Guide
When patching stops being worth it
Most roofs give you two or three years of warning. The trouble is that the warnings are easy to explain away one at a time.
Get it looked at
Three questions, and up to three Cypress contractors. Free either way.
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No provider in Cypress is taking requests through this service yet. We are lining them up, and yours is kept until one can.
- Nobody gets your details yet. Your request stays with us and is not passed to any company.
- One email when someone can help. When a provider covering your area can take it on, we email you once and ask whether you want that company, by name, to contact you.
- Deleted after 90 days. If nobody can take it on, or you do not say yes, your contact details are deleted 90 days after your request.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
Nobody will call you about this request unless you say yes to a company by name.
Daylight or damp in the attic
Go up on a bright day with the lights off. Pinpoints of daylight through the deck, dark staining on the sheathing, damp insulation or rust running down a nail shank all say water is getting in and has been for a while.
Shingles that curl, cup or go brittle
A roof near the end goes hard. Shingles that were pliable enough to seal down in the sun no longer bond, and the first serious wind takes them.
Sagging along a line
A ridge or a plane that dips is a structural signal rather than a covering one. It usually means decking that has been wet long enough to lose strength, and occasionally framing. This is the one symptom that should not wait.
Granules in the gutter
The granules are the sunscreen. Losing them in volume means the asphalt beneath is being cooked directly, and from that point the roof ages in years rather than decades.
Repeated repairs in different places
When the leaks stop clustering and start appearing anywhere, you are not fixing a fault any more. You are paying for a replacement in instalments, at a worse rate.
The age on the paperwork
Age alone is not a reason to replace. Age plus any one of the symptoms above usually is.
In short
If two or more of these apply, get somebody to look at it and give you a remaining-life number in years. That single number turns the decision from a worry into arithmetic.
Related questions
Should I repair or replace?
Rough rule: if the covering has more than about five years left and the damage is confined to one area, repair. If it is at the end of its life or you are patching the third leak in two years, you are paying instalments on a replacement.
How long should a roof last here?
An architectural asphalt roof is rated for twenty-five to thirty years and, in this climate, tends to land at the lower end of that. Tile and metal go much further, provided what is underneath them is maintained.
It is leaking right now. What do I do?
Move what you can out of the way, put a bucket under it, and if there is a bulge in the ceiling put a small hole at its lowest point to let the water out in one place rather than bringing the whole panel down. Then mark your request as an emergency — those go out first.