used shingles use?

[B.C.Biker]

Tried a few different search phrases on here and the web and no answers. Results were just about recycling ground up shingles while I'm asking about whole shingles ONLY.
Has anyone here used (free) asphalt shingles under a gravel driveway or shop floor?
Long story short I'll be reshingling the house and garage roof. Also putting up a metal arch building and will be keeping it a compacted gravel floor for this year and possibly going concrete next year.
So will shingles under gravel floor act as a helpful "vapour barrier" and assist in weight bearing or does that go in the nutty idea colum? If it's nuts I'll keep them for keeping weeds down on the side of building I won't see often.

 

[The Cobbler]

they would be better served in a proper landfill in my opinion.

 

[ducksface]

I would use them under and over piping in a ditch. If they were one piece instead of hundreds they would help with the floor, but as they are they are just fill. They might mulch a garden well, but leeching could be a negative.

So here's a story.
A truck lost a bunch, I'll say 30 shingles on a hot Arizona street. They laid there and were ran over a thousand times before the day was over. Gravel side down, they were a perfect and unaffected road patch for about 9 years. Hell, they might still be there.
They worked perfectly. Never wore down, never tore, never became textured like desert asphalt does.

 

[CNGsaves]

Other countries besides USA are much better at recycling of shingles.

I did find one place in AR that "would" take shingles from my friend's house . .
. . . BUT . . .they were totally overflowing with material so no go. They ground them up and made new Tamko shingles, but could only use so much of regrind versus new.

For Canada, the OP may have more options like the base material for a gravel or asphalt road. Good luck.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

They're really good for filling a dumpster...

Tommy

 

[555]

I found this 10 uses for asphalt shingles http://www.chasinggreen.org/article/10-ways-re-use-asphalt-roof-shingles/

 

[larry4406]

Hah - I was going to post the joke about using them for ditch fill on a pipe but Duckface beat me.

Proper landfill please....

 

[nehog]

Tried a few different search phrases on here and the web and no answers...

I did a DuckDuckGo search for "reusing asphalt shingles" and got a ton of good hits.

 

[Randy in Maine]

In this state (as well as NH and MA) we have them ground up and they are used to replace about 5% of the virgin asphalt in making hot batch asphalt for roads. It is cheaper and "greener" to do that than to throw them in a landfill.

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

I use shingles on deck upright supports to separate the cement base from the wood. Stops wood from wicking up moisture. Granular side up. When supports are cut to short they also make great shims. For that matter they would be great for on the joist of a deck were the 2x whatever trap debris on the horizontal surface and would limit decay. Just thought of that one. What I use now for under decking is a batch of aluminium siding that has taken part in a good hailstorm.

 

[B.C.Biker]

Thanks for the replies. I'm guessing it's a nutty idea for the squirrels then.
They won't go to the landfill though. Weed duty for them around the shop and also under some vehicles parked in a field. Currently have some roofing tin that's needed on yet another project stored under the camper van keeping weeds off the floorboards , that's one home for some of the shingles.
I did see some other uses for the shingles it's just that I'm doing both projects one after the other so wanted to combine the two if possible.

 

[B.C.Biker]

Thanks for the story as well ducksface. Not quite Arizona hot up here but i might have to throw a few out on the highway this summer just to see...

 

[James-W]

A friend of mine used to make birdhouses in the Winter to sell at craft fairs. He used shingles for the roof on the birdhouse, but he used brand new shingles and he didn't use the whole shingle, just part of it. Other than something like that, I can't think of any good way to use them.

 

[MScott]

Thanks for the story as well ducksface. Not quite Arizona hot up here but i might have to throw a few out on the highway this summer just to see...

Just be sure to remove the shingle nails first.

 

[DIC]

25-30 years ago there was somebody in Houston shredding shingles into strings about 3/8 inch strips and made driveways with them. They would rake them out smooth then roll it. It made some pretty decent driveways

 

[xjfish]

I have some new leftover shingles laid on the ground for sort of a temporary floor in my tarp shed.

