Shingle Replacement Webinar Question and Answer

Andrew Cook answers audience questions on asphalt shingle replacement

Introduction

Well, thanks everybody for listening. 

We did tell you we were going to do questions at the end. A bunch of you have sent in questions.

I'm just going to kind of go through, read out the question and then go through and answer them.

What defines a shingled roof replacement?

Good question. The basic idea is most roofs, if you've seen a roof, most of them are shingled roofs. What that really differentiates from is things like metal, tile, slate. An asphalt shingled roof is the most common roofing type and is what you see on almost all roofs, especially in this area (Maryland, Washington DC). 

What does a roof repair or roof replacement entail to a homeowner?

Very simply, it's a coordinated install where you have to account for everything coming off, everything going on and everything being put together exactly as the manufacturer requires. To the removal, you're talking about tarping off areas where the materials are physically going to be taken off the roof. And you've got to remember that that roof, if it's being replaced, is generally 15, 20, 30 plus years old. Everything is kind of in tatters at that point. Thousands of nails are coming off. Tarping on bushes and shrubbery and landscaping is obviously critical to that being a good outcome, because no one wants to get a roof and four new tires on their car in their driveway. 

The removal goes into a dump trailer or a dumpster. Dumpsters obviously present additional both logistical problems and potential for damage to a driveway. If possible, we use a dump trailer in getting all that stuff on the dump trailer and then getting all of the materials, the thousands of pounds of materials onto the roof and installed properly. Generally, for your average single family home, that'll be a one-day project for us, but it's a long day for sure.

What's a guide for an asphalt shingled roof replacement?

A quick reference guide, I recommend everybody if you're unaware, go to the Cost versus Value Report. It's published by Remodeling magazine. That gives you a very good sense for roofing and other projects, siding and windows and doors. Average costs, what goes into those and it really tells you granularly like what exact size that is based off of. You can kind of do the math to your own home for those costs. 

But as far as what are important things to check for, obviously licensing and insurance are huge. Time in business, obviously online reviews, all of the standard things. I think things that are missed often are, you know, hearing those details about what in fact they've found. Anybody can kind of come and say, "Hey, some guy told me, this is how much room the roof is really getting in”, making sure they're looking in the attic, making sure they're talking to you about what the install process actually is.

Are they going to stand around and make sure that they review the install with you prior to leaving? All these little details which really make a project go from really really good to really really bad if they are not there and in place are big differentiators.

Could a homeowner realistically replace those shingles themselves? What are the steps involved for someone who wants to DIY a roof replacement?

Obviously, it is my recommendation that you don't do that. 

There are a lot of reasons why. The biggest one is manufacturers have very specific requirements about how this is installed, what components are used in conjunction with other components. How many nails need to go in a certain type of shingle of a certain weight to get a certain wind rating. 

This is not something you can teach yourself a lot of. This is not a weekend project that you can just throw together. And it has serious implications as to the coverage for this very expensive thing that you're going to do. Whether you do it yourself or you have a licensed professional do it. 

And then there's also, and this is no small point, the physical risk. You are on a roof. People who have not done that before, roofing is a very, very dangerous job. And it's important to have people that take the correct safety precautions that spend the time learning on how to be on a roof on a ladder. Some of a roof install will be done on a ladder. Putting on a drip edge or nailing in a starter strip. I mean, it's not something that you want to just give it a try for for your first weekend project.

Removing old shingles. What steps does it take to safely remove old shingles while prepping a roof for replacement?

We kind of talked about this before. Really, for an older roof, you're not going in there with a scalpel. You're going in there with a special shovel that's made to get under the nails and rip everything up while preserving the existing wood, decking, or sheathing. It's an obviously very important part to assess the sheathing after the shingles are removed because, again, if you go nail into wood that has deteriorated to the point that it can't take a nail, which is the industry term, those shingles are going to blow off. The underlayment is not going to adhere. You're going to get bubbling, you're going to get blow offs, and you're going to get leaks.

What is the environmental impact of shingle replacement?

This is a good question. We do recycle all of the materials we pull off the roof. You know, for people that care about that, I think it is important. But they are, you know, what a shingle is, it's a fire fiberglass mat that is dipped in asphalt and then coated with granules. 

A lot of those can be recycled into reusable parts. The fiberglass can be reused for other things. The asphalt can obviously be reused and the granules can be literally reused to make additional granules for other products.

Shingle replacement for flat roofs.

Kind of a common thing. Both manufacturer requirements and building codes have changed over time. You will see roofs that have what are called low slope or or what would appear to the eye to be flat that may have in the past had shingles or shingle-like material on them manufacturers because on flat roofs you have what's called dead load. 

You have the potential for standing water or snow or ice that needs to be hyper sealed in order to protect the structure underneath. What is really required is specifically flat roofing material. There's a couple options for that. There is rolled roofing, then there's TPO or EPDM. You get so much more protection, so much more longevity and a cleaner look from a TPO or EPDM. 

What qualities should someone look for when hiring a professional for a shingle roof replacement?

Again, we kind of touched on that. I think if I could add one thing that most people don't forget is knowing that this is not a super fast process. There's multiple facets to it. And the thing that you are buying is going to be on your home for more than six months, more than a year, 5, 10, 15, 20 years. 

Really important other than all the other stuff I had mentioned about licensing and reviews and stuff is that you have a good communication exchange with the person who's going to be overseeing your project because they're going to be somebody that down the road you will talk to again and again and again. Most people overlook that and I think it's important not just for the project itself, but then the longevity of the roof over time.

Costs of a shingle roof replacement.

