Roof Recover

So What is a Roof Recover?

Although in general tearing the the old roof off and starting over new is the most likely recipe for a leak free roof, building codes currently allow up to three layers of roofing to be applied to your home.  A” recover” also called “lay over” or  “over lay”, is to put a new layer of roofing over an old layer of roofing.   This could save you significantly as you will not have to pay the dump fees, tear off labor or the cost of uderlayment or labor for installation of underlayment/felt.  However there are cases where we will turn down a job in which the customer has their  mind set on a recover.  When we refuse to offer a roof recover it is because the roof the potential customer is asking us to roof over has issues.  Roofing over a roof that was not put together correctly in the first place puts are reputation at risk.  If we will not take the job be sure and get a second and third opinion.  Hiring a contractor that simply agrees with you because he is hungry could mean you paying for leak repair in a few years.  Imagine having to have your new layer of roofing you just paid off removed in addition to the original layer of roofing plus possible water damage and insullation repair costs.            

The best type of roof to for a roof recover are three tab shingles.  Because three tab shingles lay flat they can be over layed with architecual style shingles and inany cases as a result look every bit as attractive as if you had paid to tear off the roof.  Only a roofer of building inspecter peaking underneath your shingles will be able to tell you have two layers of Roofing.   A recover over one layer of three tab can result in a long lasting leak free roofing system.  The roof decking under your roof must be solid.  Have several roofing contractors give their opinion and ask them to also look to see that building up a second or third layer of roofing will not cause the water run off to shoot over the top of the gutter system in a heavy rain.