The choice between a repair and a replacement comes down to two things: how much of the roof is failing, and how many good years the rest has left. A problem in one place, on a roof that’s in good shape everywhere else, is usually a repair. When the wear is everywhere, or the roof has few years left in it, money spent on patches goes into a roof you’ll be replacing before long.
Start with what you can see
It usually begins with something you notice. A brown stain on a ceiling, shingles in the yard after a windy night, curled or cracked shingles visible from the street, granules from the shingles in the gutters, a dip in the roofline. Any of these can go either way. What settles it is how much of the roof is involved, and where.
One ring on the bathroom ceiling, right under the vent pipe, can come down to nothing more than one worn-out vent boot. Stains in three rooms along the same side of the house are a different conversation.
When a repair is enough
Asphalt shingle roofs are designed to be easy to repair, and plenty of roof problems are local ones:
- a leak traced to a single spot, such as the chimney, a skylight, a vent pipe or a valley
- rusted or loose flashing along one wall or around one chimney
- shingles that wind has lifted or torn off on one slope, with the rest of the roof holding up
- a patch of damage where a branch came down
If the rest of the roof still has years in it, fix the problem and move on. Fixing it now also keeps water out of the decking, and wet decking is how a small roof repair grows into a big one.
Signs the whole roof is wearing out
These point to a replacement, and more so when you see more than one of them:
- curling or cracking across whole slopes, not just one corner
- bald patches with the granules gone
- leaks in more than one place, or the same leak back after it was fixed
- a roofline that sags or dips between the rafters
Age counts as well. On a roof that has used up most of its expected years, we’d sooner help you plan the replacement than keep patching it.
What the deck shows from below
Often the deciding evidence is under the roof, not on it. From the attic, the underside of the deck shows how far the water has gone. Boards that are dry and firm away from the leak point to a repair. Boards that are soft in more than one place, or stained across several of the spaces between the rafters, mean the trouble is deeper than the shingles, and fixing the surface won’t stop it.
Even then, a replacement doesn’t have to mean a whole new deck. The bad sheets show up at tear-off and are replaced then; our post on roof decking explains how that’s handled.
The deck is also the reason we’d rather not lay a second layer of shingles over the first. It covers up the deck, and whatever is soft or rotten underneath stays there. The rules on overlays are in our post on roofing layers in Pennsylvania.
Permit rules for a repair and a replacement
Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code doesn’t require a permit for an ordinary repair. Replacing the whole roof is another question. For that, and for any local rules on repairs, ask the city, borough or township the house is in. In Center Valley, which is part of Upper Saucon Township, that’s the township.
Getting a straight answer
When you can point to the problem, like shingles gone from one slope or that ring under the vent pipe, start with an estimate. We’ll come and look, and there’s no charge for the written price. If you can’t tell where the trouble is, book a roof inspection: we go over every part of the roof, inside and out, and you get our findings in writing, with photos. You can reach us at (484) 553-0213 or through the contact page.