping a slate shingle of the first course of slate shingles by positioning a lower end of a slate shingle of the second course of slate shingles not more than approximately 4 inches from the upper end of the slate shingle of the first course.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising overlapping the second course of slate shingles with a third interlayment and a third course of slate shingles affixed to the roof deck, wherein lower ends of slate shingles of the third course of slate shingles are a predetermined distance from upper ends of slate shingles of the first course of slate shingles.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the slate shingles of the third course of slate shingles do not overlap the slate shingles of the first course of slate shingles.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising connecting the nail gun to a source of air compressed to less than approximately 100 PSI.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the slate shingle is formed of hand split natural slate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the slate shingle has a thickness of at least approximately inch.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the aperture is positioned between approximately 1.75 inches and approximately 2.75 inches from the upper end.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the aperture is positioned less than one-third of a length of the slate shingle from the upper end.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the aperture is positioned at least approximately 2.75 inches from the upper end.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the nail comprises one of copper, stainless steel, bronze, or brass.

15. A method of installing a roof, comprising: positioning an underlayment on a roof deck of the roof; aligning a starter strip proximate to a lower end of the roof deck; affixing an interlayment to the roof deck over the starter strip and the underlayment; aligning a slate shingle of a first course of slate shingles with a lower end of the interlayment, the slate shingle formed of hand split natural slate, wherein the slate shingle has a thickness of between approximately 0.125 inches and approximately 0.5 inches and a length of from approximately 8 inches to approximately 14 inches, and wherein an aperture is positioned between approximately 1.75 inches and approximately 3 inches from an upper end of the slate shingle; connecting a nail gun to a source of air compressed to less than approximately 100 PSI; driving a nail from the nail gun through the aperture in the slate shingle of the first course of slate shingles, wherein the nail has a length of no more than approximately 1.5 inches and the nail gun drives the nail into the roof deck such that a head of the nail is between approximately inch and approximately 9/16 inch from the roof deck; and overlapping the first course of slate shingles with a second interlayment and a second course of slate shingles affixed to the roof deck.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the aperture is positioned between approximately 1.75 inches and approximately 2.75 inches from the upper end.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the aperture is positioned between approximately 2.75 inches and approximately 3 inches from the upper end.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the nail comprises one of copper, stainless steel, bronze, or brass and has a 10 gauge shank.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure and together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the drawings given below, serve to explain the principles of these embodiments. It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale. In certain instances, details which are not necessary for an understanding of the disclosure or which render other details difficult to perceive may have been omitted. The present disclosure is not necessarily limited to the particular embodiments illustrated herein.

(2) FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a prior art slate shingle roof;

(3) FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional side elevation view of the roof of FIG. 1 taken along line 2-2;

(4) FIG. 3 is a partial cross sectional front elevation view of the roof of FIG. 1 taken along line 3-3;

(5) FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a shingle roof of the present disclosure; and

(6) FIG. 5 is a top plan view of a shingle of the present disclosure;

(7) To assist in the understanding the present disclosure, a list of components and associated numbering found in the drawings is provided herein:

NUMBER COMPONENT

(8) 2 Roof deck 4 Courses 5 Exposure 6 Shingle 8 Shingle upper end 10 Shingle lower end 11 Upper surface of shingle 12 Lower surface of shingle 14 Fastener 16 Shingle thickness 18 Air gap 20 Roof 22 Roof deck 24 Courses 26 Overlap 27 Exposure 28 Starter strip 30 Interlayment material 32 Lower end of interlayment 34 Shingle or tile 36 Upper end 38 Lower end 40 Length 42 Width 44 Aperture 46 Distance from upper end to aperture

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(9) Before any embodiments of the disclosure are explained in detail, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the following drawings. The disclosure is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of including, comprising, or having and variations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

(10) Referring now to FIG. 4, a roof 20 including shingles 34 of the present disclosure is illustrated. The roof 20 is installed by a method of the present disclosure. The method includes driving fasteners by a nail gun through shingles 34. An underlayment, such as felt, may cover the roof deck 22. A starter strip 28 of approximately the thickness of a shingle 34 is positioned under the first course 24A.

