While inspecting your roof after a particularly rough winter, you may have noticed that a patch of shingles sustained damage during the severe season. Fortunately, however, the rest of the roof seems to be in good condition overall.
Because the area that needs to be replaced is small compared to the rest of the roof, you may be thinking about doing the job of removing the damaged shingles and replacing them with new ones yourself. However, there are a couple of reasons why you should not try to do the work on your roof yourself.
1. You May Not Properly Nail the Shingles, Leading to Cracks and Water Leaks
When installing new shingles onto a roof after removing damaged ones, there is more to the job than simply nailing them onto the roof. When you remove the old shingles, you have to also remove the nails, which will leave holes in the underlayment.
If you start nailing on the new shingles without giving thought to where these holes are located, you may end up not only creating new holes but leaving the old openings exposed and prone to leakage.
Also, if you drive a nail through the shingles themselves without doing so in the correct place, you may wind up cracking them. Even if the cracks are not overtly visible, their presence is enough to cause crumbling sooner than later.
2. You May Void Any Warranty or Insurance Policy Associated with the Roof
Another problem that is often caused by replacing your own shingles is that you may end up with no warranty or insurance policy to cover any future major damage to the roof. Many warranties and homeowner's insurance require that only a professional do any work on the roof.
If you attempt to do the job and a future problem arises that requires that you have the roof replaced, the inspector will most likely be able to tell where you patched the roof yourself. Because doing so is a violation of the conditions in the documents, you may wind up having to pay for the replacement yourself.
When you try to replace old shingles with new ones yourself, there is an increased likelihood that you could damage the new shingles along with those that are adjacent to them. You may also violate any warranty or homeowner's insurance policy that deals with your roof. To keep either of these problems from happening, forego doing the job yourself, and contact a residential roofing service near you to schedule a time for them to do the work for you.
Share30 March 2021
When it came time to install a new roof on my home, I had no idea where to start. In fact, I was exploring roofing options that were a really poor fit in my climate. It wasn't until I reached out to a local roofer that I got some lessons on how to choose the right roofing material for my home and the weather exposure it is subjected to. I built this site to share my journey, including the mistakes I made and the things that I learned along the way. If you are considering replacing your home's roof, I hope that the information here can help to guide you through the process.
