Roofing – When to Hire a Professional

Keeping your home protected from the wind, rain, sleet and snow, your house's roofing is vitally important. At some point though, those shingles are going to give out and you will have to do something about it. One of the hardest parts of maintaining the shingles, felt, and wood underneath is knowing when to patch and when to totally replace them. There will come a time when the shingles will all have to be replaced and at that time you might want to consider hiring a roofing specialist to do the work.

The first thought that crosses most people’s minds when the word roofing is mentioned is the cost. It is not cheap to do the work necessary to keep the elements out. While it might be cheaper to do it yourself there are a few things to consider before you buy the shingles and head up the ladder. First thought is do you know what you are doing. If you are not comfortable with your skills as a handy man stop, you don’t need to risk yourself and your property to do something a professional can do with ease.

If you are considering only doing a patch job you might be able to handle the work load on your own. A word of caution though, don’t be surprised that when you get up there you find more spots that have to be patched. There is a lot of area that you can’t see from the ground so there might be more work that you anticipated. If that is the case you might want to stop and consider hiring a roofing professional to take over the project. This will help ensure all the problem areas get fixed the first time and will save you repeated trips up the ladder.

If you are set to perform the entire job think about this, do you plan on stripping the old shingles off before laying the new shingles or were you just planning on putting new ones down. If you answer was just to lay on top of the old you need to rethink that plan. You can’t identify problems with the underlying felt and boards if you don’t strip the old layer first. This could lead to problems down the road. Since you can’t possibly leave shingles lying about your yard you will have to rent a dumpster and have someone remove it, adding to the expense.

Roofing jobs are difficult to do. At best you’ll spend two or three days on your house in the hot sun, and at worse you could uncover problems you for which you aren’t prepared. By hiring a professional to do the job you can cut out the hassle and have peace of mind that the job was done right the first time. Take your time and consider all the facts before you get on top of your home and “do it yourself.” You might find that by trying to save money you will actually be spending more trying to go it alone.