white line fever

[scarletpumpernickel]

what are the white lines printed on roofing paper for?
They don't seem to relate to anything.
I hoped they might have something to do with laying down straight courses of fiberglass shingles, but so far I'm not seein it.
thanks
scarlet
gawd, this site is SLOW

[pushkins]

You answered your own question the lines are printed on the paper for lining up purposes, be it shingles or the rows of paper.

[scarletpumpernickel]

Nu uhn

No I didn't.
If they were meant to help line up shingles, the distance between lines would be the same as the interval of shingles (plus extra on one edge for overlap).., which begs the question, since it would make everything easier including the laying of the starter course.., why can't the roofing paper simply be laid down butted edge to edge (and not overlapped), since the purpose of roofing paper isn't about shedding water anyway?
thanks (though)

[pushkins]

You seem to be misguided or misinformed as to the purpose of roofing paper.

Roofing paper is there to help with the control of moisture. The heat that is created inside the attic space transfers to the underside of the shingles and causes extremely premature damage of the shingles.
On the outside approach, the sun beating down on shingles creates a tremendous amount of heat on the shingles this then builds up a moisture layer between the shingles and the roof sheathing, without the paper this moisture would be directly on the sheathing and cause extremely premature rotting of the sheathing.
So if the paper was "butted" edge to edge the moisture would have a great chance of penetrating UNDER the next sheet down and ....you guessed it moisture damage to the sheathing. So in overlapping the rows so that the top row overlaps the next row down and so on the moisture IS shed off the sheathing all the way down to the gutters.

The lines are a clear guide in overlapping the paper AND in the placement of roofing shingles and I did say GUIDE. (2" minimum overlap but most of my roofers use 4")
Anyone that attempted to not use roofing paper or to not overlap the paper is in breach of ANY shingle warranty, they would find an insurance claim hard to process (if at all) for any moisture/water damage to shingles and or sheathing and to top it all off the simple peace of mind that the job is done right goes along way to helping me sleep well at night.

[scarletpumpernickel]

Let's get back to the issue

I'm sorry I brought up the whole water-shedding/shingle butting bizzness.
The central issue is not being addressed - which is that the white lines do not seem to correspond to the normal recommended overlap (or course interval) of shingles... such that as one adds each new higher course, the top edge of the shingle can be simply lined up along some line printed on the shingle, thereby eliminating guesswork or snapping of chalk lines. In other words, why cant they just "print" white lines on the tar paper that are helpful instead of meaningless??
thanks

[Hube]

pumpernickel;
oh, but all those lines ARE on there for a reason, which involves various types of "plys" in some 'built-up' roofing jobs. These lines are very essential, especially when using the heavier felt/paper than the normal 15 lb material that is chiefly used on residential jobs, which normally only require a 3" lap.

But since you seem to be of the 'hardheaded' type , IF we gave you the exact methods on HOW to use these line markings for some other applications,you would more than likely find fault with the answer.So we will not.

Have a good one.