What's A Reasonable Day's Production

bmaurice

this thread had me thinking at work today to. i figured out i lay a little more then 3 square an hour on runs and about 2 working up valleys and starting up my rakes. i really dont think its possible to get much faster then that. I heard people say like like to step 5 shingles up and then overlap one at 12 inches which makes them move less side to side and intern makes them faster but i dont like lifting the last shingle up. Whats the average squares per hour for a good roofer? ive heard people say they can do 5 or 6 on runs but i call bull**** on that.

MJW

If stair stepping you can hit 4 square an hour pretty easy by yourself, if you are a good shingler. With a helper, you should get 5-6 on an open roof rather easy.

The one square off and on per hour goes out the window with the big illegal crews of 10+ guys. They work like turtles. I did see a group of 5 illegals once though that did an entire church in 3 days. This was over 100 square with a 10/12 pitch. They also did the small garage. They worked from about 10AM till dark, which is about 9 pm in the summer.

4 guys is about perfect for most jobs. It makes things sooooo much easier. We do those easy 24 square houses in 2 days with just the 2 of us. Usually 10-12 hours total.

apehangeralfy

I could do 4 an hour for about 3 hours, then set myself up for the next day and be home by 1; did it for years... a few pounds and couple stays at the hospital and those days are done forever... I can still go like greased lightning but after a square or two I'm winded and my stomach is on fire. My guys stop me from even grabbing a roll on the way up the ladder.

The good jobs are all but gone down here, all that I have been seeing are 2/12 double or quad felt that falls apart under 3 tabs that are 10 years over due and tons of wood work. I'm not complaining but I keep the expectations real and make sure I'm on every job long enough to see exactly what is going on and am bidding to what I see and feel, not to the magical square price.... I also make a fair profit on each job, no matter how long it takes cause I know what it takes to get it done with the guys I have. I also use only top line shingles and peel-n-stick on every job... every deck gets re-nailed with 8D ring-shank nails 4" on seams and 6" on center and I check to make sure they don't cheat one nail.... when we leave the ground is cleaner than it is when we started....

all this is only to try to keep up with my good looks and charm.

Slyfox

I have seen two experienced roofers work together, one placing and one nailing and do seven square in an hour, but they did not do that for eight hours tho.

If you average four square an hour than that means you install 160 square per every fourty hour week per man "shingler".
Two man crew 320 square per week.

If any of you can truelly lay 160 square per week please pop me an email because I'm gonna make you and me alotttttttttttt a monies.
Me and my two guys will tear'm off and install the underlayment, you put'm back on.

The most I ever nailed in one day was 22 square, no helper, hand nailing.
I can not do that 5 or 6 days a week tho, my weekly aberage is 12 per day, normal work day is eight hours, but normal shingling hours is 5, the rest is set up, prep, clean up, etc.
My average for running a nail gun is the same as hand nailing.

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MJW

There is no possible way. I remember hand nailing with my father. He did 22 square houses one after another and never got better than 2 square an hour hand nailing. Even now at 57 years old, he can put down 3-4 square an hour with a nailer, so he is no slouch.


Also, why would one guy set shingles for another guy? When I rarely have a helper, they have to stay at least 6 feet away or I would run them over.

Wish I could meet you and show you how to put on shingles faster and with way less work......

AaronB.

Oh yes, I should have also included doing it to the book, everything perfect, or near as can humanly be done.

Andres' 7 guys did 28 squares for me in one day, and I was plenty happy, until had to flash everything myself at a later date. They were sillyconers.

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AaronB.

When you figure everything into the job, they consistently run 2.5-3.5 man hours per square.

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Slyfox

Like I said, if you or any other roofer in here can nail 3 - 4 square an hour 40 hours a week which works out to 120 - 160 square per week per man, you could make a killing here in my area.
If you can not do those numbers every hour of every day you work than it's not your average speed, it's your top end speed.
I can, even today after thirty years since I started roofing still do 3 -4 square an hour "hand nailing" for four or five hours on large wide open sections, but not for eight hours a day and not on the average every day home.

