When a home owner has issues with their roof, a lot of times it comes down to either a repair or replacement. What makes this a big subject is that a lot of times people are not sure whether their roof needs one or the other. In today’s post, we’ll get into the details of what consists of a repair and a replacement. Many times, it will depend on the contractor, but know what the differences are, and what to look out for.

Roofs can be a tricky situation; many home owners don’t know the terminology or specifics of what goes into a roof. This can leave home owners vulnerable to scams and contractors taking advantage of them. Best bet is to get familiar with the lingo and know what it is that makes a roof, a roof. Our Schenectady roofing contractors have heard loads of stories of people getting into these types of situations. One story stood out, a home owner who had a leak in her roof called up a contractor to fix the leak. The roof was fairly new, no less than 5 years old, having only a couple of issues. The contractor assessed the damaged area and found several shingles that needed replacement and some siding that had open crevasse for water to get in. Upon inspecting more of the roof the skylight was also damaged, adding in the possibility for the leak to be coming from there.

The contractor told the home owner that he replaced the shingles and fixed all the issues with the roof. The home owner then paid the contractor expecting the work to be done and went about her business. Two weeks later the same issue was happening, a leak emerged after a big rain storm. The home owner was flustered and mad, she kept calling the contractor that had done the work without any reply. One week goes by and still no answers despite the countless calls left on the contractor’s phone. Eventually she got in touch with our Schenectady roof inspectors, they came out there and found a shocking amount of evidence to prove the contractor didn’t repair or fix anything.

Upon further inspection of the roof our Schenectady roofing contractors found large amounts of tar on the damages shingles and large amounts of caulk in the siding crevasse. The shingles were in such a bad state and the addition of tar sealed up the cracks and holes but didn’t help as he thought it might. Our roof repair crew from Schenectady got their tools and materials out and went to work. A couple hours later the tared-up shingles were replaced and the new ones were in. After the work was done we showed the previous contractors work to the home owner, let’s just say she was less than pleased but happy we got the job done. This is just an example of what to look out for when trying to get repair work done on the roof.

These things happen and you won’t know it till your stuck back with your original problem. Look at the techniques that roofers in Schenectady use when shingling and determine if the repair job was good and up to Standard. To get the best outcome of your repair, make sure you hire someone credible, read up on some of the terminology and ways that jobs get done, visit roofing forums and ask questions, take pictures of the job and see what people have to say about it. You won’t know what’s right or wrong if you don’t do a little research, people could benefit tremendously if they know a thing or two about roofing.

Like roof repair, roof replacement if left in the wrong hands can become an outstanding headache. Roof replacement is more work and more time consuming than a repair job. Roof replacement requires a strip down of the roof, shingles and underlayment. Then new underlayment, ice and water shield, along with underlayment to be installed. Usually a roof replacement will take one full day’s work depending on the amount of roofing crews present. There are a lot of obstacles in the way when trying to complete a roof replacement, clean up being one of them and of course having everything aligned and straight is a big one as well. Cuts on the valleys can be difficult sometimes, also the way you nail the shingles in can factor if the shingles will hold or fall.

Our Schenectady roofing contractors told us another horror story of bad contractors and the shady work they do. A homeowner recently bought his house, this house was fairly old with a roof that needed a replacement desperately. The shingles were falling apart, parts of the plywood could be seen, and he had a few leaks in his home. The contractor that he called in liked to cut corners, we came to that conclusion after what our roofing contractors in Schenectady saw on the customer’s roof. The new roof that was installed a few months ago, looked good, but something was off. After closed inspection they found another layer of shingles under the new shingle. The previous roofing contractor never striped the roof, he decided to cheap out and do it the lazy way, at the homeowner’s expense.

The reason one would do such a thing is to save money and work the easy way. When it comes to waste disposal, shingles usually weigh a lot and cost some to dispose of at the dump. So, when the contractor didn’t strip the roof they saved some money and time on the disposal aspect of the job. Then the contractor had the audacity to just shingle over the old shingles, making for a lousy job. Our roofing contractors came to the job, striped two layers of shingles, then they had an extra amount of shingles to get rid of, adding to the amount for waste disposal, hassle, and labor. Weed these types of contractor out by looking at the reviews people leave on websites, if these contractors have done jobs similar like this, people will complain about it.

Well if you’re stuck and don’t know what to do, to replace or repair, we can help you. First if your roof has a certain amount of wavy shingles and nails popping out from the shingles, exposed nails, holes in the shingles, then it’s time to replace the roof. Usually if there’s a lot of small problems spread throughout the roof then its most likely time to start the process of replacing it. When u have a lot of small problems then it means that there is no reason to fix all these small things, because its spread out through the entire roof and it will be only be temporary. To repair, would be to only have a small problem here and there, not spread throughout the entire roof. It will also depend on the shingles, if a couple are damaged, yea it’s okay to replace but if more than half are ruined then it’s time to replace. It comes down to common sense really. Best to have at least two roofing contractors to come out and inspect the roof and you decide which to go with.