When to Repair a Roof and When to Replace It
The signs on a Beaumont roof that say a fix will hold, the ones that say the roof is done, and how you find out which you have.
Free, no-obligation estimates. We tell you which way it points before anything is booked.
Past a quarter, usually replace
The 25 Percent Rule
When more than a quarter of the roof surface is damaged, replacing the roof is often recommended over repairing it.
It is a rule of thumb, not a law. It weighs how much roof a repair would have to touch against how much good roof is left around it. With a small damaged area, you are fixing a sound roof. With a large damaged area, you are paying to patch a roof that is mostly spent, and the untouched part is not far behind.
Signs a Repair Will Do
A roof under 10 to 15 years old with damage confined to a small area is more likely to need only a repair, and that work takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
- You can point to the trouble. A few tabs lifted by wind, a stain under a single slope, a spot where a branch came down.
- A split "pipe boot". The rubber collar around a vent pipe splits long before the roof around it wears out.
- Loose "flashing". The metal at a chimney, valley or wall is where most leaks start, and it is fixed on its own.
- The rest still bends. Shingles away from the damage lie flat, keep their grit and lift without cracking.
Signs It Is Time for a New Roof
Repairs that keep failing, a slope already patched three times, brittle shingles and granule loss across the whole roof all point to replacement.
- The leak comes back. A stain returns after it was fixed, or new drips turn up somewhere else each storm.
- A slope made of patches. Past that point, the next repair stops paying for itself.
- Tabs that snap. When a shingle cracks as you lift it, there is nothing left to work a repair into.
- Bald, curled and cracked everywhere. "Granule loss", the grit in your gutters, means the shingles are losing their protection from the sun.
Why Age Alone Does Not Decide
A home's age alone does not decide whether its roof needs replacement.
An older house may already have had its roof replaced, and a newer house can wear its roof out early under hard sun, storms or a poor installation. The roof's own years shift the odds a little; they never settle it.
What settles it is what the roof shows up close: whether the shingles still bend, whether they hold their grit or have gone bald, and how much of the surface the damage covers. Those are the things we look at on the roof, and they are what the answer rests on.
Overlay or Tear-Off
An "overlay" saves the cost of a "tear-off", but nailing through the old roof weakens the fastening and shortens roof life, so a full tear-off outlasts it.
Overlay
New shingles nailed over the old roof
- Up front
- Skips stripping and hauling away the old roofing
- Nails
- Pass through two layers of asphalt before they reach wood, so they hold less
- Weight
- The deck carries the old roof and the new
- What you can't see
- Soft wood and old leaks stay covered
Lasts longer
Tear-off
The old roof stripped down to the "roof deck"
- Up front
- Costs more for the stripping and disposal
- Nails
- Go straight into the deck, the way shingles are meant to be fastened
- Weight
- A single layer on the framing
- What you can't see
- Gets seen: "dry rot" in the deck is found and replaced before the new roof goes on
The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association publishes the recommended practices for installing and fastening asphalt shingles.
Can't tell which side of the line your roof is on?
That is what the estimate visit is for. We get up on your roof anywhere in Beaumont and the towns around it, look at the signs on this page and tell you straight.
- We answer the phone or call back the same working day
- We show up when we say we will
- We quote the whole job before we start, with no surprise charges after
Neighbors on the work
These are our Google reviews, as our customers wrote them.
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Chilo was super quick to respond and come by for a quote. I only needed minor repairs, but the work was done quickly (within the day) and for a fair price.
Google review -
I am so happy I called IH roofing. My new roof looks great. I called 5 roofing companies and the bid from IH roofing was very competitive. $1000's less than the big companies. I told them my need was dire and they put me right into their calendar. They worked from 8am to dark and had my roof completed in under two days. The crew was courteous and they left my yard cleaner than they found it. I recommend I H roofing without any hesitation.
Google review -
Professional and did an outstanding job on replacing shingles and bad areas that was found on my roof. I highly recommend IH Roofing.
Google review
Patch it or start over? Let us take a look.
Call and we come out, look at the whole roof and put the answer and the price in writing, at no charge.
We clean up when the work is done.