Starter strip is very important. It prevents water from the butt joints on the first course, from seeping through to the underlayment. Remember, the more layers of protection you have, the better. You can purchase special starter strip, which saves time, but most shingles are cheap enough that you can just use shingles to do the job. Hold the shingle just like it would normally go on the roof. Now spin it around so that the tabs are on top. Get some junk tin snips or use a straight edge and utility knife to cut the tabs off the shingle. You'll need to measure your eave to see how many shingles you'll have to cut. If your eave measures 34', you'll need 68' of starter material. Your shingles will probably be 36" long, so in this case you would need 24 pieces (34'/36"=11.333, round up).

You'll have to cut off 8" from the first piece of starter on each eave. This will allow an offset when the first full shingle is laid. The starter needs to hang over the eave and gable ends about 1/2" to 5/8". Butt these starter pieces up and nail towards the top 2/3, with 4 nails evenly spaced like in the diagram. These starter pieces will be completely covered by the first course of shingles. Be sure to cut the last piece so that it hangs over as well. I like to cut with a framing square as a straight edge and run a utility knife down several times to score. This gives you a very straight cut.

Preparing Starter Shingles

Starter shingles are different that starter strips. Starter shingles are used to offset each consecutive course. You NEVER want any seams to fall directly over other seams. Many do-it-yourselfers make this mistake. You are asking for a wet bed if you install shingles like that. There are often instructions on the shingle package, but there are 3 common methods, the 4", 5", and 6" method. They work pretty much the same, but I'll describe the 6" method. The first course is a full shingle. Then cut 6" off the first second course shingle. Then cut 12" off the first third course shingle. Don't throw away the pieces you cut off, you'll use them. The 12" you cut off now become the first piece for the fourth course, and the 6" piece becomes the first piece for the 5th course. You will then start completely over with a full shingle, but don't lay it until you have laid the rest of the shingles up to that point.

I like to make a big batch of starter shingles so that I can shingle faster. So make up a batch before you actually lay your first shingle.