Roof Recover - Need to be done correctly!
Roof recovers, what are they? A recover is when new roofing shingles are installed over the top of old roofing. This is a bad idea, cheaper then a tear off but a bad idea.
- If a recover is installed, this mean the old roofing was not removed and an inspection of the plywood sheeting was not done. If you install shingles into bad plywood sheeting it is like nailing into a sponge. It will not hold.
- If the roofers do not use the biggest nails possible in their nail guns, the nail will never hit the plywood sheeting. The new roofing shingles will be nailed to the old roofing shingles and not the plywood sheeting at the base of the roof structure. A layer of old roofing can be around 3/4 of an inch thick. You will need a large nail like a 1.5 inch nail to penetrate through the plywood sheeting for the roofing to be under warranty from the shingle factory. Most roofing shingle warranties state the fastener needs to penetrate the sheeting.
- Weight of the material on the roof. A typical 20 square roof (average home) the old roofing material can weigh around 4000 lbs. If you reroof over the top of the old roofing that is now 8000 pounds on your house framing. You may start to see the roof sag and maybe even see truss break.
So what does all this mean?
If you have a roof recover done and it is not done properly, a small wind storm can tear away portions of your roofing shingles leaving you needing to start over with your roofing project. A costly short cut!