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MJW

Four hours of shingling is all a usual day is, at most. We usually tear and shingle the same day. You just get wore out if you do the same thing for 8 hours at a time, 5 days a week. Maybe that's why people always whine about their bodies being broke down so bad. 8 hour days are for employees that are slow.

As with most roofers, we do more before lunch than most people do all week. Get it done before it gets hot and go home.

J-Peffer

I do the same thing,

If we are not super productive, at the job site. We are going home.

Grumpy

But I don't think we are talking "everything" I think we are talking tearing and puttingback. Flashings are always extra. Travel is extra if it's unusual. I wouldn't pay anyone for travel other than the driver. The rest hitching a ride are getting a favor done for them. It's their responsibility to get to the job site and the clock doesn't start until they start unpacking the truck. Same thing for the ride home. But if it's further than our typical job I might toss them a buck or two for travel. I still don't see 2.5 being realistic on a 1 layer rip on an ez walk, but if you can sell em at that price kudos to you. I have a hard enought ime selling at my current prices getting beat up daily by guys selling cheaper than my labor and material costs; forget profit and overhead. They are working for wages. Heck minimum wages, they'd make more money working for me.

Slyfox

That's what I thought, you were talking about shingle speed for one, two, three hours and I was talking about daily averages like the original poster of this topic.
I know tons of roofers who can nail like crazy for short burst like that.

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sd.midwest

With a three man crew a 22 sq. two layer should be off and felted inside one long day. Factor in other layers and I can see it dragging out to two. My crew of 6 guys + one sub averages thirty four sq. completed a day. Anything less would be uncivilized.

Grumpy

2 doors down from my house there is a 17 square 2 layer rip. I do not know what time the crew showed up to start but they were not there when I left my house at 7:22 am yesterday. I got home about 3:30 and they were there. There were 3 of them and it looks like all they accomplished yesterday was tear off and felt.

When I got home at 3:30 and saw the roof wasn't even felted I started laughing at them. They took notice and I walked away chuckling.

BTW that was one job I didn't want. The customer was a b i t c h, and I saw the other kinds of people she had bidding on the job. Scary looking, almost homeless looking, like they just came from the bar. But I digress.

bmaurice

my crew and i just did a personal high today 3 roofers and a laborer did 25 square on a contemporary house no valleys just a lot of dormers and teared roofs. i really want to find some faster guys though i took on one side myself after we got it ripped, meaning i dried it in and shingled and i finished 30 minutes ahead of the 2 roofing the other side. on know some of you might crush that but my crews only 2 months in now still working out some of their kinks. i dont know why i cant find relly good roofers. i always find lazy guys.

oldfrt

Be happy that you got two that show up every day,you'll probably have a hard time finding anyone that can come close to keeping up with you.
I only found one or two in 30 years.
That's why we get the bigger paycheck at the end of the job.

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Grumpy

Day number 2 and the job down the street is still not complete. 17 squares 3 days? There were 4 guys there today.

cms_roofing

Sorry if you said this.
Hand lifting shingles?

We just had 3 man crew on 2 story apartment 19 squares
Tear Off and shingled in 1 day, this was with cleaning and all plus chimney flashing.

However we used a lift.
Does sound a little slow imo

cms_roofing

However we finish 95% of jobs in 1 day. NEVER NEVER do we leave a jobsite with it not shingled. 1 day= tear off and shingle, if my guys look lacking I send 2 or 3 more to make sure it gets done. We average 100 sq. per day, a 6 man crew can get 50-60 sq. pending details. This is one of my biggest selling points as I make bids, we just finished one job they gave us 120 days to complete. 1200 sq, we finished it all in 34 days including days not worked and all clean up.

mnjconstruction

When I run a 3 man crew on a roof we do around 12-14 sqs a day strip and lay.
All 3 strip, one jumps down to start clean up, while the other 2 start preping. After prep is done all 3 carry shingles up for about 15-20 min. Then the 2 start roofing while the other keeps cleaning up. Cleanup guy will continue bringing things to roofers as needed.

this system has worked for me for years. By the end of day, everything is clean, roof is water tight