Buried Roofing Shingles

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post so of course, I'm nervous.

Just this past year we moved to a farm and the previous owner re-roofed the house and dumped the shingles in a pile and now the grass has grown up around the stash. We didn't find it until just recently.

My question is: is it best to uncover it and remove it or should we just leave it because it doesn't matter.

Thank you,
Sandy

Oops! First mistake.

I put this in the wrong place and I don't know how to fix it.

Welcome and good questions!
I would get the shingles off your land if you can, they tend to be petroleum based and may leach crap into the soil.
Perhaps if you PM a Moderator they will move the thread.

What kind of shingles? Any guess how old they were? Is the area out of three way or were you planning some big garden for the spot?

Old asphalt shingles may contain asbestos. It is fine if contained, but dangerous if you start moving them and kicking up dust.

Grass is growing, that is a good sign. Minimal gick.

Mushrooms could break them down and suck up any heavy metals. Then you have a few buckets of toxic mushrooms to dispose of instead of tons of junk.

Thank you! We are going to check out the shingles this weekend.

It may be to your benefit to contact your state environmental protection agency, they might have help for your dilemma with the shingles. Since you didn't put them there, a call might possibly keep them from taking any actions against you should it be against state law/ regulation to bury shingles on land not designated as a land fill.

worms = better sign.

I hate that crap so much. The shingles stuff. They constantly shed weird chemically colored grains of 'sand'. I deal anyway. they definitely break down slow. I've been eating food grown near the rooftop downspout which washes tons of that into a nice little light pocket with no noticeable medium term effects.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:It may be to your benefit to contact your state environmental protection agency, they might have help for your dilemma with the shingles. Since you didn't put them there, a call might possibly keep them from taking any actions against you should it be against state law/ regulation to bury shingles on land not designated as a land fill.

I understand what you are saying, but I would be very careful here. The "department of make you sad" can find all kinds of ways to make things difficult once they show up and start digging around. Unless you have a personal contact in the agency, I would use a lot of caution calling a 1-800 number and reporting this. I am not saying not to contact an agency, just be very sure of what the law says and how it can and has been interpreted regarding the landowner.

I'm a roofer's wife, so I'll ask: Are they Wood Shingles, or Asphalt Shingles? It sounds as if everyone is assuming that they are Asphalt Shingles, which may be the case, but it's important (at least to me) to be clear.

I have a similar issue in a section of land that I have developed into a garden with raised beds and wood chips below.  I discovered that under the existing wood chips (I just added more) there is a lot of asphalt chunks, like probably knowing the history it was either fill dirt or an existing asphalt slab that was broken up and scooped to that location to level it.  I would love to heal this space and thought about sheet mulching (manure, cardboard, manure, straw, compost then wood chips) to get some good decomposition going.  If anyone can heal this space its the mushroom kingdom! But underneath that asphalt will always be there.  Another idea I had was to just cardboard and wood chip it and as a consolation just dig in holes that I then place repurposed food service buckets (like big 5gal pickle buckets) into them with holes drilled in and fill with good soil and plant my squash in them so they can at least trail around the area as it has great sun aspect, but on the protective barrier of cardboard and chips so as to keep the asphalt out of it.  Any ideas??

Hi Annalie

Welcome to Permies.

I know this is not the solution you want to hear. I doubt is there is a simple solution.  I found a junk pile on my property. I divided it into sections and went to work cleaning it up section by section.  I haul out 10 large contractor bags a year....maybe more.  This has been going on for 20 years. Yes. I have made a significant impact.  I suspect a similar approach might work for your asphalt.  For me, it is much less over whelming to think in terms of smaller areas. Even going after a 5x5 area each year would produce progress.  Larger areas ...more so.

Of course. You could always accept the asphalt is there and move on.  I have a coal mine 1000 ft below my garden. Every day my wife looks out our window to check the pond  ... to make sure it is still there.

Thank you so much for your reply! I like your idea.... small steps.  Think big, start small.  In a similar vein to ypur steadfast contractor bag haul outs...  just today I hauled out (another) large drybag of garbage from my neighborhood forest where I like to walk.  Its taken 5 bags so far plus rolling a tire down the block (neighbors thought I was loony!) but I am beginning to see and feel a difference in the forest with less garbage strewn about, especially the micro trash.  More yet to go, but I there is time... perhaps I will take the same approach with the asphalt, not sure but I will consider.  Your coal mine under the pond, wow! The clean up job humanity is currently facing is of epic proportions.... a small section at a time is a more reasonable way to consider these ‘insurmountable opportunities!’, right?  🤓  Anyhoo, thanks for your heartfelt reply, I truly appreciate your idea for revisioning a solution to the problem!

I also have found old roof shingles behind an old barn on our property. What would happen if I just burn them in my burn pile? The soil back there has been covered in leaves for years so it's nice black composted soil. I want to use it As my top layer in my raised beds. If I avoid that area where I found the shingles, would it be a good idea or bad idea to use all that nice black soil in my garden? Ren

Hi Annalie,

It seems to be an unspoken rule on this site ...  your neighbors must think you are Loonie.

Hi Ren,

I would not burn them.  It sound as if they may be able to be recycled.

Just bust out the elbow grease, bag them up and dispose of them.

John F Dean wrote:Hi Annalie,

It seems to be an unspoken rule on this site ...  your neighbors must think you are Loonie.

Out here, we’re all a bit loony. We’re only here because we’re not all there!