So, you want to know if your roofer can install
your new roof on top of your old shingles in order to save some money?
Hi everybody, this is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to another
walk in the park video where we take just a few minutes to answer your questions about
roof repairs, roof replacements, and the insurance claim process. Today we're going
to answer the question that we actually get pretty frequently: Can you install the new roof
on top of the old roof? Now I understand why people ask that question, they want to save some money. I'm
all about saving money, but let's talk about this particular issue in two different facets.
One, can you do it, and two, should you do it? First of all, let's talk about can you do it? Well certain
local building departments do allow that in certain circumstances. So for example, like here
where we are, our regional building department will allow metal panels to be installed on a roof that
has one layer of asphalt shingles. As far as I know, that's the only example of a time where they'll
allow a roof-over, that's what that's called, a roof-over where you're putting new materials
over the old materials. But in every other circumstance, so like if you're putting asphalt
shingles on, if you're putting metal tile on, if you're putting clay or concrete tile on,
then no you can't put those on top of another layer of shingles. You have to strip the old layer
of shingles off ,and you have to strip actually all the material off all the way down to the, the wood
decking. So that's a pretty simple answer to that question, can you do it? Well, in most circumstances
no you can't. Now let's talk about should you do it? Well, that's kind of to me a more important issue,
just because you can, doesn't mean you should. So if for example, you live in an area where your
local building department allows a roof-over and they say that you can install new shingles
or stone coated steel or metal tile or whatever on top of the old shingles, ask yourself really
should you do that? And if you're a roofer ask yourself, should you do that? I maintain that no
you shouldn't do it, and you might immediately object to that because you're saying, oh well
that's just because you want to make more money because it costs more to do the tear off. Well
you're right, it does cost more to do the tear off, but I look at it from the standpoint of,
if you don't tear off that old material, for example, like we've done some roofs here
where we've installed metal panels, we were not required to remove the old shingles, but we did
anyway, stripped it all the way down to the wood. The reason that we do that is, because we want to
get eyes on that wood, because if there are any issues, if there have been any leaks at any time,
if any of that wood is rotting out, we want to know about it, and the only way,
well I guess not the only way, but the best way, the simplest way to find
out if there is any problem with the wood is to strip all the layers off. So, I maintain that
even if you're allowed to do a roof-over, your roofing contractor should
tear off all the materials all the way down to the wood decking. That allows him to inspect
the wood, allows him to find any problems, so that he can actually warrant that new roof
install. If you've got any problems with your roof and you just roof over the existing materials,
you may not solve the problem and it makes it much harder to find the problem and repair the problem.
So I know this was a really fast, quick, down and dirty video
answering that particular question. I hope it's been helpful. If you've got any questions please
feel free to give us a call at our office phone number right up here: 719 719-433-6991.
You can also visit our website right down here homesteadroofingcolorado.com, we've got a ton of
information out there lots of other educational videos for you. If you like this video and it's
been helpful for you, please give us the big thumbs up, let us know you like it. Also, if you've
got questions, you don't want to call the office, you can leave those questions for us down below,
we read and respond to all questions that we get on our videos. Please subscribe to our channel
and click the bell icon up there so that way you get notified when we've got new videos.
And until our next walk in the park video, I'm Tracy Bookman, owner of Homestead Roofing.