(11) A sheet of interlayment 30A is affixed to the roof deck 22 over the starter strip 28. Suitable interlayment is known to those of skill in the art. The interlayment 30 may be of any desired size. In one embodiment, the interlayment 30 is approximately 12 inches to 18 inches long. The interlayment 30 can be cut to any appropriate width. The interlayment 30 has a thickness of between approximately 20 and 60 mil. In one embodiment, the interlayment 30 is approximately 30 mil thick.

(12) The interlayment 30 may be a plastic material and may comprise a thermoplastic elastomer or a high-density polyethylene such as used in geomembrane barriers. Optionally, a rubber roofing membrane may be used as the interlayment 30. Additionally, or alternatively, the interlayment 30 may comprise one or more of: thermoplastic olefin, high-density polyethylene, thermoplastic elastomers, ethylenepropylene diene monomer, polypropylene, and styreneethylene-butadiene-styrene, and similar materials.

(13) A first course 24A of shingles 34A is positioned over the interlayment 30A. A lower end 38 of the shingles 34A is positioned about even with, or slightly overlapping (such as by about to about ) the lower end 32 of the interlayment 30A. The shingles 34A are fastened or hung from the roof deck 22 by driving fasteners, such as nails, through apertures 44 formed in the shingles 34A. Unlike prior art shingles 6 describe above, the fasteners can be driven through the shingle apertures 44 by automatic driving means, such as nail guns. Accordingly, fasteners are driven by a nail gun through an aperture of at least one of the shingles 34A.

(14) The fasteners have a shank that is shorter than fasteners used with prior art shingles of the same thickness. In one embodiment, the fastener has a standard 10 gauge shank and a length of approximately 1.5 inches. Optionally, the fastener is formed of one of copper, stainless steel, bronze, or brass.

(15) In one embodiment, the nail gun is connected to a source of air compressed to 80 PSI. The nail gun is set to drive the fastener head not closer than approximately 9/16 inches from the roof deck. Suitable nail guns are known to those of skill in the art. To provide additional background, context, and to further satisfy the written description requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112, the following references are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,593,079, 5,873,510, 6,783,045, 6,929,165, and 8,550,324. Optionally, the nail gun is a model DW45RN Roofing Coil Nailer manufactured by DeWalt and available at: https://www.dewalt.com/products/power-tools/nailers-and-staplers/framing-and-roofing-nailers/coil-roofing-nailer/dw45rn. When driving the fasteners through the single apertures, the depth setting of the DeWalt Nailer can be set to 1.

(16) A second course 24B is then positioned on the roof 20. Interlayment 30B of the second course 24B is positioned to overlap 26 the upper end 36 of the shingles 34A of the first course 24A by a predetermined amount. In one embodiment, the overlap 26 is between approximately 2.5 inches and approximately 4 inches. However, the amount of overlap 26 may be greater.

(17) The shingles 34 have an exposure 27 that is greater than prior art shingles 6 of a similar length. In one embodiment, the exposure 27 is between approximately 8 inches and approximately 9.5 inches when the shingle length 40 is approximately 12 inches. Other exposures 27 are contemplated for use with the shingles 34 of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, the exposure 27 is equal to the length 40 minus the overlap 26. In contrast, for a prior art shingle 6, the exposure 5 is the length of the shingle minus the overlap which is then divided by two.

(18) Shingles 34B of the second course 24B are hung from the roof deck 22 in a manner similar to the first course 24A. Thus, at least one shingle 34B of the second course is hung by a fastener driven by a nail gun. A third course 24C and additional courses can then be added as necessary in a similar manner with alternating layers of interlayment 30 and shingles 34.

(19) Using shingles 34 of the present disclosure hung to a roof deck 22 with an automatic driving means typically reduces installation time by at least about 40% or up to approximately 50%. For example, two experienced craftsman can generally hang about 5 squares of slate tiles or shingles 6 (or sufficient slate to cover about 500 square feet) per day by manually driving nails through the shingles. In contrast, using shingles 34 of the present disclosure, two experienced craftsman can hang about 10 squares of shingles 34 (or 1,000 square feet) per day by using nail guns to drive fasteners through the shingles 34.

