This week there have been about 10-15 houses getting roof replacements. We have not had any bad weather that would bring damage.
Houses are 12-15 years old. Bought the house 2 years ago and inspector said it looked great. Sure hope I don't need one soon.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Black92LX,

Yeah roofs are expensive. They do not last as long as you would hope. A lot depends on where you live. The claims that the shingles are good for so many years is pretty bogus. It is a real problem in hurricane prone areas when everyone needs a roof at the same time. The prices then go through the roof.

We are in th process of replacing our entire roof. Not just shingles, but down to the rafters. Our house is about 14 years old and we, along with a number of other homes in the area, have all had poor materials in the original build.

Builder says it's not his problem, insurance says otherwise. One neighbor fought him and lost. So we are paying someone to do it right. Still sucks...

We have a 21 y/o house. The original shingles were replaced 4-5 years ago. The original ones were average quality, not top. I could of maybe gone another year.

Once past 15 years, most bets are off, at least from what I see. The quality of this second roof is better, hopefully it will last.

I'm at 18 years on my original roof. Still looks fine, but probably about due.

One good hail storm and the roof replacement guys are out in full force.

Metal roof on my house is now 35 years old. I imagine by the time it wears out I'll be too old to know.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
This week there have been about 10-15 houses getting roof replacements. We have not had any bad weather that would bring damage.
Houses are 12-15 years old. Bought the house 2 years ago and inspector said it looked great. Sure hope I don't need one soon.

Chances are all of the homes were built by the same builder and by a roofer that did the job as cheap as possible and cut corners and they're all leaking.

In the midwest town where my mom lives, bad hail forced many people to replace their roof. My mom's house had metal siding and roof. When the roofing companies called her to ask if they could inspect for damage, she would say she had a metal roof and they would generally hang up.

No damage to her roof for 15+ years by any storm.

There were some bad shingles of poor quality according to Tim Carter of Ask the Builder.




Why are so many roof shingles failing?
By Tim Carter December 2, 2015

These are 12-year-old shingles from my home. They were supposed to last 30 years. (Tim Carter)

You may be one of those readers who imagine everything is unicorns and rainbows at my home. After all, I’m a seasoned builder. Each week I advise you about how to make the best decisions about products and building techniques so everything goes well at your home. So how could it be possible that I might suffer and struggle with a problem like you do?

Well, this past summer suffer I did. I spent four months working on a steep, blisteringly hot roof replacing my failed asphalt shingles.

Let me ask you now. Is your asphalt shingle roof in bad shape? Are you shocked because it’s gone bad long before its warranty is supposed to expire? My own expensive simulated shake asphalt shingles came with a 30-year warranty. After just nine years, they started to fail.

Last winter, I experienced catastrophic delamination of my shingles. Prior to that, the green ceramic granules were coming off faster than disgruntled fans streaming out of a stadium as their team suffers a drubbing.

Are you experiencing excessive loss of the colored ceramic granules? How about shingles curling on the edges? Are your shingles cracking? Are they brittle?

You’re not alone if a recurring ad in my local small-town newspaper is a barometer. Every now and then a local builder/roofer places an ad saying that he’ll inspect your failing asphalt shingle roof and assist you in filling out any claim papers.

Last spring, I spent some time doing online research and it didn’t take long to discover a spate of pending and settled class-action lawsuits against asphalt shingle manufacturers.

What’s going on? Why did my shingles fail, and why are yours in bad shape? I decided to look into it and tap into my 40-plus years of experience in the building industry.

I would not hesitate to testify in a deposition or on a witness stand that, early in my building career, one rarely saw failures like you and I are seeing today. I worked on many an older home in the Midwest back in the mid-1970s and can’t ever recall seeing widespread curling of shingles or excessive granule loss. When you did see shingles in bad shape, it was often a roof that was long overdue for removal.

I built a grand Queen Anne Victorian-style home for my family in 1986. At the time, all I could afford were standard, plain vanilla 15-year-warranty three-tab shingles. These were the industry standard. After 23 years, they were still in very good condition and there were no roof leaks. My house didn’t have ridge vents or soffit vents. It just had four small static pot vents at the peak. Those are important facts for you to consider.

Thousands of homes in my city, and possibly yours, were built the same way my house was, and the shingle roofs held up as well as my roof. But something happened in the roofing industry in the 1990s and 2000s. I just can’t point to the smoking gun at this point, but I do have a few ideas.

Approximately 12 years ago, I was invited to visit an asphalt driveway sealer manufacturing plant. The first stop in the tour was a large chemistry lab where at least four scientists were hard at work. I was told the incoming rail tanker cars filled with asphalt all had to be tested because the asphalt was not all the same quality and had different chemical properties. That’s an interesting fact, isn’t it?

Asphalt shingle manufacturers blend things with the asphalt in your shingles. It says so clearly on the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association Web site. Go there and you’ll see this: “Fiberglass-based asphalt shingles are manufactured with mat composed entirely of glass fibers of varying lengths and orientations. This fiberglass base is then surfaced with a specially formulated asphalt coating, followed by weather-resistant mineral granules.”

What does “specially formulated asphalt coating” mean? This past summer, I tried to find out and asked the association questions about this and other things. Guess what? They declined to answer my questions and suggested I contact the members of the association directly.

I selected the top three association members, name brands you might recognize, and they all refused to answer my questions, too.

