# How long can ice/water shield stay exposed?



## stubborn1 (Oct 24, 2008)

In spring, I'm going to be doing a tear off and re-roof on a cabin we have as a vacation home. The challenge is that my time there is limited. I'm going to be able to recruit a bunch of help for the tear off, but the reroofing will go slower. It may take 2-3 weekends after the tearoff to get the shingling done.

Instead of using roof tarps, I was toying with the idea of installing ice/water barrier over most of the roof. It would give me a fairly weather tight system until I could get shingles installed. I realize it's a cost issue, but I ran the numbers for a 16 square roof and it didn't seem too bad. How long can the ice/water be exposed to the sunlight before it causes issues? Am I crazy for considering this?


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## Tom Struble (Dec 29, 2008)

i guess it depends on your roof.There are some who say i&w could form a double vapor barrier.Is the roof insulated?ventilated ?is there an existing vapor barrier?you could look into a product like thishttp://www.interwrap.com/Titanium/witch is designed for fairly long UV exposure


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

The GAF Ice/water shield I installed said 60 days


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## rustyjames (Jul 20, 2008)

The exposure time varies, for some manufactures it's a week, and some it's 3 months. UV exposure is what hurts it. I've seen it exposed for years and it still looked good.


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## stubborn1 (Oct 24, 2008)

The roof will be insulated. I'll have the baffles directly under the old 1x roof boards followed by standard fiberglass insulation between the rafters. The soffits are vented and I will be installing continuous ridge vent.

If I can get 60 days exposure out of the ice/water barrier, that should give me plenty of time to finish my roof.


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## Slyfox (Jun 13, 2008)

There are several base sheets that you can use so long as you install them properly and fasten the material with cap nails or tin caps with staples,
I have used Tamko's nail fast several times with good results,
but there are many others,
ask your local roofing material supplier for options.


I was not talking about covering the I&W with a good base sheet,
rather use a good base sheet instead of covering the entire roof in I&W.


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## Ed the Roofer (Jan 27, 2007)

You could also buy some cheap 15# felt paper to cover up the Ice and Water Shield, so it isn't exposed to the sun.

But.....

Tarps are cheap. Buy them and use them instead.

Ed


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## the roofing god (Aug 2, 2007)

Ed the Roofer said:


> You could also buy some cheap 15# felt paper to cover up the Ice and Water Shield, so it isn't exposed to the sun.
> 
> But.....
> 
> ...


He`s such a kidder !


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