Does your house need to have its roofing tiles replaced? It is a better question that some might think because the problems start to accumulate long before shingles start flying off. None might dislodge but become loose enough to allow water to seep through and allow rotting of the plywood beneath. It pays to have a contractor or someone experienced in carpentry to inspect a roof every now and then. Someone like Constructors 911 St. Louis experienced with aging roofs should give an estimate of its remaining life.

It is normal for a shingle roof to last between 25 and 30 years. It might last for less time if subject to high winds and temperature extremes, but often owners wait much longer than its recommended age before having it inspected or replaced. They assume that the roof is a permanent feature of a house and needs no maintenance. It is a very easy maintenance schedule to forget, and many do until water starts to sag their ceiling drywall.

This is not to alarm the reader, just that older shingle roofs have a few Achilles heels. The shingles might be smaller, allowing more cracks through which water might seep. In comparison, more recent shingles are quite long and are designed to save labor. For this reason, older roofs have more than one reason to have them inspected for loose nails and damaged shingles. Since shingles do have many nails, there are more that might loosen. 

Shingles are not designed to last forever. They are mainly cheap to handle, easy to install, are not costly in terms of material, and do not require specific licenses to install. They work by using tar to glue sand to a synthetic rubber sheet. Even if directly exposed to sunlight, the rubber lasts a long time, but the sand layer helps to protect the polymer layers from sun damage. The sand also reflects the sun’s heat and helps to keep the house cool.

Singles have the disadvantage of being fairly easy to damage in a strong wind. Each shingles experiences wind drag and might be elevated by a particular strong wind, effectively bending the sheet. Long pieces of shingling, designed to save on labor, might not be installed with a sufficient number of nails. The more nails that are used to secure a sheet, the less tension there is on each nail hole when the sheet is under stress, and the longer the life of the shingle.

The quality of the shingle does matter, but carpentry makes as much of a difference. A less expensive shingle might last a long time if a sufficient number of nails are used while a more expensive shingle will be trouble if the installation job was hasty. The good news is that aging shingles can be fixed by adding new nails, driving down the old ones, and by replacing the few apparently damaged shingles.

Replacing a part of the roof is way cheaper than the whole thing, and this is one reason why shingles are used. This does create the problem that the remaining old shingles still have to be replaced at some point in the future, as environmental stresses will erode away the sand on the shingles and make the shingles themselves a little more brittle with age. The tar gluing the sand to the shingles slows this down, but deterioration is inevitable.

Should a roof be repaired or replaced? The default solution is to have the entire roof replaces, as having part of the roof fixed leaves the rest of an old roof in doubt. It really puts a question mark above the maintenance schedule, and future contractors will need to know the history of the building. Patching a roof is a better idea on a new house because the shingle work is new and the difference is not very great. The older the roof is, the more prudent its replacement becomes.

The roofing of a house is one of its most important features. It protects the entire building from sunlight and rain. While it plays a role in the temperature of a house, it is just absolutely imperative to keep rain away from plywood because leaking water will also be trapped by impermeable shingles. It is for this reason that inspecting and fixing your roof is very important.

Option such as aluminum sheets are becoming very popular as an alternative to shingles because of their presumed longevity. They are also not terribly difficult to replace if they are damaged. Both aluminum sheets and standard shingles are reliable and long-lasting solutions if installed by a quality contractor. It pays to do research and compare companies in your area.