When a roof is actually past repair
A new roof is a large purchase and plenty of people are told they need one before they do. The honest signals are cumulative rather than dramatic: granules filling the gutters, shingles curling at the edges across whole slopes, repeated leaks in different places rather than the same one, and an age that is closing on what the material was rated for.
One failed boot is not a new roof. Four leaks in three winters on a twenty five year old roof usually is. If you are not sure which you have, a free roof inspection settles it with photographs rather than opinion.
What a replacement actually involves
A roof installation is mostly the parts nobody sees once it is finished, which is exactly why they get skipped. This is the order the work happens in.
- Tear-off. The old material comes off. We do not lay new shingles over old, because it hides the decking and shortens the life of what you just paid for.
- Decking inspection. With the roof open we can finally see the wood. Anything soft comes out and gets replaced.
- Underlayment and dry-in. The roof gets closed up the same day rather than left open to whatever arrives overnight.
- Flashing at every penetration. Chimneys, walls, valleys, vents. Flashing is where roofs leak, so it gets done properly rather than reused because it looked alright.
- Ventilation checked. Intake and exhaust looked at as a system, so the new roof is not cooking from underneath.
- Cleanup. Nails picked up, debris hauled, the yard left usable.
How we quote it
You get a written scope describing what is being done and why, not a number on the back of a card. Decking is the one item nobody can price precisely up front, because it is under the shingles, so we agree the rate for it beforehand and show you exactly what came out. There are no surprises that way, in either direction.
For a sense of what drives the cost of a roof before you talk to anybody, our new roof cost guide walks through the variables plainly.
Storm replacements
A lot of the roofs we replace were fine until something happened to them. If a tree came through, we handle both halves: the tree comes off, the opening gets covered, and the roof gets rebuilt, without you coordinating between two companies who each blame the other. Emergency tarping holds the house until the replacement can be scheduled properly, and the photographs we take along the way document the damage while it is fresh.