# What is the width of a ridge cap shingle?



## PatChap (Nov 17, 2012)

It depends what brand of 3 tab your using. If they are English measure, you'll get 12" ridge caps and if they're metric, 13 1/8" I believe.


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## mako1 (Jan 7, 2014)

What is your reason for asking?You just cut three ridge shibles out of each full shingle from the edge of the gullet slightly angled to the top of the shingle.The will be around
11 13/16" if the are 36" shingles. The one inch measurement is wrong in the pic.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Going to install a ridge vent?
If I remember right a bundle of 3 tabs will make about 21' of ridge at 5" exposure.
Always snap a chaulk line so they run straight.
Make 100% sure you run the last rows of shingle up high enough so the glue lines do not show.
Nothing wrong with running them up over the peek and folding it over the peak.
Make sure to seal the exposed nail heads on the last piece of cap.


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## mako1 (Jan 7, 2014)

As Joe stated .Snap a chalk line and do not use red chalk.If you do make sure to cover the line with the shingles.


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

Hi PatChap, mako1 and joe caption,

Reason I'm asking is that when I went to the hardware store near our home to measure, they said that they don't sell 3 tab asphalt shingles. That meant that I would have to make a 30 mile round trip to Home Depot using about $8 of gas plus the time involved so I thought I'd tap the knowledge of the good folks here instead.

The other reason is that I read that it's best to lay out the top course of shingles first to get proper coverage of the ridge caps down to the top of the cutouts. Then divide the balance to the lowest course using 5" shingle exposure. 

I know that the ridge caps can overlap below the cutouts but I just wanted to know the exact width of self-made ridge caps (dimension "X" in the diagram) to allow laying out the top course of shingles perfectly. I know it's not critical but I "enjoy" laying out things perfectly if possible.

Thanks all,
HRG


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## ront02769 (Nov 28, 2008)

NOT a roofer but have done my share and seen others.....and NEVER have I seen one where the placement of the bottom row is dependent on the roof cap. good layout entails starting where you should, snapping intermittent lines, measuring down from the t occasionally, and remembering to do some cyphering as you get near the top....at which point you can cheat on the coverage to get what you need. Ron


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

ront02769 said:


> NOT a roofer but have done my share and seen others.....and NEVER have I seen one where the placement of the bottom row is dependent on the roof cap. good layout entails starting where you should, snapping intermittent lines, measuring down from the t occasionally, and remembering to do some cyphering as you get near the top....at which point you can cheat on the coverage to get what you need. Ron


Guess my wording was not clear, though I think others may have understood what I meant.

To clarify:
The placement of the first course (bottom row) is 100% dependent on the amount of overhang desired. The placement of the top-most course is set so the ridge cap will overlap to the top of the 3 tab cutouts.  Then divide the distance between the top and bottom courses with the goal of having 5" shingle exposure.

Yes, for a house with a lot of courses it's easy to just use 5" exposure from the bottom course and start adjusting at the top 5 to 7 courses. But note that I said this is for my shed. On a small shed there are not that many courses to begin with so I'm going to adjust all of the rows.

HRG


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## roofermann (Nov 18, 2013)

"X" is around 11 and 7/8ths. It varies a bit as most shingles are manufactured to a "+,-,1/8th" tolerance. In your case you will need to "shrink" the exposure of each course so the exposure of the last course is the same as all the others. A simple math problem, but rarely used with shingles. Please post some pics of the finished roof, you have piqued my interest.:thumbsup:


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Your way over thinking this!
#1, you can not even see both sides from the ground.
#2, Not going to effect anything if one sides a little off.


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

If you are concerned with everything looking equal, you would be best to measure your actual shingles.


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

roofermann said:


> "X" is around 11 and 7/8ths. It varies a bit as most shingles are manufactured to a "+,-,1/8th" tolerance. In your case you will need to "shrink" the exposure of each course so the exposure of the last course is the same as all the others. A simple math problem, but rarely used with shingles. Please post some pics of the finished roof, you have piqued my interest.:thumbsup:


Hmmm, I thought "X" would be less than that (11-7/8") since the dimension from the middle of one cutout to the middle of the next cutout is 12" as shown in the diagram.

Thanks,
HRG


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

joecaption said:


> Your way over thinking this!
> #1, you can not even see both sides from the ground.
> #2, Not going to effect anything if one sides a little off.


Not sure why you're mentioning #1 and #2. My wanting to know what "X" is in inches does not have anything to do with that.

HRG


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

mae-ling said:


> If you are concerned with everything looking equal, you would be best to measure your actual shingles.


Actually my main concern was not having everything looking equal. It started with concern of not having the top row of shingles with only about 1" of exposure if I just went 5" exposure starting from the bottom row. When I read about the method of laying out the top row of shingles to accommodate the ridge caps and then divide the distance to the bottom row, it made a lot of sense to me.

You're right. I'll just measure the actual shingles.

Thanks,
HRG


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

roofermann said:


> "X" is around 11 and 7/8ths. It varies a bit as most shingles are manufactured to a "+,-,1/8th" tolerance. In your case you will need to "shrink" the exposure of each course so the exposure of the last course is the same as all the others. A simple math problem, but rarely used with shingles. *Please post some pics of the finished roof, you have piqued my interest.*:thumbsup:


As requested, a picture of the finished roof is shown below.

The dimensional asphalt shingles are metric sized so the manufacturer's recommended exposure was 5-5/8" per shingle. The ridge cap shingles are 9-3/4" wide so dividing by 2 gave 4-7/8" of ridge cap coverage per side. (These were manufacturer's ridge cap shingles.) If I used 5-5/8" exposure, the last row of shingles would have had a 1-1/4" exposure to the ridge cap.

So I used 5-3/4" exposure for the first 8 rows and 5-11/16" exposure for the next 4 rows. That gave the last row of shinges 5-5/8" exposure to the bottom edge of the ridge caps. Worked out perfectly.

Note that having 5-5/8" exposure for the last row of shingles also has a huge effect on overlapping the last row of shingles over the top of the roof's peak. If there was 1-1/4" exposure for the last row, the "dimensional" portion of the shingles would have gone over the peak of the roof. Since dimensional shingles are double thickness for the lower exposure portion but single thickness for the upper portion, overlapping double thickness of shingles over the roof peak would have been difficult. Overlapping the single thickness portion over the roof peak was a piece of cake. So "overthinking" this was worth it! ..... (If I had used 3 tab shingles and ended up with 1-1/4" exposure for the last row of shingles, then the notches in the 3 tab shingles would have gone over the peak and I don't know how I could have managed all of those small 3 tab pieces.)

The manufacturer's recommended exposure for the ridge cap shingles is 5-5/8". I used 5-9/16" exposure for the ridge caps and that also worked out perfectly leaving a full 5-5/8" last ridge cap piece which allowed putting 4 nails into the last ridge cap piece spaced out nicely.

HRG


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## craig11152 (Jun 20, 2015)

As a sidebar I only snap lines on hips you can look up. Once you've roofed for awhile you shouldn't need to snap a line for a ridge.

your not an engineer are you?


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## Homerepairguy (Aug 1, 2010)

craig11152 said:


> As a sidebar I only snap lines on hips you can look up. Once you've roofed for awhile you shouldn't need to snap a line for a ridge.


Since the top of the dimensional pattern was right at the edge of the ridge caps on both sides, there was no need to snap a line for the ridge caps. Just laid the ridge caps in line with top of the dimensional pattern.



> your not an engineer are you?


No.

HRG


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