Roofing Glossary

July 8, 2018

A roofing project for your home coming up? When talking to your roofer, it is best if you get
yourself familiar with the most common roofing terms. Getting to know these roofing terms
ahead of time is useful for ease of communications with your roofer.

You’ll get to easily convey the ideas you want for your roof when you fully understand what your
roofer has to say.

Here is a short list of words to prep you up.

Roofing Glossary

A

Aggregate: It serves as the surface for the roofing system. Aggregates can be made up of
different materials so long as it provides protection to the roof from UV rays.

Asphalt: Unlike what most people would think, it’s not the same with the ones used on the
roads. In roofing, asphalt is used as a waterproofing agent.

B

Ballast: This covers the membrane of a roof. It can be made of many types of materials.

Buckling: A type of roof damage that occurs when a wrinkle is formed in the shingles that affects
the waterproof properties of the roof.

C

Cupping: This happens when shingles are improperly installed over an existing roof.

D

Deck: This is the substrate, usually a plywood or wood board, over which roofing is applied.

Dormer: A roof raised extending out of a large roof plane.

E

Eaves: Eaves are the first three feet across a roof. The part of your roof that extends outwards
from the walls of your home.

F

Flashing: This refers to the materials that are used to seal and waterproof the area around any
vents, chimneys, or other projections on the roof.

G

Granules: These are crushed rocks that is coated with ceramic used as top layer of shingles.

R

Roof Plane: This is an area of your roof defined by four separate edges.

S

Slope: This is the angle at which your roof is elevated on the top of your home.

 Low-slope Roof- Any roof with a slope of less than 4:12

 Steep slope roof- Any roof with a slope of less than 4:12

U

Underlayment: This is an asphalt-based roll material installed under the shingles to add an extra
protection to your roof.

V

Valley: This is the area where two planes of your roof intersect, creating a V-shape. These are
where a lot of water flows off your roof during rainfall.

W

Warm Wall: This is the finished wall inside a structure used to determine how far up the deck
should waterproof underlayment should be installed at eaves.