Everything We Find Once The Old Roof Is Off

Tear It Off. Do Not Shingle Over It.

You will get quoted a layover somewhere, because a second layer of shingles nailed over the first one is faster and cheaper on paper. We do not build them. A layover hides the deck at exactly the moment somebody should be looking at it, which is the whole point of the job. It doubles the weight on the framing. It runs hotter, because two layers of asphalt hold more heat than one, and heat is already what kills roofs on these blocks. And when it eventually fails, the tear-off you avoided arrives anyway, twice as thick and twice as expensive.

The deeper problem is that flashing cannot be done correctly over a layover. Step flashing has to interleave with the courses, and counterflashing has to sit in the mortar joint. Working over an existing layer means somebody is surface-sealing details that should have been rebuilt, and those details are where roofs leak. Stripping to bare wood costs more on the front end and is the only version of the job worth signing.

What The Decking Tells Us

Where your house sits in the village decides what we find under there. The prewar frame houses and Cape Cods on the narrow lots near downtown, and the whole 1950s and 60s ranch belt beyond them, were sheathed in wide pine boards laid with gaps between them. That worked fine in 1955. Seventy years of drying out later, the wood has shrunk, the gaps have opened and the boards hold a nail much worse than they did. Sometimes the plank is perfect and we shingle right over it. Sometimes a third of it is soft and has to come off.

The 1970s and 80s splits and colonials out toward the village edges, and the newer construction after them, got plywood or OSB instead. That fails differently. It fails at the panel edges where water sat, usually along an eave or below a valley, and often the rest of the sheet is fine.

Nobody can tell you which of those you have from the driveway, and any contractor who says otherwise is guessing with your money. What we do instead is write the deck repair rate into the paperwork before the first shingle comes off, so if we do find rot, you already know what it costs per board. There is no phone call at four in the afternoon inventing a number while your roof is open.

Ice And Water At The Eaves, And Why It Is Not Optional

Illinois winters build ice dams, and ice dams are how water gets to move uphill. Snow melts high on the roof where the attic is warm, runs down to the cold overhang beyond the heated space, and freezes there. That ridge of ice grows, backs the meltwater up behind it, and pushes it under the shingle courses. Gravity is not helping you at that point. Shingles are shingles, meaning they shed water flowing downhill and nothing more.

The answer is a self-adhering ice and water membrane run from the eave edge up past the interior wall line, sealed around every fastener that goes through it, so backed-up water hits a waterproof layer instead of your decking. This is code around here for good reason, and it is also the single detail most likely to be shorted by a crew running the price down. You want it in the valleys too, and around any penetration that interrupts the plane.

Fixing The Ventilation While The Roof Is Open

Replacement is the only cheap moment to correct airflow, and on the ranch belt it almost always needs correcting. Those houses got a couple of gable louvers originally, then a scattering of can vents during a 1990s re-roof, and never enough intake. Hot attic air with nowhere to go cooks the shingles from the back side, which is why so many roofs in the village look presentable from the curb and feel brittle underfoot.

With the deck exposed we cut a continuous ridge vent and go check that the soffit intake is actually open, because on plenty of houses it was blocked years ago by blown insulation or painted shut. Exhaust without intake does nothing. Both together give you a roof that breathes and lasts closer to the warranty printed on the bundle wrapper. If your current roof is fifteen years old and already failing, this paragraph is very likely the reason.

What The Week Actually Looks Like From Inside The House

Most houses here are one day of tear-off and install with a second day for detail work, weather permitting, though a big cut-up roof with a lot of valleys runs longer. It is loud. The whole house vibrates during tear-off and things can shift on shelves, so take anything fragile off the walls in the upstairs rooms the night before. Attic-stored items should get covered, because seventy-year-old dust comes down through plank gaps in a way it never does otherwise.

We need driveway space for the dumpster and room to swing off the eaves, so park on the street that morning. Pets do better somewhere else for the day. At the end we tarp, sweep and run a rolling magnet over the drive and the lawn edges for nails, and Angelo walks the finished job himself rather than sending a salesman to sign off on work he never saw. If a neighbor on your block is coming due at the same time, tell us. A crew and dumpster already parked on the street takes real money off both jobs.

If you are still deciding whether the roof has years left in it, start at shingle roof repair instead. If a storm forced the timing, the work may belong on a claim, which is covered on storm damage repair. Finished tear-offs of ours are in the gallery, and you can start with photos through the contact page.