I'm guessing really what I can answer because I don't know how big your roof is. What I can answer is how to know that you're getting a good deal. Again, a very, very helpful resource is Remodeling Magazine's Cost versus Value Report. I can't recommend it highly enough. It really does give you a very detailed breakdown of how these things break out and you can look in your region, you can look nationally, you can look at different regions to see how all of these different things compare. But I think it's important to also have your roofing professional explain to you what's going into this, what the cost breakdown is and what discounts and other things that are applicable to you.

What are the signs that you need to replace your shingles or your roof?

I think obviously age determines more than anything else. If you have a 30 plus year roof, it should be on your list to tackle that sooner rather than later. Waiting longer is not going to help. Costs go up, potential damage goes up. The wood underneath is an unnecessary cost to replace. If you get to it earlier, you're going to avoid an additional cost, as the wood cost alone can be depending on the size of your house. On a small home, you're talking a couple thousand dollars in wood replacement. On a larger home, you're talking $10,000 in just wood. Age is the biggest determining factor. 

The second would be if you're seeing a ton of granular loss. You're looking at the bottom in your downspouts, especially if you see at the end of your downspouts that a ton of granulation is coming through washing off the roof, that's a really good indicator. Shingles kind popping up. Another really good indicator. And then, you know, moss and algae, also good signs that it's probably getting to be that time.

How do you prepare your home for a shingle replacement?

We very much recommend when you do decide to move forward with the project and you select a good fit for you as a contractor. We highly recommend taking a few steps. The big one is moving stuff away from the contained perimeter of your roof. Glass tables, grills, you know, things that would not benefit from the occasional shingle or tar paper pieces or nails landing on it. We also at Eclipse do take added precautions for things like decks and like I've mentioned earlier, landscaping. But taking those precautions are going to be helpful to you on the day for sure.

How do you compare shingle replacement warranties?

Ah, good one. Most of the time if you're in front of a a good contractor who's trying to give you the product that really everybody should have at this point, you're going to be talking about anywhere from a 35 to 50 year architectural shingle and what's more important is that that is the lifespan of that shingle. That does not necessarily mean that's the lifespan of the full coverage you get on that material. 

Really understanding, when does this warranty depreciate over time? When does that happen? How dramatically does that happen? Because not only does that impact your coverage for it, but it also has an impact to the resale value of the house. 

Obviously, I think it intuitively makes sense to most folks that if you sell your home and it's still under a full lifetime warranty that's fully covered, that's a tremendous amount of value and worry that the next homeowner does not have to have when they buy your house. Whereas, if that warranty is diminished to 60% or 50% or 40%, one that's just not as fun of a conversation. And two, it obviously impacts the level of concern they're going to have to factor in for that.

How do you choose the right color for your shingle roof?

This comes up a lot, especially towards the end of when we're talking about what we can offer when we come visit your house for an estimate. The big thing I tell people is shingles, especially certainted, has a very wide color offering. 

But the interest of putting that blue roof on might not serve you well in the long term because you might have always thought a blue roof was cool, but the next homeowner might not share that opinion and that roof really shouldn't be going anywhere. 

Taking that into account, taking the neighborhood into account, but as has been the case for probably the last 5 years now, a dark gray or black is not only more popular, but it has a higher resale value on the market, which is why you see those so much more commonly than you do sort of the reds and the greens, and the blues.

What are some steps to prevent common issues with a shingled roof?

For this, to be perfectly honest, this is a simple question. I think people think that there's more userend maintenance for a shingled roof than there is. If you have a good contractor install a good quality roof from a good quality manufacturer under good quality warranties, you shouldn't have to worry about maintenance, long term. 

It's avoiding the things that would void warranties. A very common thing, don't screw your Christmas lights through the shingles on the roof. You string them on the gutters. You can string them in the fascia. Don't screw directly through because that's going to cause problems with the starter strip, which is a very important element to the roof. You just want to avoid stuff like that. But again, I think for most folks, you would know if you were doing something that would have warranty implications if you were doing it. 

My joke is, you know, don't go up on your roof and swing at a couple golf balls. You could be causing problems.

How long can homeowners expect shingles to last before they need to replace them?

The lifespan of shingles, we touched on that for replacement shingles, for shingles that you already have. There are two main groups of shingles that you may have on your roof. One are three tab shingles or the other is architectural. And these have very different time horizons on them. If you have a three tab shingle, which I recommend a quick Google search, you'll know them as soon as you see them. But they're the flatter appearing shingles. You're realistically if you get to 15 years, you should start thinking about it. Plus 20: you’re just going to be incurring additional wood damage at that point. Again, I've replaced roofs that are three tabs and they're 34 years old. 

The problem is that every single time it has required almost an entire redeck and a lot of times you have rafter issues or joist issues that have to also be replaced and those can be no small no small thing. If you have an architectural shingle from say 20 years ago, you are in a much better position than if you had a three tab shingle. Though 20 years ago, an architectural shingle was generally rated to about 25 years. You have that time span, but again, a lot of those warranties have depreciated. You're very close to being out of warranty coverage. Now, that's not to say that you have warranty issues. The roof just might be getting old. 

The one thing I can say, and this has been true every single year that I have been in this industry, is there is not one year in the past and again the cost versus value report is very helpful for this. There is not one year in the past 5 years where roofing prices have dramatically decreased or something. If you hadn't done it in 2023 but did it in 2024 you would have done better. That is not the case, roofing prices have gone up and up and will continue to do so.

As soon as you get yourself into a position where you can tackle this project, I recommend you do so.

Those were the questions I had. Again, thank you all for joining. I hope this was informative. These were really good questions.

I can't wait to help you out with any projects that you guys have coming down the pike. 

I'm Andrew with Eclipse Remodeling and reach out if you can think of anything we can help you with. Have a good one!