PART I: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Nothing lasts forever, and your roof is no exception. Of all the parts of our houses, our roofs probably take the most abuse. Our roofs are our houses’ first line of defense against the weather, and even without taking severe weather effects into consideration, simply withstanding rain and wind and sunlight day after day adds up over time. Eventually, even without sustaining severe damage, your roof will have served out its serviceable lifetime and will need to be replaced.

As a rule of thumb, when your roof’s warranty is up, it’s a good bet that it will probably need to be replaced. Asphalt shingle roofs, the most common type of roof in America, typically need to be replaced every 20 years. Tiles made of clay or concrete are normally good for around 30 years. Metal and slate, which represent the high end of the roofing material spectrum, are generally good for upwards of 50 years.

Just because your roof hasn’t reached its slated best-before date, however, doesn’t mean that you don’t need a new roof yet. It’s pretty much a vital need to have at least one roof inspection every year, with an additional inspection every time you get hit by severe weather. It’s inspections like these that turn up the need to repair or replace your roof.

PART I: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Listed roofing material lifetimes should not be taken as gospel truth; rather, they should be treated as broad guidelines. Even though slate roofs, for example, have been known to last hundreds of years, a yearly inspection could turn up evidence that your roof has been effectively aging at a faster rate than expected.

Little things like cracks or pitting in your roofing could lead you to replacing your roof much earlier than expected, especially with the more brittle roofing materials like slate or clay. Similarly, while some loss is to be expected, abnormally large amounts of shingle granules in your drains are an indicator that your shingles are at or nearing the end of their serviceable lifetime.

While a roof at the end of its life might still be serviceable, odds are that it’s no longer reliable, and that is the main reason why it should be replaced.

The roofs on our houses keep us safe from the weather; not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s what they’re there for. Sometimes, the weather is bad enough that a patch job just won’t cut it, and the entire roof needs to be replaced.

It’s difficult not to stress enough the importance of inspecting your roof after every major storm or other instance of severe weather. While you might have incontrovertible, visible proof after a storm or tornado that most, if not all, of your roof might need to be replaced, and replaced right now, many cases of extensive roof damage just aren’t all that evident, at least not without a professional assessment. It might be that the last storm just hit your roof in such a way that all the previous wear and damage compounded and it’s become more economical to replace the entire roof than to attempt to repair what you currently have.

Sometimes, it’s not even the roof directly that needs to be replaced. A roofing inspection might turn up that, though your roof itself is fine, the supports for the roof might not be. Especially with older houses, over time several factors may contribute to the fact that your house just can’t quite support your roof anymore. It’s possible that, at some stage, mold or rot set in, affecting the structural integrity of your home.

PART II: INSPECT YOUR ROOF AFTER EVERY MAJOR STORM

PART II: INSPECT YOUR ROOF AFTER EVERY MAJOR STORM

This is not to downplay just how much damage a good (or is that bad?) storm can do to your house and roof. Roof damage after a storm can get so bad that an entire industry of fraudulent roofing contractors, commonly known as “storm chasers,” have grown up around the fact that lots of people end up needing new roofs after a storm. Peoples’ anxiety over the state of their roofs after just such a severe weather event is real, and these storm chasers prey on those anxieties, using them to con people out of their money in exchange for shoddy patch jobs before riding off for the next storm and the next town.

Ultimately, if your roof is about to fall down around you, then it’s a bad idea to tough it out. Get that roof replaced before you end up needing to fix more than just the roof.

PART III: SO NEW AND SHINY!

Advancing age and structural damage aren’t the only reasons people choose to replace their roofs, or anything else for that matter. If people only ever bought new when the old article was a crumbling ruin, then we’d never see second-hand cars or hand-me-down clothes. Wanting in on the newest fad or the next cool thing to hit the streets or shelves drives a large part of the economy; whether it’s actual advances or merely a form of planned obsolescence matters little.

It’s the reason why companies like Apple or Microsoft can get away with releasing an upgrade on their products just a few years down the line, when the sheen’s barely even started to fade on the last one. Sales drive the market, and nothing drives sales like the newest shiny thing on the block.

It can be argued that, when it comes to roofing, very little has changed over time, but the fact is that not even the roofing industry is immune to the lure of the new and shiny. Incremental changes to roofing conditions and materials can be seen in the way manufacturers of roofing products, like GAF, market the newest and latest shingle design, or the newest technologically-advanced style of roofing tile. People naturally want to invest in products and materials that will last, and if it really is more durable, tougher, and saves them having to keep doing patch jobs after every storm or strong wind, then people are going to want to at least try them out.

Beyond just buying into the newness of it all, however, are sound practical, ecological, and even financial decisions for wanting to buy into the newest trend. Reducing ecological impact and “going green” has become a big thing; so-called green products have created a niche for themselves in the market, a large enough one that government has taken notice. Far from just regulating it, however, the government has actually gone so far as to encourage it.

Fitting your roof with solar panels is one of the things that the government has seen fit to reward, for example: Until 2016, you can get a tax credit if you install some way to harness alternative energy sources in your home, such as solar panels, solar water heaters, and the like.

Just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s just some other newfangled fad. New can be the start of something better.

PART III: SO NEW AND SHINY!

ROOFING BY CURRY

6245 Clark Center Ave. J Sarasota, Florida 34238

(941) 270-4770

RoofingByCurry.com