The Shingle Roof Installation Process: 13 Steps Done Right in Texas

GAF Certified Plus Contractor · Atlas PRO+ Platinum Select · 5,000+ Texas roofs

Here's the thing most homeowners never get told about shingle roofing in Texas: a shingle roof is only as good as the sequence it was built in. You can buy the best Class 4 shingle on the market, and if the crew lays the drip edge over the underlayment at the eave instead of under it, or skips the valley membrane, water finds the deck anyway. The shingles you can see are the smallest part of the job. The parts that actually protect you are the layers underneath, installed in a specific order, and you only get to inspect them for a few hours before the next layer hides them for 20 years.

That's why this page walks the install the way a real Texas replacement runs, top to bottom, with the reason each step matters and what it costs you when a contractor cuts it. Use it to judge any bid you get, including ours. If a contractor can't tell you what goes down before the shingles, you already have your answer.

Every asphalt shingle roof ARP installs follows the same 13-step order. The steps don't move, because the physics of water and wind don't move.

1. Tear off down to the bare deck. The old shingles, underlayment, and flashing come off completely so the crew can see the wood. Roofing over an old layer hides rot and costs you a second tear-off in a few years.
2. Inspect and re-nail the decking. With the deck exposed, your project manager checks for soft, rotted, or delaminated plywood and re-nails loose sheathing to code. If we find bad decking, you get a change order with a photo before anyone replaces a board. Nobody swaps wood on your roof without your sign-off, and nobody buries rot under new shingles either.
3. Install drip edge at the eave. A metal drip edge goes on the lower roof edges first, kicking runoff into the gutter instead of behind it. Skip it and water wicks back onto the fascia, which is how you get rotted eaves and peeling paint two winters later.
4. Lay ice-and-water membrane in the valleys and around penetrations. A self-adhering waterproof membrane seals the roof's highest-risk spots: the valleys where two slopes dump water together, and every pipe, vent, and chimney base. These are where roofs leak first. The membrane is your backup seal if a shingle ever lifts.
5. Roll out synthetic underlayment across the field. Synthetic underlayment covers the rest of the deck as a secondary water barrier under the shingles. It sheds the wind-driven rain that gets past shingles in a Texas storm, and it holds up in heat far better than old felt paper.
6. Install drip edge at the rake, over the underlayment. On the sloped side edges, the drip edge goes on top of the underlayment (the reverse of the eave). That order locks the wind out of the roof edge, which is exactly where Texas gusts try to peel a roof.
7. Set the starter strip along the eaves and rakes. A purpose-made starter course with a factory adhesive strip runs the perimeter first. It bonds the first row of shingles down and seals the edges. Contractors who "start with a cut shingle" to save money leave your edges prone to blow-off.
8. Lay the field shingles with the right nailing and offset. The shingles go up in courses, each nailed with 4 to 6 nails placed in the manufacturer's nail zone, with joints offset row to row. Nail high, nail short, or nail too few, and the manufacturer's wind warranty is void the day it's installed. This is the single most common shortcut in the trade.
9. Flash the walls, chimney, and valleys. New step flashing and counter-flashing tie the roof into every wall and chimney; valley metal or a woven valley finishes the channels. Reusing old, painted-over flashing is a leak waiting to happen. Fresh, correctly lapped flashing is what keeps water out at the transitions.
10. Install the ridge vent. A continuous ridge vent is cut in at the peak to let hot attic air escape. Proper ventilation is what keeps your attic from cooking the shingles from below and shortening their life in Texas heat.
11. Cap the ridge. Matching hip-and-ridge cap shingles finish the peaks over the vent, sealed and nailed for the exposed high point of the roof. Field shingles bent over the ridge (another cost-cut) crack and blow off first.
12. Clean up and run the magnet sweep. The crew hauls debris, and a rolling magnet passes over the yard, beds, and driveway to pull stray nails. This is your family's and your tires' protection, and it's part of our Clean Site Promise, not an afterthought.
13. Final inspection and photo documentation. An ARP project manager walks the finished roof, checks the details, and photographs the work, including the layers now hidden under the shingles. You get documentation of what you paid for.

A shingle roof is built in a sequence, and the sequence is where it's won or lost. Starter, valley membrane, underlayment, drip edge in the right order, then the field. Skip a step and the roof still looks finished from the driveway. It just doesn't last. We install to the sequence every time and photograph it, because the parts that protect you are the ones you can't see once the last shingle is down.

The crew on your roof is led by an ARP project manager who inspects the work at the deck, mid-install, and final stages. That oversight is where the sequence gets enforced, because a step is easy to skip when nobody is checking.

Most shingle roofs on an average Texas home go on in 1 to 2 days. A standard 2,000 to 2,500 sq ft roof with straightforward access is usually a single day for tear-off and install, with a second day for larger, steeper, or multi-layer roofs, or when the deck needs repairs. Weather moves the schedule too, since your crew won't dry-in a roof into an incoming storm.

Speed is not the same as rushed. A one-day roof done in the right order beats a job stretched over a week with the valley membrane skipped. What you want to watch is not how fast the shingles go up, but whether the layers underneath went down first.

You don't need to learn the trade to hold a contractor to the sequence. You need three questions, and you should get clear answers to all three before you sign anything.

• "What goes down before the shingles?" A real answer names drip edge, valley and penetration membrane, synthetic underlayment, and starter strip. Vague answers mean vague work.
• "What happens if you find rotted decking after tear-off?" You want to hear "a change order with a photo before we replace anything," not a number invented on the spot or wood quietly swapped and billed later.
• "Will I get photos of the finished roof and the layers underneath?" The parts that protect you disappear under the shingles. Documentation is the only way you ever confirm they were installed.

A contractor who answers these plainly is telling you they build to a standard. One who gets cagey is telling you something too.

Yes, if:

• You want the layers under your shingles installed in the correct order and documented with photos
• You want a project manager checking the work at the deck, mid-install, and final stages
• You want an honest change order (with a photo) before anyone replaces decking
• You're planning to stay in your home and want a roof that lasts its full Texas life

No, if:

• You're shopping on lowest price alone, since a corner-cut install will always bid cheaper than a correct one
• You need a small patch on a few shingles, since a targeted shingle repair or replacement may be all you need
• You want someone to roof over your existing layer to save a day, since we tear off to the deck every time

Getting a correctly sequenced roof is not complicated on your end.

1. Book a free inspection. An ARP project manager assesses your roof and deck and walks you through what your install actually needs.
2. Review your estimate and scope. You see the materials, the sequence, and the price in writing before any work starts.
3. We install to the sequence and document it. Your roof goes on in the right order, and you get the photos to prove it.

Get a free ARP roof inspection →

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