Roof shingle ?

[Halfathumb]

My home was built in 1998, recently I had a roofing company come and repair the air stacks. They just put a rubber hood down over the old ones. ($200 I think it was).
Of Course the guy that conducted the initial inspection told me the entire roof needed to be replaced and one told me I needed more roof vents. IU asked him if it worked fine for 23+ years why do I need moe now?
The builder was very good and competent. Very high quality subs and material to include 30 year shingles.
Although the gutters have some of the covering from the shingles there is still plenty left on the existing roof.

My question is, when do you know when you actually need new shingles?

Jim

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

My home was built in 1998, recently I had a roofing company come and repair the air stacks. They just put a rubber hood down over the old ones. ($200 I think it was).
Of Course the guy that conducted the initial inspection told me the entire roof needed to be replaced and one told me I needed more roof vents. IU asked him if it worked fine for 23+ years why do I need moe now?
The builder was very good and competent. Very high quality subs and material to include 30 year shingles.
Although the gutters have some of the covering from the shingles there is still plenty left on the existing roof.

My question is, when do you know when you actually need new shingles?

Jim

When water starts getting in the house. Seriously though curling on the edges is a sign. No more grannuals left on shingles and you start seeing the black undercoating.

[Stwood_]

 Seriously though curling on the edges is a sign. No more grannuals left on shingles and you start seeing the black undercoating.

+1

[jamesglenn]

The above is accurate, I would add that if you see any pieces coming free at the corners also.

Do not let them go too long because the leaks are much more expensive when included with a new roof.

Generally old shingles were 20-25 years max but start keeping a close look after 15 years. Some of this all depends on the shingle manufacturer originally installed.

[fredhargis]

I have the same question, that's good input. My house was also built in 1998 and when we bought it 4 years ago  was discussing the house policy with my agent and he told you have to replace them every 20 years. But they look so good I can't imagine they need replacing, thanks for asking the question and the answers that followed.

[Cooler]

If the shingles are brittle and loosing some of the particles that adhere to them, they are near the end of life.  I kept mine in place until there were leaks.  If you have long cold winters that might not be the best idea. 

Steel roofs last 2 - 4 times as long as asphalt and cost about twice as much.  You have to do the math to see if it makes sense to buy steel shingles.  They do have steel shingles that resemble conventional asphalt shingles as well as steel lock seam roofs.

[fixtureman]

My metal roofing was about the same as shingles But we have a lot of Amish roofing companies to choose from. Where you live in Ohio you could get maybe 35 years mine were 32 years but a storm came through with close to 100 mph winds and the insurance paid for it.

[Cooler]

This is a steel shingle style roof, it closely resembles an asphalt roof.



Here are more images:  https://www.google.com/search?q=metal+sh...00&bih=786

[Snipe Hunter]

Here is part of the study guide I used for licensing. A lot of real good information in it.

I was called to be an expert witness for an insurance company who was being sued by the home owner because the insurance company denied a hail damage claim. The claim was fraudulent and I used this document to back me up. The insurance company won. It was an old roof that needed replacing so the home owner went on the roof with a ball peen hammer and damaged his own roof.

I can tell you what a home inspector looks for:

Any exposed fiberglass on the edges of the shingles, cracks, deformation and granular loss. You can see the granules in the rain gutters and on the ground at the downspouts. The granules act as a heat sink and help cool the shingles and help reflect sunlight. When they're coming off, your shingle looses it's protection from sunlight and heat, including heat from the attic. So we like to see uniform granule cover. If I can see asphalt, it's an old roof and "at or near it's effective service life". Other obvious stuff too like nails popping through the top. Also, how wide is the gap between the tabs? Is it a good deal wider than when it was new? That's telling me the shingles have dried out and shrunk. They'll start disintegrating soon. Multiple layers of shingles will also retain heat and shorten the life. Shingling over an existing layer may very well void the manufacturer's warranty so the only the 1 year installer's warranty is left and good luck with that.

IMHO, sun light and poorly vented attics are the big killers. Lots of tree shade can easily add 10 years to the life of a roof and all you have to deal with is algae/moss and that's easy to kill. 100% direct sunlight, all the time will shorten it's life. It's a good idea to choose a light colored shingle with a lot of direct sunlight.

I see a lot of bad roofs in older homes and the culprit is usually overheating attics. Attic ventilation is so important. I've seen where owners have closed in gable vents to keep birds out instead of just putting in a new screen. They cooked the roof. Usually all the old roofs have are gable vents. I've also seen reflection from dormer windows cook the shingles directly in front of them in a couple years.

As they dry out, they get thinner too. You can buy a shingle gauge that measures the thickness. If you can slide the gauge all the way in, the roof is close to done.

[barnowl]

...
I see a lot of bad roofs in older homes and the culprit is usually overheating attics. Attic ventilation is so important. I've seen where owners have closed in gable vents to keep birds out instead of just putting in a new screen. They cooked the roof. ....

Funny you should mention that.

A couple of years ago, we decided to re-roof. Invited a number o local contractors to bid.

This was to be the second re-roof since the house was built, in 1970.... 48 years. 

One was a young rep from a construction company in the next state over. Seriously.

Well polished young man, who seamed to touch all the bases.... until.... he said that we should close off the gable vents.

(we have soffit vents, a ridge vent since the last re-roof, and two gable vents.) 

I asked why. He said that the soffit and ridge vents would work better. 

After explaining that they've all been there since 1970, I asked how long he'd been selling roofing.... his answer.... four months. 


We did not hire his company. Oh, and their price was twice the price of others.