Repair or replace: how to tell where your roof is
Nobody wants to buy a roof, and a roofer who says "replace" to everything is easy to find. Here is how we decide, so you can decide before we show up.
Signs that mean a repair
The roof is sound and one thing has failed.
- A leak you can trace to one place: a pipe boot, a chimney, a skylight, a valley.
- A few shingles lifted or torn by the wind, on a roof whose other shingles still lie flat and feel pliable.
- Missing ridge caps after a storm.
- Flashing that has rusted or pulled away at a wall.
- A roof under fifteen years old, with a known installation problem.
Signs that mean a replacement
The roof as a whole is at the end, and a repair buys a season.
- Shingles curling at the edges or cupping in the middle across whole slopes.
- Granules in every gutter and bare black patches on the south and west slopes.
- Shingles that crack when you step on them, or that have lost their seal and lift in the wind.
- More than one leak in different places, or a leak that keeps coming back after repairs.
- Moss and lichen across the shaded slopes with the shingles lifting under it.
- Age: twenty-plus years on three-tab shingles in the valley sun, twenty-five to thirty on architectural shingles.
- Two layers already on the roof: there is no legal third, so the next job is a tear-off whatever it is.
The math
A repair that costs a tenth of a replacement on a roof with five years left is a good buy. The same repair on a roof with one year left is a down payment on the replacement you will make anyway, and a leak that comes back means paying twice for the drywall. Our rule of thumb: if the repairs needed this year add up to a quarter of a new roof, or the roof is in its last five years and leaking in more than one place, we bid the replacement and credit anything we have already fixed.
Selling the house changes the math too. A buyer's inspector will write up a tired roof and the buyer will ask for a credit that is usually larger than the roof would have cost you. A new roof with a transferable warranty is a line in the listing.
Common questions
Twenty years for three-tab, twenty-five to thirty for architectural shingles, less on a south-facing slope with no shade and more under trees that do not drop needles. The valley sun is harder on asphalt than the Ridge winters are.
Please do. Ask the second roofer to look at the same things and to show you photos from the roof and the attic. If two licensed roofers say replace, it is time.
Have a question about your own roof?
Say what the roof is doing, what kind of roof it is if you know, and which town you are in. We call back to talk it through and set a time to look at it. If water is coming in right now, skip the form and call.