 

[Schurkey]

Buddy of mine has been dropping shingles to form an "asphalt road" on his storage property for years. He thinks it works, but they seem to get torn-up and disappear in the mud.

 

[Moosefire66]

I recently replaced the front walkway from my driveway to my front door. Underneath was layered with old shingles. It was a huge pain in the *** to remove, and I have less weeds now then before. I don't think it's worth the trouble personally

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[CJ7VFR]

How many shingles do you have left over? Is there enough, for example, to put a roof on a shed or other small type of structure like one of those things that people put wood in?

I ask because some people who are looking to put a new roof on their shed or other outbuilding and would love to have free shingles because they can't afford to buy new ones.

Some towns have local papers where people can advertise free stuff like your shingles. You could do Craigslist, but you might not want the hassles and the crazy people coming out of the woodwork with that. Depending on where you live, you could even put them out by the road, with a "FREE" sign on them. Someone driving by might see them and pick them up. I do that all the time with stuff I don't want. I put it out by the road, with a "FREE" sign on it, and it is usually gone within a few hours. If not, then I toss it.

But either way, see if you can give them away. There is always someone who can use them.

Jim

 

[nh_yota]

There's a big difference between leftover "new" shingles and "used" shingles that were removed from a roof.

 

[cajunfirehawk]

When I was young we had a shingle plant down the street and they would give away all the punch outs (the small strips between each tab?) and people and my father would get them and use them in their driveway if they could not afford cement or rocks, true story.

 

[petee_c]

I have a few used shingles from wind damage at one of our properties.

I save a few to use on two 5' long 2x10 boards that we use to get the lawnmower into the shed or the snowblower onto the utility trailer.

I'll cut them to width and nail them to the boards as non slip material. The snowblower has trouble getting up the wooden ramps onto the trailer. Once every couple years I need to blow out the drive over Xmas at our rental place if we get a storm over the Xmas break at our student rental. Or at my parents if they are away on vacation.



Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk

 

[lakeroadster]

We had about 20 bundles of new shingles in our garage when we move in. I initially used them on top of the concrete floor, as a covering, in the small 10' x 10' shed in the back yard. The shed had water infiltration issues. I got tired of the asphalt smell, and we land filled all but one bundle.

In this state (as well as NH and MA) we have them ground up and they are used to replace about 5% of the virgin asphalt in making hot batch asphalt for roads. It is cheaper and "greener" to do that than to throw them in a landfill.

No way it is cheaper.. and greener is subjective.

Don't drink the Kool Aid: The Recycling Hoax Explained

 

[mudhog]

Do not know if it was a good ideal or not but I put shingles down between the concrete and the 2x4s that connect to the floor for my walls. I cut them to match the board as a "gasket". That was 20 years ago. I got the ideal when I helped a neighbor tear down an old garage and all the boards touching concrete were rotten, and some looked to be stained from being wet. My concrete does sweat so I was thinking the shingles give it a barrier. My shop is a post beam type and the walls are not load bearing.

 

[Davefr]

They're great for cutting into squares and using under ladder feet on slick surfaces or to shim a step ladder to true vertical.

However that only takes a couple shingles.

 

[Retlaw 66]

I used them as a weed barrier under the stone of my crushed stone parking area. Also around the perimeter of my pole barn, again as a weed barrier.

 

[B.C.Biker]

Right on, couple more good ideas been posted here.
Retlaw 66, how many inches of rock on top of the shingles? Any problems?
20 years between concrete and wood sounds like a success story.
Been using some in the alley behind the fence at my current house. Neighbour on one side grinds off mower blades couple times a summer trying keep weeds under control. The one on the other side just lets them grow as big as trees.
Another few months and I'll be living at my rural property. Will need binoculars to see the neighbor's weeds.