I just had a roofer fix a leak around an air vent and he told me that my roof looks old and needs to be replaced soon. My house was built exactly 10 years ago. Is he trying to scam me or do asphalt shingles really only last a decade?
I just had a roofer fix a leak around an air vent and he told me that my roof looks old and needs to be replaced soon.
Scam.
>roof looks old
What was he basing that on? Any wear or organic growth on them?
>What was he basing that on?
how old it looks, probably
>Number 1 in the ranking of Most Uninformative Posts.
Scam big time, used to be carpenter apprentice. Went with a colleague on a site, medium sized warehouse. One small leak, easily fixable. We went on the roof, went down. Said with a straight face to the dude, roof's fricked big time and old©. I almost couldn't believe that he said that and later on asked him about it, said to me
>we don't sell repairs, we sell entire roofs
Did he even fix anything? Did he make it maybe worse? Take a good look at it yourself and judge
This. I called 7 different companies saying I needed a repair. 3 never returned my calls, 1 straight up said they don't de repairs unless they put in the roof, and 3 came out for quotes.
One guy came out, walked the roof and said the whole thing needed to be replaced. He gave a rough estimate of $18-20k. I asked how much just repair would be and he said he would get back to me. I never heard from him again.
One guy came out, walked the roof and said the roof was older and a cheaper job but still has some years left in it. He said he doesn't do repairs for work he didn't do but he would replace the roof for $7,500 (which I later learned was reasonable for a roof my size in my city).
One guy said the valley was put in incorrectly (cut valley with the 'cut' on the wrong side with no cement). It was facing the side of the roof that got more water flow when it rained. Now that the roof was aging water was getting under the shingles. He charged $200 to seal the valley with Blackjack cement and showed me how to do it. That was 5-6 years ago and I haven't had another leak yet.
Never get a single quote. Some companies only do reroofs so they will only quote that. Others send the sales guy to give a 'frick off' quote for a huge amount of money hoping you will either go away or be stupid enough to pay it so it will be 'worth their while'. Other companies just hope you don't know any better and only called one them.
You probably don't want to go with a company that has a 'sales' department. The two that I got reasonable quotes from were done by people that actually do the work. They drove smaller work trucks that had equipment in them. The 'frick off' quote came from a sales guy that drove an absolutely spotless F-350 with aftermarket oversized tires, rims, and a slight lift. He had a single folding ladder in the back he used to get on the roof. His salary is paid for out of whatever you pay them and he likely gets a commission based on the profit margin.
>One guy came out, walked the roof and said the whole thing needed to be replaced. He gave a rough estimate of $18-20k. I asked how much just repair would be and he said he would get back to me. I never heard from him again.
>One guy came out, walked the roof and said the roof was older and a cheaper job but still has some years left in it. He said he doesn't do repairs for work he didn't do but he would replace the roof for $7,500 (which I later learned was reasonable for a roof my size in my city).
That reads like my experience in northern VA. It was ultimately about $9.5k because I opted for new gutters plus the replacement sheathing was at cost as required.
>You probably don't want to go with a company that has a 'sales' department.
I had a guy out that was clearly sales. Dude wore a fricking suit without the jacket. He gets up on the roof and comes back down huffing and puffing. Says my decking is "spongy" and probably fricked. Says I will need new roof plus decking. Quoted me something like 30 thousand. Asked how much just the roofing would be without the decking and he said they wouldn't do it unless it got new decking. I said sure, I know a carpenter. He'll peel the roof and replacing the decking. How much then? He said $30k because they would likely have to redo his work anyway. I said sure, great, thanks, goodbye.
No one else I had out said there was anything wrong with the decking that they could tell. Most said straight up they would have to peel the roof off first just to check it. I said, frick it. I got some bros together and my carpenter friend and we spent a day peeling the roof off and checking the decking. House was old as shit so the decking was made of boards that were 10 inches by 1 inch and up to 20 feet long. No plywood. Outside of a single board along the gutter none of it had any issues.
Don't listen to the sales fricks.
I used to do a bit of roofing, it's brain-dead easy work and pays well. The old barn board roofs you want to resheet, they usually have large voids which cause shingle nails to not go into anything and this gets you blowoffs.
Gonna say scam. If it was just a leak around a vent then it was probably just done wrong originally, poor flashing or they just gooped sealant around it and it failed. Unless you're missing shingle pieces or anything looks visibly fricked then it's probably got years left in it.
Roofers are 80% scams. Had to have some shakes (wood) repaired and I was quoted between 2500 - 15,000 - 60000. The 2500 was the honest guy who could actually replace and repair problematic shakes, the others were just con artists selling new roofs to suckers.
Depends on what kind of shingles were put up. There are 5 and 10 year shingles, but anyone that uses them on a house is pretty scummy.
Tell him that his wife looks as old as his mom
>Americans unironically still use tar paper roofing
Lol
Lmao
>europeans unironically come into threads about american and seethe about america america america
Sorry about your shack
heres the truth op
yes it is a scam and no it isnt
you get a guy up to repair or patch a roof and a few days later a week later you will be back at the same fricking house the guy is going to be taking you to task over blah blah how its your fault that theres something new wrong with it.
roofs are fricked, shingles are dogshit if you put them in properly and leave them alone you can be ok, as soon as you are up there fricking around you know its a bad job and likely the whole thing is shit.
its not just that it isn't worth doing a repair, its that if some homeowner is moronic or lazy enough not to do it themselves you know they are going to ffrick you over it 110% of the time
do the whole roof, you know its good, everyone is happy.
>guy who sells roofs told you that you need a new roof
Imagine that
If the shingles aren't curling up, they are still good
What about when all rocks are gone and you can Sstart to see the fiberglass.
what if moss is growing on the roof
Moss is normal. You can remove it, no big deal.
t. removed moss of parents roof 2 years ago, shingles look good, still no leaks
Not an issue, just leave it be
If that's your roof it looks fine.
Have a friend with a drone check the roof and see if it looks like the shingles are peeling up. My house is 10 years old and the shingles were coming off in windstorms because the builders did a shit job on the install. There's also houses on my neighbourhood where you can see from the street that the shingles are absolutely wrecked on one side due to unlucky wind patterns and this is a newer subdevelopment.