GLOSSARY – ROOFING JARGON DECONTRUCTED

Angie’s List Super Service Award: An award that honors service professionals who have maintained exceptional service ratings and reviews on Angie’s List. Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include maintaining an exceptional rating in overall grade, recent grade and review period grade.

Better Business Bureau (BBB): A consumer watchdog that monitors businesses to ensure they are operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer complaints. BBB assigns ratings from A+ (highest) to F (lowest). 

Digital Proposal: A roofing project proposal sent via email outlining the materials, timeframe and price associated with your roofing project, which can be signed electronically before project kickoff. 

Dormer: Windows that extend vertically from a sloping roof. Derived from the Latin dormitorium (or “sleeping room”), dormer roofs may be hipped, flat or gabled.

Felts / Synthetic Underlayments: The underlayment on your roof applied between the roofing and wood decking for added protection. Felts provide supplemental protection from weather conditions, such as snow, rain or wind.  

Flanges: Metal sheets placed around chimneys, vents and skylights for added protection against water seepage.

Flashing: A thin material, typically galvanized steel, that’s used to direct water away from critical areas of the roof (walls, chimneys, and roof valleys), wherever the roof plane encounters a vertical surface such as a wall or a dormer.

Hip Shingles: Hip shingles are used to cover the vertical or inclined angle where two sloping roofs meet.

Ice & Water Shield: Specialized underlayment that is installed to prevent water damage or ice build-up. Commonly applied along the gutters, skylights and chimneys.

Liability Insurance Protection: Insurance offered by Rapid Roofing that covers unlikely damages to your home or property during the roofing installation.

Lifetime Warranty: A warranty on your new roof offered by Rapid Roofing that guarantees the protection of your new roof and shingles for over 25+ years. 

Owens Corning Roofing Platinum Preferred Contractors: The top 1% tier of the Owens Corning Roofing Contractor exclusive network who meets strict standards for professionalism, reliability and unparalleled craftsmanship, and can offer the exclusive Owens Corning best roofing system warranty.

Ponding: Unwanted pooling of water, typically on a flat roof or roadway. On low-slope asphalt roofs, ponding water allows the oil solvent components of the asphalt to leach out and evaporate, leaving the roof membrane brittle and susceptible to cracking and leaking in the ponding location.

Project Manager: A dedicated account specialist assigned to your roofing project that ensures timeliness and transparency throughout your roofing project. 

Property Protection Assurance: Industry leading safety precautions and liability insurance offered by Rapid Roofing to ensure the preservation of your yard, driveway or vehicles. 

Rake Portion of Home: The edge of a sloped, inclined roof, over a wall.

Rapid Roofing Specialist: Your initial point of contact from Rapid Roofing that discusses the needs, wants, requirements and specifications of your roofing project. 

Ridge Shingles: Ridge shingles are used to cover the horizontal angle where two sloping roofs meet.

Rolled Ridge Ventilation: In order to ventilate hot, moist, attic air effectively, rolled ridge ventilation is applied to the ridge of a sloped, shingled roof.

Roofing Nails: Metal nails with large, broad heads, specifically manufactured for roofing shingles. 

Roof Shingles: Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat, rectangular shapes laid in courses from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive course overlapping the joints below.

Starter Strip: An additional layer of asphalt roofing applied to the eavestrough for extra protection at the joints of the first row of shingles.  

Synthetic Roof: Also known as a composite roof, a synthetic roof is made up of many compressed materials in the form of tiles or shingles. The tiles or shingles, depending on the manufacturer, are made up of different materials that are mixed and compressed.

Underlayment: Typically, either Plywood or OSB, roofing underlayment exists in the area between the roof sheathing and shingles, otherwise known as the roof deck.  

Wood Decking: The base wood surface on your home’s frame – this is what the roofing materials will be attached to.

At Rapid Roofing, we pride ourselves on delivering roofing solutions that convey the genuine care we foster for our valued customers.