Does my roof need a repair or a replacement?
A repair makes sense when the roof is sound and something specific failed. A replacement makes sense when the shingles are at the end of their life, when there have been leaks in more than one area, or when the decking underneath has gone soft. Age alone does not decide it, and neither does one leak.
Where the leak is tells you a lot
Most leaks are not in the middle of the shingle field. They are at flashing, in valleys, around chimneys and skylights, at pipe boots, and along the eave where ice backed up under the shingles. Those are repairs, and they are repairs on roofs of any age.
Leaks in the open field of an older roof are different. When the mat under the shingle has become brittle and the granules have washed off, water is getting through because the material is finished rather than because one component failed.
Signs the roof is at the end of its life
Granules collecting in the gutters in quantity. Shingles that curl at the edges or cup in the middle. Bald patches where the mat shows through. Shingles that crack when you flex them. A roof that has already been repaired in three or four separate places over a couple of years.
On architectural shingles in this climate the useful life usually runs a couple of decades, less on a roof with poor attic ventilation, which cooks the underside of the deck and ages the shingle from below.
Decking is the part nobody can see
Soft or delaminated decking cannot hold a fastener, so nothing installed over it stays put. You cannot see it from the ground and often cannot see it from the attic if there is insulation in the way.
This is why a replacement estimate should say what happens if bad decking is found once the tear off starts. Ask for that number up front rather than discovering it as a change order.
Storm damage is its own question
Wind and hail damage is often a claim rather than a repair decision, and whether it is repairable depends on how much of the roof is affected and whether the shingle is still available to match.
Damage from one event gets documented with photographs and a written report for the adjuster. Damage from twenty years of weather does not, and a contractor telling you otherwise is setting you up for a denied claim.
The interior half nobody quotes
A roof that leaked long enough to stain a ceiling has done damage inside as well as outside. Wet insulation loses its value, and drywall that has been wet more than once does not recover.
We quote the roof and the interior repair together, because a new roof over a stained ceiling is a job that is half finished.
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