It’s not cheap to replace an asphalt shingle roof. Would you like your roof to last like my simple roof did back in 1986? You can help by completing a simple survey at my Web site: http://go.askthebuilder.com/shinglesurvey. If you complete the survey, I’m going to provide you, at no cost, the results of what I discover as I continue my investigation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...of-shingles-failing/

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Originally posted by arfmel:
Metal roof on my house is now 35 years old. I imagine by the time it wears out I'll be too old to know.

The metal roof on my home dates from 1910!

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

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Originally posted by Black92LX:
This week there have been about 10-15 houses getting roof replacements. We have not had any bad weather that would bring damage.
Houses are 12-15 years old. Bought the house 2 years ago and inspector said it looked great. Sure hope I don't need one soon.

Chances are all of the homes were built by the same builder and by a roofer that did the job as cheap as possible and cut corners and they're all leaking.

We could be in luck the other way. A small builder built our house and only a few others in the neighborhood they were not the main developer of the neighborhood.
But if it is as materials issue like posted above that is likely not to matter as the shingles would have come from the same supplier here in town almost without a doubt.

Do you have road hazard insureance on your car tires?

Hopefully you had a different home inspector than I did. My roof sheathing was rotten for 1 1/2' all the way around.

My next roof is going to be metal.

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Originally posted by RichardC:
Do you have road hazard insureance on your car tires?

1 car yes, 1 car no.
I picked up a few nails from the road and driveways yesterday on my walk with the boy. Which is when I realized so many were being done.

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Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Hopefully you had a different home inspector than I did. My roof sheathing was rotten for 1 1/2' all the way around.

My next roof is going to be metal.

I am going to price it when the time comes but doubt I will be able to justify the added expense.

Took the boys out for another walk this morning to find that pretty much all those crews I saw yesterday had finished up and were now at different houses. Plus there were tons of roofers advertisement signs in yards all over.
One company seemed to have the majority of the signs. On the way back the van with that logo was 1 street over so I did what any prudent person would do. I went and asked what the deal with all the roof replacements was?

He said all had defective shingles and insurance companies were replacing them before damage really set in.
Apparently the ones being replaced were not true dimensional shingles but 3 tab shingles with an added layer and glued granules simulating a dimensional shingle. The adhesive used to apply the granules and extra layer was failing and granules were falling off and the extra layer would flap in heavy wind creasing the shingle and allowing water underneath.

So he did what any prudent business person would do and offered to come inspect my roof. I am thinking yippy get ready to verify what this guy is saying and bust out the homeowners insurance deductible out of the safe.

Much to my surprise he said I was in luck and had true dimensional shingles and the roof looked great and without any unforeseen problems should easily get another 10-15 years out of the roof.

The company is local not a come to town after bad weather hits do some roofs and roll. They have been in business locally for 26 years.

I figure even a decent company knowing they could get a job on an insurance claim even for the smallest thing would at least suggest is. So I figure that my roof is actually god to go. So I took his card if the need were ever to arise I would at least let them be one estimate.

We moved into our home in 1998, not sure how old the roof was at this point, but it was fairly decent shape, old style single layer shingles. Fast forward to about 4 years ago, from all the weather beating on it, high winds, tree limbs, and us repairing blown over shingles as needs, it was time for a new roof. It was looking ragged. (Home originally built in 1950's, added on to many times, and a front porch had been added, not too well done). We went with asphalt shingles again, but opted for architectural shingles, supposed to withstand up to 150 mph winds, etc. for 25 years. Uh, yeah. Lasted just over 2 years. Barely. House is on a hill, so it gets a lot of wind gusts, and we told the roofer this, and we were concerned about it, so wanted a good decent job and materials. Windy one day, very strong gusts. Blew nearly half of the front of the house shingles over, some off the back, a corner completely off, and some off the sides as well. Was gusting to about 60 mph, maybe. Called roofer, he came back in a couple days and re tacked the loose stuff back on, and said not his fault, nor the fault of the material. Said it was straight line winds. Uh,we told you about the high winds in this area, etc. said we had wanted to make sure this wouldn't happen. Found it later, that a lot of roofers, using nail guns, over nail the shingles, so they don't have a proper seal, and if the wind hits it, it rips right thru the nail hole. Which I believe happened in this case. Roofer did not stand by his work, said he did not do anything wrong. Had it inspected by 3 other roofers, and they all said from the evidence of the blown off pieces, that they had been over nailed. Luckily, our ins company agreed with us, and paid for whole roof to be replaced. We went with a metal roof, different contractor of course and it's been a pleasant experience. Quiet, more insulated, and they were able to install over the new shingles, using a vapor barrier, which increased the insulation factor. Had reasearched, including asking questions here, (thanks to all) and asked a friend who had this done as well, and decided to go with the metal roof this way. So far, so good. High winds, not a problem. Rain, can hardly hear it. Looks good and rated for 40 years. Guess it was a good thing, as we love our metal roof! Have been seeing more homes going this route in our area too.

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My next roof is going to be metal

A metal roof is fine, but not any better in an area that gets hurricane force winds. It is very important to have the roof installed correctly, as this is where many corners can be cut. Metal roofs can be torn off by hurricane force winds, and are a lot more expensive.

Bought a house mid 2015. Had a 2 year old reroof with 30 yr shingles. I requested the roof info through the agent from the previous owner, and name of the installer but then I kind of forgot to follow up.
E-mail arrives from the agent a few months later with all the info. Cool! Not... One month too late to transfer the warranty...
It's on me for not following up, oh well. Here's hoping I won't need it.

I'd love to know what brand shingle is pictured above. I've never seen a simulated dimensional product made from 3 tabs from a top-tier maker (OC, GAF, Tamko, Pabco, etc).