Signs You Need a New Roof

Pick up a handful of what has washed into the gutter. If it looks like coarse black sand, those are the ceramic granules off the shingle surface, and the shingle is losing its UV shield.

Some loss is normal, especially in the first year off a new roof — that is loose factory granule washing off. What matters is loss that keeps coming, year after year, with bald patches visible on the slope. Once the asphalt underneath is exposed to sun, the shingle dries out and the clock runs fast.

Look at the south and west slopes first. They cook, and they always fail first on a house that gets full sun.

Curling is the edges lifting. Cupping is the middle rising while the edges stay down. Clawing is the edges staying flat while the centre lifts. All three mean the mat has lost its flexibility, and all three end the same way — the shingle no longer lies against the one below it, so wind gets under the lap.

One or two curled shingles is a repair. Curling across an entire slope is a roof at the end of its service life, and there is no product that reverses it. Sealant strips do not re-seal a shingle that has hardened.

Cupping in particular often points at a ventilation problem in the attic. If the roof is fifteen years old and already cupping, fix the ventilation with the new roof or the replacement fails early too.

Go into the attic on a bright day with the light off. Pinholes of daylight at nail holes are ordinary. Daylight along a seam, around a penetration, or in a patch is not — that is deck.

Then look for the stains. Dark rings on the underside of the sheathing, white or black mould on the rafters, or insulation that is matted and grey all say water has been getting in for a while. Press on the sheathing between rafters with a flat hand: if it flexes, that sheet is done.

Soft deck is the item that most often turns a straightforward re-roof into a bigger invoice, because nobody knows how many sheets are bad until the old roof is off. A good contract prices sheathing replacement per sheet up front so you are not negotiating on day two.

Stand at the end of the house and sight along the ridge. It should be dead straight. If it dips in the middle, or the roof plane between the ridge and the eave has a hollow in it, that is a structural finding, not a roofing one.

A sagging ridge means something is moving: a ridge beam that was never sized as a beam, rafter ties cut out or never installed, a wall spreading, a bearing point that has rotted, or long-term water in the framing. A new roof over it does nothing except add weight to the problem and hide the evidence.

The right sequence is a structural engineer or a competent framing contractor first, the repair second, and shingles last. If a roofer looks at a sagging ridge and quotes you shingles without mentioning the framing, get someone else. That is the clearest tell on the whole list that you are talking to a salesman.

Most leaks are not shingle failures. They are flashing failures — chimney counter-flashing, step flashing along a wall, the collar on a plumbing vent, a skylight curb, a valley.

A single leak at a single detail is a repair, and it is usually a cheap one. A pipe boot replacement is under $300 in most markets. Chimney flashing done properly, with the counter-flashing cut into the mortar joint rather than surface-sealed, runs $500 to $1,500.

Where it tips is when the same detail has been repaired twice and leaks again, or when leaks start showing up at unrelated details across the roof at the same time. Detail after detail failing at once is a roof whose whole assembly is at the end of its life.

Three-tab asphalt runs 15 to 20 years, architectural asphalt 22 to 30, and metal, tile and slate far longer. Those are working ranges, not warranties, and a Florida roof at the top of that range is unusual while a Pacific Northwest roof in shade can beat it.

Age alone does not condemn a roof. A twenty-two-year-old architectural roof with intact granules, flat shingles and a dry attic is a roof that gets inspected annually and left alone. A twelve-year-old roof with bald slopes and cupping is a roof that needs replacing early, and the reason it aged fast is usually attic ventilation or a second layer laid over the first.

The rule I use: age tells you when to start looking closely, condition tells you when to act. If two or more of the signs above are present across whole slopes rather than in one spot, and the roof is inside five years of its expected life, replace it on your schedule rather than during a storm.

A door-knocker after a hailstorm is not there to inspect your roof. Real hail damage is real, insurable, and worth pursuing — bruised shingles with the mat exposed, granule loss in a random pattern, dents on soft metal like vents and gutter aprons in the same orientation as the storm.

What should make you stop: a "free inspection" that finds catastrophic damage nobody else can see, pressure to sign an assignment of benefits, an offer to cover your deductible (which is insurance fraud in most states), and a contractor with no local address.

Get your own inspection from a roofer who has been in the county for a decade, and let your insurer's adjuster look at it. A roof with one leak needs a repair. Anyone telling you otherwise the week after a storm is selling.