Patent ID: 6874289

Claim:
A starter strip shingle for use in shingling a roof by applying a plurality of starter strip shingles end-to-end across a roof, adjacent a lower edge of a sloped roof, the starter strip shingle being of predetermined thickness between anterior and posterior surfaces and comprising: (a) a base mat of fibrous material; (b) the base mat being impregnated with a bituminous material; (c) a layer of granules on an anterior surface of the starter strip shingle; (d) the starter strip shingle, as viewed in the orientation in which it is to be applied to a roof, having an upper headlap portion and a lower portion, with the shingle having right and left edges establishing the length of the shingle and upper and lower edges establishing the width of the shingle between upper and lower edges of the shingle, with the lower edge of the shingle to be aligned with a lower edge of a roof to which the shingle is to be applied; and (e) perforation means in the headlap portion of the shingle defining a severance line between said right and left edges, generally parallel to and beneath said upper edge of the shingle, and disposed less than half-way from said upper edge of the shingle to said lower edge of the shingle; (f) a severance portion of the starter strip shingle in the headlap portion of the shingle defined by the upper edge of the shingle and the severance line; (g) whereby the severance portion of the shingle is readily severed from the remainder of the starter strip shingle by folding the severance portion along the severance line to break the severance portion from the remainder of the starter strip shingle to define a smaller starter strip shingle having said length between said right and left edges.