Starter Shingles and Their Purpose

Look at a finished shingle roof and you’ll never see its starter shingles. They sit buried under the first visible row: a plain strip of asphalt with no granule pattern worth admiring. That hidden row is also one of the cheapest components on the entire roof, and when a storm rolls through, it does more to keep the first courses attached than almost anything else up there. Skip it or fake it with cut-up scraps and the roof edge fails years before the shingles themselves wear out.

What are starter shingles?

Starter shingles are narrow asphalt strips installed along the roof’s edges before any visible shingles go down. They run along the eaves and up the rakes. Eaves are the horizontal lower edges where gutters hang; rakes are the angled edges on the gable ends. Roofers also call them starter strips or a starter course. Same product, same job.

They’re built from the same asphalt-and-fiberglass construction as the shingles above them, but the shape is different and so is the adhesive placement. A starter shingle is a straight strip with no tabs and no decorative cut, because nobody is meant to see it. What it has instead is a factory-applied adhesive band positioned along its bottom edge, right where the roof needs grip the most.

The question we hear most often: do upgraded shingles still need them? Yes. Architectural shingles are thicker and heavier than 3-tab, but their bottom edge is just as exposed at the perimeter, and manufacturers require a starter course under them for exactly that reason.

What do starter shingles actually do?

Starter shingles do three jobs, all of them at the most vulnerable part of the roof:

Seal the edge against wind. The adhesive band bonds the first course of shingles to the roof at the perimeter, which is where wind gets its first grip and starts prying.
Back up the seams. Field shingles meet at joints and cutouts, and the very first row has nothing beneath those gaps but underlayment. A starter course puts a continuous layer of asphalt under every one of those openings so water hits shingle material instead of finding the deck.
Set the line. A straight starter course gives the first visible row a clean, level reference, which is why a roof with proper starters looks crisp along the gutter line.

The wind job deserves the most respect in our market. The National Weather Service classifies a thunderstorm as severe once it produces gusts of 58 mph or hail an inch across, and San Antonio’s spring storm season brings exactly that kind of weather to neighborhoods from Stone Oak to Alamo Heights. When shingles start peeling at the edge during a storm, the failure tends to cascade upslope row by row. Wind damage at the edge is also sneakier than hail. Hail damage announces itself with bruises and torn granules, while a broken edge seal just sits quietly and waits for the next storm.

Can you just use cut-up 3-tab shingles instead?

The short answer: it costs you the edge seal. For decades the standard shortcut was flipping or trimming cheap 3-tab shingles into improvised starter strips, and I get why the practice survives. The material’s already on the truck, and the math seems harmless.

The problem is where the sealant ends up. A 3-tab shingle carries its factory sealant line up from the bottom edge, positioned to bond the shingle above it in normal field use. Cut that shingle into a starter strip and the sealant band lands inches away from the eave. That’s too far upslope to bond the first course’s leading edge where uplift actually starts, so the edge of the roof is left held by nails alone. A purpose-made starter like Owens Corning’s Starter Strip Plus puts its adhesive at the edge, full stop. That detail is invisible on day one and decisive in year five. It’s one of the specifics we price into every shingle roof we install in San Antonio, because purpose-made starters cost so little relative to what they protect.

What a high-wind edge installation looks like

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety is the insurance industry’s building-safety research group, and when it studied three-year-old roofs it found the same weak point over and over: shingles that weren’t well adhered at the edges failed first. Their FORTIFIED program’s technical bulletin on roof edges turned that finding into a specific edge recipe:

Drip edge, properly fastened. The metal drip edge must overlap at least 3 inches at joints, extend at least 2 inches back onto the deck, and be fastened at no more than 4-inch spacing for hurricane-rated work or 12-inch spacing for high-wind work.
Starter strips bedded in flashing cement. At the eaves, starter strips get set into a bed of flashing cement at least 8 inches wide and no more than 1/8 inch thick. The cement backs up the adhesive band with a second continuous bond.
A tight overhang. Starter strips and shingles must not extend more than 1/4 inch past the drip edge. Hang them out farther and wind gets a lip to grab.

Most San Antonio roofs aren’t built to FORTIFIED standards, and nothing requires yours to be. The list is still the clearest picture in print of what a wind-resistant edge involves, and it’s a useful bar when you’re comparing how two contractors describe their edge work. Fastening matters as much as adhesive here, which is why we field so many questions about high-wind roofing nails.

Starter shingles and your roof warranty

Manufacturer system warranties treat starter shingles as a required component, not an accessory. Owens Corning’s warranty tiers are a clear example. Qualifying for system-level coverage requires a minimum set of Owens Corning components on the roof, and starter shingles are one of the qualifying categories. The roof also has to be installed by an Owens Corning Platinum or Preferred contractor and registered within 60 days.

