Production & pay rates for shingling

What's your experience in your area? I know from past posts "piece work" is forgein to alot of you. But surely, some places other than the west, utilize pc wk?

I've experienced much less production rates than that of years past....I'm going back 20yrs....up to 6/12....A shingler would typically do 12 - 20 sqs/day....I can remember on Davis-Bacon jobs a roofer was expected to do 16 sqs/day. I worked on re-roofing project on an AFB once, as a roofer, where they paid us for 8hrs, once we had 12 sqs. on....Most of us were off by noon....Today, it's rare to get a shingler who can do 8 sqs/day! Most are 5-6 SQS!....It's painful to watch them work.

As for pay...In 92', in a particualr part of the country, I was paying $10/sq for comp up to 6/12....Today the rate is $15/sq....(should be $30+).

These days, where we're at, I've been paying $25/sq.....Now, it seems to me, if a guy puts on 12-16sqs/day, which isn't really that difficult; That's darn good money....($300-$400day)....basically a $78,000 - $104,000/yr salary rate, depending on his work ethic. What an opportunity! At how many professions can you jump off the turnip truck, and in a few days be making a viable living?

Good stories. I enjoyed them.

I'm good for about one square an hour and my work looks like crap. That's why I use subs.

We always paid our guys the same....a sq is a sq....But that was back in the early 80's....Haven't used any metric's since leaving Ca. in 92'.

I discounted our rate when we went to the metric shingle and started putting on 12 less shingles per square.

I started with BUR and Tin. Commercial and Resi. Best I ever bothered to get times shingling was 5-1/2 sq. an hour, after I had laid the bundles where I wanted them, tabs turned towards me, of course.

Thoguh I could do fairly fast, I was the detail man at every Co. I ever worked at, and I still am as a self-employeed slave. Besides, why bother to see how many I can do in hurry? I can make much more doing detail work which is often easier physically, if much more demanding mentally. Some of my 1/2 to 3 square jobs can take a week or two, with all the carpentry. Simple ones can take 2-3 days sometimes.

Same here tico....BUR is where I cut my teeth....shingling was for "side-jobs"....

6/12 & under?

i can hand bang 10-12sq a day. like old school said, the new lads can't hand bang, if the compressor craps out they can't work. piece work around here as an installer is at 32 sq.

Right O'....

tritowm....Your detailed methodoligies are/should be, somewhat of standard practice....I don't necessarilly feel that some are bragging, rather comparing work ethics to yester-year....In speaking with former employees, (now employers), as well as other contractors, it rings true with everyone....Today's "roofer" can't hold a candle to the way things were done "back-in-the-day"....Then again; Isn't that alwasys the case? ;)

I love to read the braggers about how many squares they do a day. We do over a million sq ft a year and have not one guy who consistently puts on 16 square a day but yet somehow it gets done. There are too many variables. Sure I can see that if you are subbing new builds or something where you were the lowest bidder and you have to have that furious pace in order to make money but the roofs look like shit, they are nailed high, crooked, flashing are a joke, they use roof cement all over the place and etc. You cannot keep that pace for a whole season and if you do I feel sorry for you. We do mostly tear-offs in NY and the going rate for a 2 layer on plywood with a architectural is anywhere from $315 - $400 depending on roof deck, pitch, set-up, detail work, debris removal, etc. We have six man crews who average about 15 sq a day tear-off / re-roof. I, like the other reply am a perfectionist and address everything from cutting in new flashing to the chimney, soffit and roof ventilation, installing baffles, checking kitchen and bathroom exhaust, taking down siding and installing ice shield and new flashing on walls and we seem to do ok and rarely if ever have call backs. There is a saying "pay me now or pay me later" or "you get what you paid for" it could not be more true with some of the hack jobs we see on a daily basis. I seriously do not know how some of these guys sleep at night. A monkey could just slap shingles down and pay no regard to nailing pattern or location. I have seen a few guys that hit em right and are lightening but they slow down and usually are turtles when it comes to grinding in chimney flashing, cutting around protrusions or any other detail work and the guys that can do both and are fast usually end up as management because they excel in everything. Happy roofing to all!

Wow lanny!....ditto here....two of us shingling. w/a helper....felting, installing drip, laying out stacks of shingles in front of us....if he was good, while he was resting, he'd cut our "books" at the rakes, and maybe hand-nail the firt few shingles on at the eave....I was a tyrant when I was on the roof....barking consistantly w/newbies...."more shingles"...."too many"...."Hey! do you hear the gun going?", etc....

I remember working for a home bldr, who built 2nd homes in a vacation/retirement community aprx. 80 miles from our home town....We insisted he have two houses ready before we would venture out....It was the norm for myself, another roofer and a helper to stuff in my 84' Ranger....Drive there....complete two homes, (granted they were typically 4/12 & 25sqs +/- each)....50sqs +/-; Felt, drip & shingle, and return home that eve.

We were extremely efficient, a smooth running machine on the roof....and everyone made plenty of $....opposite of today's scene, it seems....A real positive work environment, "back in the day"....

Well, I'm relieved to find I might not be too anal after all. :) Clipping valley shingles, (rake edges, I insist on a precut so no more than an 1" will later be cut to prevent any sagging look, etc. There are others like me! Join the anal club guys! :laugh:

I feel your pain humbled

Damn OS....I would kill to get shingle production like that now a days, I would not mind selling shingle jobs if I could turn em like that and turn em right!

Back when I ran the new-steep crew for pops...with laminates we chalked a starter line...2 22 1/2's then 45's all the way up. We used the 5 5/8 gauge on our AJC hatchets.

On 3-tabs we popped 20's.

Now a days on shingles I make guys pop 11 1/4s and 10s. I tried to show em how to use the gauge on their guns but they just do not get it for some reason, so hell with it....cant keep em straight with out every other course lines?......every other course gets a line!

Between the new generation of roofers being untrained and unwilling to learn, the cost of shingles and everyone getting a free roof with out paying their deductable...I rather focus on metal roofing, flat commercial roofing, and repairs.

After the 300th melt down on a shingle job about cutting dog-ears/points/tips whatever you want to call em out valleys and against walls....I just do not want to mess with shingles if I can get away with it....always seems to be a referral job though.

We don't do piece work, or by the square work. At least we don't pay that way.

When we tear off a 40sq roof 1 layer over plywood 5/12 in a day a roof it w/ 7 men and out of there at a decent time, you know your producing like wild. 99% of our jobs are tearoffs and we don't feed shingles unless the grunts have nothing to do, then they will set out piles. Yes we pop lines and nail where we are supposed to.

But you can't spell production on any type of complex roof. You can however go a bitchload faster than somebody who doesn't know what they are doing, and/or do it better. Flashing is just a PITA if its not ideal. Some things take time. My main shingler makes $18/hr which isn't great but we just can't afford any more because we could be doing it ourselves. We also pay him to help load the trucks, tear off, or whatever job I need done next so it evens out. We also pay overtime and for breaks.

As far as hand nailing, him and my foreman were w/ my Dad when they used to hand bang them, and they want the compressor every time! I put on a couple of squares in patch situations by hand and I think it's kind of fun, but my fingers don't always agree! Nor would I want to do it all day every day. It doesn't take that awful long to setup air, unless you've got leaks, or faulty regulator, or slipping belt, or... We normally have lines popped about the time a grunt can get the air out and guns oiled.