Re-roof or tear off?

[Jersey Devil]

I still have the original asphalt shingle roof on my 27 year old home. It is very brittle with parts of shingles breaking off in places and needs to be replaced though there are no leaks (yet). So far I have had 2 roofing contractors in to give me estimates. One says I should tear off the old roof completely and start from scratch. The other says that is not necessary since I only have one layer and there is absolutely no reason to tear off the old roof. The tear off would cost almost double a re-roofing (putting the new shingles over the old). I know that for many, many years people would re-roof with as many as 3 layers and my area allows 2 layers before a tear off is required.

Except for aesthetic reasons, why tear off? I realize that a new roof over an old one will sometimes not lay completely flat and will conform to the waves in the old roof, but I don't really care. My roof is almost invisible to everyone else since my house sits on top of a hill and by using architectural shingles it will help hide any imperfections says the roofer who wants me to re-roof rather than tear off.

Any recommendations?

[Kolesar]

1. How about a thin film photovoltaic integration?

You could generate some of your own electricity to offset carbon dioxide.

The moment when you reroof a house is the time to consider such an integration. You would probably want to remove the old shingles at this time. You can put on a "metal roof" with PVs on them or use the flexible panels that "look like" shingles.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/catc-05.html

[Jersey Devil]

3. Now you've made me feel guilty

I never even thought of that. The problem is that I bet it costs more than I can afford though I realize that in the long run it might be best.

[Kolesar]

4. You can buy "as much as you want"

...and probably not have to spend more than $10000. There is a federal tax credit for part of the purchase in 2007 and 2008. I am just starting to look into this myself. You would get better results in New Jersey than in snowy Cleveland.

Dream, dream, dream

[Jersey Devil]

5. Maybe

LOL, I remember several years back we had neighbors who moved to northern NJ from the Cleveland area and asked about the snow here. I told them that we usually don't get that many large snowstorms. Of course, about 2 weeks later we had a record blizzard that deposited over 30" of snow.

$10,000 is a lot of money considering that a standard asphalt shingle roof for my house would be less than half of that.

[Kolesar]

6. the figure I cited was the upcharge to add generation.

You could buy generation that costs $6700, get a 30% => $2000 tax credit, and only be out $4700. The system would offset some portion of your electricity consumption. You would not be buying a battery to store power. You would just be offsetting electricity consumption.

I just started looking into this: I don't have the whole story yet.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf

[Warpy]

2. You can put another layer on for now

if you're aware you're really going to have to bite the bullet in 15-25 years when the job needs to be done again. Perhaps by that time, successive Democratic administrations will have forced the sharing of our country's wealth enough that you can re roof with metal/solar panels that will last a lifetime.

You're wise to do this before the roof leaks instead of after. Water always wins and it always costs you a fortune when it does.

[Dora]

7. Homeowner's insurance.

We purchased a home in 2002, and in the month before closing we could not find an insurer for the property. Texas at the time was having a terrible time with homeowner's insurance - Farmer's flat-out refused to issue any more policies and had canceled many. Other companies seemed to be following suit. When we did finally find an insurer, they balked after they reviewed our inspection report because the roof had a single overlay of shingles. Ultimately they sold us the policy, but we had to replace all the shingles - and all before closing on the property.

It might be worth a call to your insurer.

[tabasco]

8. A metal roof can go on over shingles.

Many different colors and styles.

If you're putting on more shingles I would tear the old ones off and put on a synthetic underlayment

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Because of the heat buildup underneath, an overlay won't last as long.

If you got almost 30 years out of this roof, figure on 15 for an overlay.

... but an overlay is exactly what I did. I moved before 15 years.

[Gregorian]

10. No problem. Just reroof it.

I used to be a roofing contractor. Reroofing is common practice. If it's a flat roof, then it gets iffy. Then one has to do some checking of the structure. You might want to ensure that the underlying roof structure is good. No rot. And even if their is rot, they can repair it and still leave the old roof on. I reroofed my own house. With today's shingles, maximum lifespan includes these situations.

[Jersey Devil]

11. Thanks to you (and all)

Here's what I decided to do: I am re-roofing the main roof portion of the house. On the lower level, where I have false gables running around the house and it is highly visible, it will be torn off. Shingles will be GAF Timberline Ultra 30. The roof underneath is old but not bad enough to have to rip off. I also will have a ridge vent installed. The savings will be almost $2,000 over a complete tear off job. Dumping fees here in the northeast (NJ) are so high that it becomes the main cost of the job.

[Jersey Devil]

12. PS - The roof is done!

My house needed a new roof so I shopped around and finally settled on a company that came highly recommended and gave me a very competitive price. They were supposed to come last week, then this past Monday but each time I got a call that they couldn't make it and had to finish other jobs. So when it snowed a little last night and I got up this morning I was thinking there's no way they could do it today.

Well, sometime after 8 this morning I am drinking my coffee and hear the sound of gas engines like lawnmowers and couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from so I looked outside, saw two ladders against my house and there were 3 guys on the roof blowing the snow off with gas powered blowers.

They did the whole damned thing in one day. There were 5 guys until about 1 pm when I concluded there was no way they'd finish today and all of a sudden two more trucks pulled up and from 1 - 4:30 there were 11 guys and 7 ladders. Holy cow! These guys didn't even stop for lunch. They worked their butts off, finished before it was dark and left everything neat as a pin.

Sometimes you just get lucky.