Here’s the part worth slowing down for. If your roofer improvises the starter course, you don’t just get a weaker edge. You can quietly lose the enhanced warranty you thought you were paying for, and you’ll typically find out after the storm, not before. We hold both the GAF Master Elite and Owens Corning Platinum Preferred designations, and a proper starter course is part of what those designations hold us to.

What to look for on your roofing estimate

Starter shingles are one of the smallest line items on a replacement. A bundle typically runs $30 to $100, and one bundle of Owens Corning Starter Strip Plus covers about 105 lineal feet of edge. A typical home needs only a few bundles, so any bid that skimps here is saving pennies in the one place wind notices.

Before you sign, check four things:

A named starter product appears on the estimate, not a vague “starter course included.”
Starters are specified at both eaves and rakes, not eaves only.
Drip edge is its own line item, with metal type noted.
The contractor will say how the edge is sealed, whether that’s the factory adhesive band alone or a cement-bedded edge for higher wind resistance.

If you’d rather have us look instead, request a free roof inspection from our San Antonio team and we’ll document the edge work along with everything else in a photo report you can keep.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are starter shingles, and why do roofing contractors install them?

They're the row nobody sees. Starter shingles are narrow asphalt strips that run along the eaves and up the rake edges, and they go down before the first visible course. What separates them from a regular shingle is where the glue sits: a factory adhesive band along the bottom edge, where wind gets its first grip. That band pins the first course down. The strip also backs every joint in that opening row with solid asphalt, and it gives the crew a straight edge to work from.

Do upgraded or architectural shingles still require a starter course?

Yes. Thicker laminated shingles hold up better across the open field of the roof, but that advantage stops at the perimeter, where the leading edge sits just as exposed as any budget product. Manufacturers write the starter course into their installation instructions for exactly that reason. Build without one and the roof falls outside the printed spec. If a contractor wants to skip it on a premium shingle, get the reasoning in writing.

Is it acceptable for a roofing contractor to cut up standard shingles to use as starter strips?

It's common. It also costs you the edge seal. A three-tab shingle carries its sealant line well up from the bottom edge, where it grabs the course above in normal field use. Trim that shingle down into a starter strip and the glue lands inches upslope of the eave. The leading edge, the exact spot where uplift begins, ends up held by nails alone. Purpose-made starter puts the adhesive at the edge. That's what you're paying for.

How do roofing contractors identify wind damage versus hail damage?

Hail leaves evidence. Bruised mats and torn granules, sometimes a fractured surface. All of it photographs. Wind is quieter. The failure starts as a broken seal at the perimeter, and a broken seal looks like nothing at all. Once that first course lets go, the next storm takes the row above it, and the one after that. Which is why a storm inspection that only walks the field of the roof misses the likeliest problem. Check the eaves. Check the rakes.

What should homeowners expect from a high-wind roof edge installation?

It comes down to three details. The high-wind standards spell out the drip edge first: lap it three inches at every joint, run it two inches back onto the deck, and nail it every twelve inches, or every four in a hurricane zone. Starter goes down next, into a bed of flashing cement eight inches wide and no thicker than an eighth of an inch. That cement gives the adhesive band a second bond. Then the overhang: nothing extends more than a quarter inch past the drip edge, because any lip out there is something for wind to pull on.

How does a contractor's installation method affect manufacturer warranty coverage?

More than most homeowners realize. The enhanced warranties people think they're buying only apply when the roof carries a required set of that manufacturer's components, goes on under a credentialed contractor, and gets registered within a short window after completion. Sixty days is typical. Confirm both the credential and the deadline before you sign. Starter shingles sit in that required set. So an improvised starter course costs you more than a weak edge. It can knock the whole roof out of system-level coverage, and nobody finds out until a claim gets filed years later.

How should homeowners evaluate the edge work described in a roofing estimate?

Read it for names and numbers. A real estimate lists the starter product by name, not "starter course included," and it puts starter at the rakes as well as the eaves. Drip edge gets its own line with the metal called out. Somewhere in there the contractor should say how they're sealing the perimeter: factory adhesive alone, or cement-bedded. One bundle of starter covers about a hundred lineal feet of edge, so the quantities are easy to sanity-check. If the language there is vague, push on it.

About the author: Nick Van Slyke

Managing Partner and Co-Owner · Presidio Roofing Company

Nick lives in Denton, Texas with his wife and 2 children. After graduating from the University of Arizona and spending some time traveling the world h...