Roof repair vs replacement: how to decide.

Some roofers push a replacement at the first leak. Some patch a roof that is finished. Both cost homeowners a great deal of money, and both come from the same place: nobody looked at the four facts that actually decide the question. Every one of them is on the written Roof Grade we hand you for free, and this guide walks through them with the numbers so you can make the call with the facts in front of you, whichever roofer you use.

Age, spread, what is under it, and the next storm. In that order.

Age: the first number

In Texas an asphalt shingle roof lasts 15 to 30 years, and less over a hot, unventilated attic. Under about 12 years old with one problem: repair it, and expect the repair to hold. Between 12 and 18 the answer depends on the other three facts. Past 18 to 20 years with problems on more than one slope, the math flips, because every repair buys a year or two on a roof that is finishing anyway, and the money would have gone further on the replacement.

Metal and tile roofs run much longer, but their weak points age on a shorter clock: flashings, pipe boots, sealant and, under tile, the underlayment that fails at 20 to 25 years while the tile above it looks perfect. A tile roof "leaking" at 22 years is almost never a tile problem.

If nobody knows the install date, look at your closing documents, ask the previous owner, or check the permit record with the city. Failing that, the Roof Grade estimates it from the shingle condition, and the estimate is usually within a couple of years.

Spread: one slope or every slope?

Isolated damage repairs: a cracked pipe boot, wind-lifted shingles on the north face after a dated storm, a chimney flashing that finally let go, a single valley. System-wide wear does not: granules filling the gutters after every rain, shingles curling on every slope, sealant failing everywhere at once. The Roof Grade test-squares every slope, so the answer is a map of the roof, not one photograph of the leak.

What is under it: the attic tells the truth

Half the real story of a roof is under it, and most contractors never go up there. Soft or stained decking, wet insulation, daylight through nail holes, a bathroom fan venting into the attic instead of outside: these turn a "repair" into the visible tip of a bigger job, and they are invisible from the street and from a ladder at the eave. Our inspection starts in the attic for exactly this reason. If an estimate was written without an attic visit, the person who wrote it does not know what the roof needs.

The next storm: the cost of waiting

A roof that is already at risk before hail season is a claim waiting to happen, and an old roof that then takes hail is a harder claim to make, because the adjuster will attribute some of what they see to wear. Sometimes a repair now is the cheapest replacement you will ever buy. Sometimes replacing before the storm, with a Class 4 shingle and the insurance discount that comes with it, is the better decade. The grade tells you which.

The two expensive mistakes are the mirror image of each other: a $4,000 repair on a roof that needed replacing, and a $15,000 roof that needed a $600 boot. Both come from getting one number instead of two. Ask for both on the same visit: what the repair costs, and what the replacement costs. Then the decision is yours with the facts in front of you.

Almost every Roof Grade on a roof under fifteen years old finds one of the same five things, and all five are repairs.

• Cracked pipe boots. The $8 rubber part that floods a ceiling; Texas sun kills cheap rubber in five years. Replaced with a lead-free boot.
• Wind-lifted shingles. A slope of broken seal strips after a north wind. Re-sealed or replaced by the slope, nailed six per shingle.
• Chimney and wall flashing. Caulk was never a flashing. New step and counter flashing set into the masonry.
• Valleys. Where two slopes meet, water runs fastest. Open metal valleys with ice-and-water barrier underneath.
• Leaks that only happen in heavy rain. Usually a boot, a nail pop or a flashing, and found from the attic, not the street.

If the four facts say replace, the decision that matters next is the roof you replace it with. A replacement is the one chance in twenty years to fix the attic ventilation, choose a Class 4 shingle for the insurance discount, or decide that this is the last roof the house will need and go to metal. Our replacement guide walks through the seven things that set the price; the short version is that the material tier you choose sets the next replacement date as much as this one.

Dated hail or wind damage is often a claim; wear and tear never is. We document what we find with the storm date attached, photograph every slope and put what we find in writing, and then explain the two-check process so you know what happens next. If the roof grades a B we say so, because a denied claim still counts against you and the honest path is to keep your claims history clean and pay for the repair. And whatever anyone at your door says, no roofer can pay, waive or rebate your deductible in Texas; since 2019 that has been a criminal offense under House Bill 2102.