Repair the roof, or replace it

When a repair is genuinely the right answer

Most leaks are not a roof problem. They are a detail problem on a roof that is otherwise fine, and the field shingles are the part that lasts longest.

• Flashing at a wall, a valley or a skylight, which is the single most common source of a leak.
• Chimney flashing, because a chimney moves differently from the roof around it and the seal is always working.
• A split pipe boot. The rubber collar around a vent pipe dries and cracks on a predictable schedule and is inexpensive to replace.
• Wind-lifted or missing shingles along a ridge or an exposed edge, caught before a winter gets underneath.

In all of these the rest of the roof still has years on it. Replacing it would be spending a lot of money to solve a small problem, and it is exactly the outcome the photo report exists to prevent.

The findings that mean it is time to replace

These are not opinions, they are things visible in a photograph, which is why you should ask to see them.

Widespread granule loss

The gravel surface is what protects the mat underneath from sunlight. Once it is gone across the field, the shingle ages fast and no repair slows it down.

Brittle shingles that crack when lifted

A shingle that breaks rather than flexes cannot be worked on. Any repair creates new damage around it.

Soft or delaminated decking

The wood underneath has taken water. This is not a roof covering problem any more, and covering it hides it.

The third leak in two years

At some point the pattern is the finding. Each individual repair may have been correct and the roof is still telling you something.

What hail does to this decision

Hail complicates it, because bruising damages the mat under the surface without necessarily looking dramatic from the ground. A roof can be functionally compromised while appearing fine, which is why bruising gets chalked and photographed rather than eyeballed.

It also brings an insurer into a decision that was previously between you and a contractor. What we can do there is document what is present clearly enough for that conversation to go well. What happens to the claim is between you and your insurer.

The question to ask any roofer

Ask to see the photographs, and ask what specifically in them makes this a replacement rather than a repair. A roofer who has actually inspected the roof can answer that in one sentence per finding. A roofer who has decided before climbing cannot.

Replacing a roof that only needed a repair is the single most common way a homeowner gets overcharged in this trade, and it is very hard to detect afterwards. Repeat customers are the whole business plan, which is the reason we would rather tell you it is a repair.

How the decision gets made here

1. The roof gets photographed by ladder and drone, and the attic gets checked underneath.
2. Every finding is marked Good, Watch or Fix Now, so a small problem and a large one are never described in the same tone.
3. You get the report within 48 hours whether you go ahead or not.
4. Then you decide, with the pictures in front of you, in your own time.