Roof Repair or Replace? How We Decide on a Livingston County Home

This is the question behind most of the calls we get in Howell, and the answer we give sometimes means we lose the bigger job. Here is the framework we use on every inspection, so you can run it on your own roof before we get there.

Four questions decide it

1. How old is the roof?

Under 12 to 15 years with an isolated problem, repair. Over 20 years, the roof is in the last stretch of its life in this climate and a repair is buying a season or two, not a decade. In between, the other three questions decide.

2. How much of the roof is affected?

One slope, one valley, one flashing detail, a handful of wind-lifted shingles at a rake — repair. Damage on several slopes, or a pattern of failures showing up in different places over a couple of years, means the roof as a whole has reached the end of its sealant life and replacing it is the honest call.

3. What is under the shingles?

A repair on a sound deck is straightforward. Once we find soft, delaminated sheathing at the eaves from years of ice dams, or rot around a chimney, the repair grows into opening the roof up, and at some point it makes more sense to do the whole thing once, properly, with new ice and water barrier and corrected ventilation.

4. Was it a storm?

Sudden wind or hail damage on an otherwise healthy roof is a repair, or a documented claim if the damage is widespread. Our HAAG Certified inspectors document it slope by slope so the answer is based on evidence, not on which outcome is bigger for us.

Signs the answer is probably replace

• Granules filling the gutters and bare patches showing on the shingles
• Shingles that no longer lie flat — curling at the edges, cupping in the middle
• Sealant strips that do not hold a lifted tab back down
• More than one leak in the last two years, in different places
• A house built between 1995 and 2007 that still has its original roof

Signs the answer is probably repair

• A single leak traced to a cracked pipe boot, failed chimney flashing or one bad valley
• Wind-lifted shingles confined to one edge after a specific storm
• A roof under 15 years old that has otherwise been trouble-free

The one thing we will not do

We will not talk you into a roof you do not need, and we will not patch a roof that is going to leak again next spring and call it fixed. Both come back to us in the form of reviews, and after more than 15 years in Howell we care more about those than about any single job. The inspection is free and the answer comes in writing. Call (810) 588-3933.