Tamko Building Products, Inc.

Epoch Composite Products, Inc.

Travis Turek

Adam Guenther

Peter Shadwell

A starter block and a shingle are utilized to form courses that may be positioned in overlapping fashion on a roof to form a roofing covering system. The particular design of the starter block and shingle result in a roofing product that provides increased durability over previous designs. The starter block may be formed with top and bottom surfaces, opposite side surfaces with tapering heights, and a front surface having a greater height than a back surface of the starter block. When the starter block is coupled to a roof deck, a semi-rigid shingle having a generally planar bottom surface may be placed upon the starter block so that a portion of the shingle extends off of the starter block over the back surface thereof and onto the roof deck to facilitate contact between the shingle and the roof deck at a location more proximal to the starter block back surface than if the same back surface had the same height as the front surface. Additionally, the semi-rigid shingle may have an exposed portion and a headlap portion, with the exposed portion extending from a forward shingle edge to the headlap portion and the headlap portion extending from a back shingle edge to the exposed portion. The exposed portion has a central region with a generally uniform thickness moving in the longitudinal direction. Unlike the exposed portion, the headlap portion has a taper in average thickness moving in the longitudinal direction. The taper extends for at least a substantial part of the headlap portion.

Roofing product

A roofing member provides improved thermal expansion relief characteristics when mounted adjacent to other roofing members in laterally extending courses on a roof surface. According to one arrangement, the roofing member has a main body with top and bottom surfaces, and side regions, as well as one or more spacer tabs extending outwardly from one or more of the side regions. Each spacer tab extends outwardly from a location on one of the side regions that is adjacent to one of a set of depressions formed into the bottom surface of the main body. In this way, when thermal expansion of adjacently mounted roofing members occurs causing a compressive force to be applied against particular spacer tabs, the spacer tabs fail in a way that at least partially displaces the respective tabs into the adjacently positioned depressions, thereby reducing the stress loads that adjacent shingles apply to one another.

Growing community of inventors

Webb City, MO, United States of America

Travis Turek