(20) Referring now to FIG. 5, a shingle 34 of the present disclosure is illustrated. The shingle 34 can be formed from slate. Alternatively, the shingle 34 or tile can be formed of clay, concrete, ceramic, glass, wood, or similar products.

(21) The shingle 34 generally includes an upper end 36 and a lower end 38 defining a length 40. The shingle 34 may have any desired length. In one embodiment, the length 40 is between approximately 8 inches and approximately 14 inches. In another embodiment, the length 40 is approximately 12 inches. In this manner, when affixed to a roof, the shingle 34 may be used in a course having at least an 8 inch exposure 27 and an overlap 26 over a previous course of shingles by up to about 4 inches.

(22) The shingle 34 may have any desired width 42. In one embodiment, the width 42 is between approximately 6 inches and approximately 12 inches. In another embodiment, the width 42 is approximately 8 inches. However, the tiles or shingles 34 of the present disclosure can have any appropriate width.

(23) In one embodiment, the shingle 34 is not greater than approximately 1 inch thick. In another embodiment, the shingle 34 has a thickness of between approximately 0.25 inch and 0.375 inch.

(24) The shingle 34 includes apertures 44 to receive fixtures to hang the shingle to a roof deck 22. The apertures 44 are positioned less than of the length 40 of the shingle from the upper end 36. More specifically, the distance 46 the apertures are spaced from the upper end 36 is less than the distance separating an aperture of a prior art shingle 6 from the shingle upper end 8. The fixtures can be driven by an automatic driving means, such as a nail gun. The apertures 44 may be formed by drilling or punching through the shingle 34.

(25) The applicant has found that by moving the position of the aperture 44 closer to the shingle upper end 36 and by increasing the exposure 27, the angle between a lower surface of the shingle 34 and the roof deck 22 is decreased compared to prior art shingles. The height of an air gap between the lower surface of the shingle 34 and the roof deck 22 is also decreased compared to prior art shingles. More specifically, the air gap of a shingle 34B in an upper course 24B is reduced to less than approximately 50% of the thickness of the overlapped shingles 34A of a lower course 24A. Reducing the height of the air gap between the shingle and the roof deck seats the shingle 34 closer to the roof deck. The shingle 34 experiences less uneven pressure, and less stress, during installation of a fastener. In contrast, as described in conjunction with FIGS. 1-3, in a prior art shingle 6, an air gap 18 is approximately equal to the thickness of overlapped shingles 6 of a lower course. Further, because the shingle 34 is closer to the roof deck at the point of the aperture 44, the length of a fastener used to fix the shingle 34 to the roof deck can be decreased compared to the fasteners required for prior art shingles of a similar thickness. Shorter fasteners generally require less force to drive into the roof deck compare to the 1.75 inch fasteners 14 specified for use with the prior art shingles 6. Accordingly, shorter fasteners, for example having a length of approximately 1.5 inches, can be driven by an automatic driving means, such as a nail gun.

(26) In one embodiment, the apertures 44 are formed a distance 46 of no more than approximately 3 inches from the upper end 36. In another embodiment, the apertures 44 are between approximately 1.75 inches and approximately 2.5 inches from the upper end 36. In still another embodiment, the apertures 44 are positioned no closer than approximately 2.75 inches from the upper end 36.

(27) Other shingles and systems and methods of installing them are described in the following references which are each incorporated herein in their entirety by reference: UK Application GB 15,872 to Chilcott; UK Application GB 120,454 to Morris; UK Application GB 126,589 to Fletcher; UK Application GB 2,277,540 by Cooke; UK Application GB 2,335,670 by Harris; U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,885 by Baker; and PCT Publication WO 01/65024 by Beckett.

(28) While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, it is apparent that modifications and alterations of those embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art. However, it is to be expressly understood that such modifications and alterations are within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure, as set forth in the following claims. Further, the embodiment(s) described herein is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways.