Roof Replacement in St. Louis

Each part goes on the way the manufacturer specifies, because that is the condition for a valid material warranty. When nailing or underlayment is shortchanged, coverage is void, and the homeowner finds out long after the crew is gone.

Three things decide it: how the failure is distributed, how much service life is left in the material, and what is underneath.

Distribution first. One failure in one place, a vent boot, a section of valley metal, step flashing at a wall, is a repair regardless of the roof's age. What moves a roof into replacement is failure across whole slopes: curling and cupping at shingle edges everywhere rather than in one corner, bare patches where the granules are gone and the mat is showing through, brittleness where shingles crack instead of flexing when lifted.

Age matters less than people think. A twenty-year-old roof in decent condition over a sound deck can be worth repairing. A twelve-year-old roof hailed twice and repaired badly both times may not be. We are reading condition, not the birthday.

Layers matter and they are easy to check. Two layers already up there makes a third not worth considering even where code would allow it, between the weight, the trapped heat, and the fact that nobody can inspect the deck through two layers. If there are three, it is all coming off regardless.

The deck settles the question when it is close. Sheathing that flexes underfoot, or that has stayed wet long enough to delaminate, cannot be repaired from above, and no new shingle laid over soft decking will hold its fasteners. That is the point where repair money is genuinely wasted.

There is also an arithmetic question nobody enjoys. If a repair costs a meaningful fraction of a replacement and the roof has only a handful of years left, that repair is a bad purchase even when it works. We will do that math out loud with you rather than around you.

When it is a replacement it is a full tear-off to the deck, not an overlay. We want eyes on the sheathing, and you want flashing replaced rather than reused, which an overlay does not allow. If we find rot once we are open, we stop and show you before replacing anything, so a change order is a conversation instead of a surprise on the invoice.