Shingles

I had a chance to get a really good deal on a bunch of Master Slab shingles. The guy had bought them maybe 10 or 15 years ago or whatever, but ended up never putting them on. They have been stored inside the whole time and never exposed to the weather. They look good as new. I want to put them on an old garage I have. Anybody see any problems with that?

Go for it. They might be more brittle when cold, but warm, they should be just fine, and last as long as their intended life. Jim

I would just check one or two packages to make sure the shingles haven't glued themselves together. I had a bundle that had been in storage that I somehow ended up with, and when I
went to use them as starter shingles (they were green and didn't match anything here, but underneath they wouldn't show) I found that the tar strips had bonded so strongly with the
shingles above them that they couldn't be separated without destroying the shingle, even indoors in the summer.
Zach

I had some 25 year old shingles in garage. Never been outside. They were as brittle as the ones on
house.

Why waste your time taking a CHANCE? Unless you want to do the roof again in 4-5-8 years from now. When you can get 16 or so out of a 20 year shingle. But if you have time, and no money to buy new, then pound away. Your roof your decision. gobble

I assume you are referring to what are referred to as being "asphalt shingles". Up here, the standard for years was paper-
based asphalt shingles. Those have not been made for some time now, everything is fibreglass-based asphalt shingles now.
Lots of problems with the former type and they quit making them ........ IKO, Building Products (BP), etc.

Use them. When I worked in the yard we had shingles in inventory longer than that. If you feel they are not sealing adequately squeeze some tar under the tabs.

Shingles kept out of the weather would last almost forever. Make sure you have enough before you start in case it is a color or stile that has been discontinued.

I used some on a duck box (house) this summer
that had been stored for 17 years and they were
stiff and brittle. Ok for this use but I would
hesitate use on large scale.

Oops, I thought your subject was about Shingrix the new shingles shot. My error.

For get that terrible nonsense of putting shingles on every few years. Just put steel on and be done with it for the rest of your life.

At least you don't have shingles as in the virus. Ron MN

Googling "master slab" brings up this:

<a href="http://www.certainteedshinglesettlement.com/identifyshingles.cfm">http://www.certainteedshinglesettlement.com/identifyshingles.cfm</a>

So, those are apparently organic shingles that were included in a class-action lawsuit against Certainteed. So the owner probably picked them up cheap.

Are they still usable? Probably, IF they've been stored properly. If they're still on the original palette and properly stacked, they should be OK. If they've been restacked improperly, they're most likely junk. How can you tell? Well, you won't know for sure without opening a bundle from the bottom of the stack and trying to pull the shingles apart. But you can get a pretty good idea looking at the bundles in the stack: If the bundles are nice and square, with each shingle directly on top of the one below, they're probably OK. But if the shingles have slid around in the bundle so they're no longer lined up, they're probably stuck together and unusable. (The release strip on each shingle has to be directly over the glue strip of the shingle below it, otherwise they'll stick together.)

No more than shingles cost, I wouldn't buy old ones unless it was for a building I expect to tear down in a few years.

I agree with the idea of only using them some place where they only need to last ten more years or less, so that if they do fail early you don't need to replace them.

Shingles are similar to paint, most of the total cost is the labor to install them. Even if they were free, when those old stock shingles fail early, the extra cost to tear them off and install another roof will be much more than you could ever save by using the old stock shingles.