Roof replacement, done down to the decking
When a roof has reached the end, the honest fix is a full tear-off — not another layer on top of the last one. Here is what that involves and what you should expect from whoever does it.
A roof replacement is the largest single repair most houses ever need, and it is almost entirely hidden work. Once the shingles are on, you cannot see whether the decking was sound, whether the valleys were lined, or whether the flashing was replaced or just re-used. That is why who does it matters more than which shingle goes on top.
J. Parker Contracting tears the old roof off rather than laying over it. Overlaying is faster and cheaper, and it hides every problem underneath — soft decking, failed flashing, nail holes, old leaks. It also adds weight and shortens the life of the new shingles. When a roof needs replacing, it gets stripped.
Signs it is time
- Shingles curling, cupping or losing granules in quantity — check the gutters for granule build-up.
- Bare or cracked shingles, especially on the south and west slopes that take the most sun.
- A roof that has already been repaired several times in different places.
- Two or more existing layers. Pennsylvania allows a second layer, but a third is neither legal nor sensible.
- Daylight visible through the roof boards from inside the attic.
- Sagging between the rafters, which usually means the decking has taken on water.
What the work involves
- Strip the existing roof back to bare decking and inspect every board.
- Replace any decking that is soft, delaminated or rotten — priced separately and shown to you before it goes on.
- Ice-and-water shield at the eaves and in the valleys, where almost all leaks start.
- Synthetic underlayment across the field.
- New step flashing at every wall and chimney. Old flashing gets replaced, not re-used.
- Architectural asphalt shingles, nailed to the manufacturer's pattern.
- Ridge vent and intake ventilation checked and corrected where needed.
- Magnetic sweep of the grounds, beds and gutters before the crew leaves.
On decking: the price per sheet is written into the contract before the job starts. If boards need replacing you get photographs and you approve the cost before anything goes on. The number of sheets can be a surprise; the price of a sheet cannot. That is deliberate — the quote that grows once the roof is off and the house is open is the most common complaint about roofers in this county.
On the rest: flashing and ventilation are where roofs are won and lost. A perfectly installed field of shingles will still leak if the step flashing at the chimney was re-used, and a roof with no intake ventilation cooks its own shingles from underneath and ages years early. Both get looked at every time.
The finished work is guaranteed on both workmanship and materials. The terms come with your written estimate.
Customers on this kind of work
He and his crew were professional, CLEAN, and did a great job. There was absolutely no cleanup.needed on our part.
J. Parker replaced my roof on short notice during the holidays. The job turned out to be more than anticipated, since there were 4 layers of shingles that needed to be removed. J. Parker finished the job in one day, staying late because rain was forecast the next day.
We knew replacing our roof would be a major, difficult job because of the nature of our roof and the age of the house, over 110 years old. It would involve removing both a top layer of old asphalt AND the original slate underneath before putting on a new asphalt shingle roof. The house has three stories and the roof is steeply pitched.
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More on thisGet a straight answer about your roof
James will come and look at it properly, tell you what he finds, and put the price in writing. Estimates are free and there is no sales pitch.
Roof leaking right now? Call (215) 837-9135 — the phone is faster than a form.