Cricket Design Guidelines for Tapered H-Shield Products

– Crickets (aka Saddles or Hogbacks) are a secondary application of insulation – whether over a sloped deck with flat insulation, or over a tapered insulation system. The primary purpose of a cricket is to divert water from a the valley to the roof drain.

– The wider the cricket, the more efficiently the cricket will work. The general rule is for the cricket width of a full diamond cricket to be between 1⁄3 and 1⁄4 of its total length (see PIMA Technical Bulletin #108). If the cricket is less than the primary slope, drainage will be less efficient.

– Typically, the cricket slope is double the primary slope whether a sloped deck or a tapered system. This means that a sloped deck at 1⁄4″ foot will have 1⁄2″ foot sloped crickets. This has been the industry norm and is considered good roofing practice.

– Where the crickets are not in a valley, but may be up the slope (example: drains are 8′ off a parapet wall, and the deck slopes past the drains to the parapet), the crickets need to be double the deck slope to provide positive slope back to the drains. If not, you will essentially flatten the deck slope out creating an 8′ wide area that will pond water.