The basics
What is a ridge cap, and why does it matter?
A ridge cap is the row of shingles bent over the very top of your roof, where two slopes meet. It keeps rain out of the one seam that runs the whole length of the roof.
ARMA, the trade group for asphalt shingle makers, calls hip and ridge shingles an important part of a finished roof. The ridge is the peak. A hip is the sloped edge where two roof faces meet at an outside corner. Caps are either shingles made for the job or ordinary three-tab shingles cut down. ARMA says the cap should leave none of the shingle's headlap showing and overlap at least 2 inches on each side of the ridge. Headlap is the part of a shingle that the next row covers.
When caps blow off, you lose the top layer over that seam. Under it sits the roof deck, the wood panels, and the underlayment, the paper or synthetic sheet laid under the shingles. In a heavy Gulf Coast rain, that is a weak spot. From the street, a roof can look fine while the ridge line is bare.
Coastline repairs shingle roofs in Manatee County, South Pinellas and South Hillsborough, and will travel around Florida for the right job. Our default shingle is Atlas Pinnacle Pristine, which Atlas warrants to 130 mph with standard 4 nail installation. Even so, caps can lift in hard storms, which is why this page walks through what to do. For the bigger picture see missing shingles after a storm.
