Said It Here

Why do shingles scuff when installed in hot weather?

High afternoon temperatures soften the asphalt, causing deep scuffs and granule loss whenever roofers walk across the shingles. Even walking as slowly and gently as possible fails to prevent the damage once the roof heats up.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Working only half days or starting early in the morning at 5 AM and stopping by lunch
  2. 2
    Spraying or watering the roof to keep it cool
  3. 3
    Placing spare back-to-back shingles under your knees or toes while working
  4. 4
    Applying tar and sprinkling loose granules over the damaged spots after finishing

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

However as the day heated up, some damage from roofers walking on the shingles occurred.source ↗

eugene89us · r/Roofing · 2 upvotes

After the first two deep scuffs I started walking as slowly and gently as I could but there was no real way around it.source ↗

PowerfulFold3468 · r/Roofing · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised