After all the storms that we’ve had, should I get my roof inspected.

I think that the question comes down in two directions. One, is certainly roofs, you know, we use shingles in Texas that are rated at 25 or 30 years. The reality is is that a roof in Texas, due to the difficult weather conditions here over the last 12 to 15 years,  a 25 year roof will last about 12 years. A 30-year roof, if you’re real real lucky, might last 15.

And so what happens, is that it certainly pays if you had a roof for a while to have it inspected and maintain it. Now that’s gonna cost you depending on the size of the house from eight to twelve thousand dollars. Some of the bigger roofing companies will finance it, otherwise you’re going  to finance it yourself and they’re those are the normal circumstances.

The house that I sold in Virginia recently, my rental property up there, about three four years before I sold it, the roof was in rough condition and I went ahead and put a new roof on and I think that was about eight thousand eighty five hundred dollars.You know we put a first class roof on, one of the debates you get into in roofing is do you remove the existing roof that does increase the cost of doing the roof. I can tell you I would never put a roof on without removing the prior roof.

The reason for that is twofold. One of them is again, due to the rough conditions in Houston. Sometimes your underlayment, the plywood generally that is underneath the roofing material has damage to it, you won’t see that if you don’t take the existing roof off. Secondly, if you develop a leak in the new roof it’s almost impossible to get to because you’ve got a old roof underneath it. So, again it makes it more expensive but generally it’s the smarter way to do things.