I’m having a new roof put on due to hurricane Ike. I noticed the crew that was sent over is simply taking off the old shingles and then laying new tarp paper over the old tarp paper before putting on the new shingles.
Is this a normal practice?
They did in fact replace one peice of plywood so far on the back of the house. when I asked how they knew to replace it, they said they could feel the sag with their feet. Shouldn’t they also take up all the old tar paper to know if there is damage underneath?
The contractor said it will improve the insulation?
Yea they need to remove all old felt and inspect the deck. More insulation, now i heard everything. SOunds like a hack installer i would stop them before they install the whole roof, its not right.
Yeah stop them. Tell them you want all the felt replaced as well because you paid for a complete tear-off, not just shingles.
Always make sure to get what you pay for and if they have a problem with it, pay them for what they have done and tell them you will find someone else.
Sacond layer tar paper alwayse doble protection. If roofer shore thet old shingel was not bad condition,les 7-9 ears old and old paper good was installed,whay not? depens what condition roof dack,enywear need remove surfose firsth 3feet alounge the gatters, waliys,remove old nailes from the dack,and old falt ready to falling of,what sance put thim back, rooled and trouawey and yuo be shor everysing as recwaered RC, I use this treck ,whean 50% raine/w and remow falt whean ready put new one .
On a sheeting deck, I have xray vision.
I know where the rotten decking is before i tear off your shingles.
On a board deck(1x6)- that xray vision is slightly impaired. But after the removal of the shingles,
all leaking is apparent.
Leaking causes a yellowish, whitish stain(and trail)
on the felt and is easy to see.
Any roofer that says different isn’t a roofer.
My entire career, me or any company in my city removed the existing felt paper. Nor did any of the roofers (previous roofers on the same structure) before me.
It always made me smile to know that the roof i was working on was getting a quality felt underlayment on top of the felt from the previous roofer and the roofer before him.
Not every sheeting/decking nail on a roof wants to stay put and flush. They do sometimes back out and try to poke through your roofing material.
I want the best protection for my shingles that i can give for my customers.
Two or three layers of protection is always better than just one. It is much harder for that sheeting nail to poke through my shingles when i have more than one layer of felt.
It is also much harder for your shingle leak to go inside the house when there is multiple layers of underlayment protection.
A 4th installation of felt? no! because now i can see the laps of felt under the shingles and the roof does not look good. All needs to come off.
All that said— Today, i do tear off all felt to the decking but only because the state of florida makes me. The law has been in effect for 15 months and it is horrible. Homeowners are now paying much more for their roof and they are getting a lesser product.
Homeowners could barely afford their roofs to begin with. Now they really cant afford it and all of them are in great shock. This hurts all of us.
It does give the government another way to spend our money.
Another agency to support and spend millions of dollars of our tax money on.
All for a “decking inspection”
for your protection of course… :roll:
So Roof-Lover, if I am understanding you correctly you think more two layers is alwasy better than one? If thats the thinking then do you always reroof instead of tear off?
One or two pre-existing layers of underlayment is very good along with a new underlayment.
Two layers of shingles is not so good.
I have always reccomended against it.
For shingle roofs,the only way i have ever done a nail-over is if the homeowner insisted on it.
For low-slope/flat roofing its a different ballgame
though almost always removing a gravel roof.
Thanks for answering the question. I do not know if you have ever heard of Feltex but we use that probably 65 percent of the time. It covers 10sq to a roll and weighs only about 40 pounds when its full. It also covers 4 feet at the time. With the right shoes you can stand on a 10 pitch with it. Only problem is if its wet, its like a slip and slide. I think that would be as good as two layers of felt. I do not think I have ever seen anyone up here keep on the other layer of felt thinking it would add more protection.
We just had a hail storm here in joliet il in 2005.That was only time we went over old felt, but only on the houses that were couple years old and we knew that the wood was fine.So I think it depends on how old and what kind of shape the roof is.
The homeowner has already told me he hasn’t had any leaks.
And i knew what the condition of his roof was in before he said the first word.
I already know approximately how many sheets of plywood i need before we tore off the very first shingle and i have the sheets sent with the delivery of the material.
And i definitely, positively,
with out all shadow of a doubt,
know the condition once i remove the shingles.
Any roofer who cant, shouldn’t be a roofer.
An inexperienced roofer who cant make that determination could go in the attic and inspect the underside of the decking for problems.
The homeowner shouldn’t have to pay exuberant amounts of money for their roof and have a lesser end product
because the roofer is inexperienced and can’t determine the condition of the decking without removing previous underlayment.
I dont take shortcuts.
I think about the roof first and foremost.
I love the roof.
I want the cost to the owner to be as little as possible while doing the highest quality work.
Forcing people to spend money that they don’t have to is wrong.
Never pull underlayment off unless customer wants to pay for it. It’s really pointless to do it, unless you have a serious decking issue. I generally know from experience, that a home has decking issues before we even tear the roof off. As the previous poster said, underlayment generally speaks for itself.
In my area homes built before 2004 had no inspection, and no code enforcement. That being said I remove all shingles,felt,pull all loose nails,and re-nail entire deck,and change out whatever sheets need be,then I use Gaf Shingle Mate felt…I believe that a second layer of felt is called a double vapor barrier,and is a no no…I had 1 customer that the previous roofer tore of shingles,pounded in old nails,and re-roofed over old felt,and charged more than me…I got $335.00 per sq.for 8/12 1 layer this past summer,before shingles got too out of hand…
Me too. Now imagine being forced to install Ice and watershield over the entire roof on every roof for almost a year.
Didn’t matter what the homeowner thought or could afford.
Im wondering how many shingle manufactures are going to void their warrantys based upon being forced to install a non-compatible product from a different manufacture that causes their shingles to blister.
Do you have to install 8d ring shank every 6 inches on the entire roof
like we in florida have to whether it needs it or not?
I should clarify that the new roof is the result of damage received during Hurricane Ike. This roof damage resulted in further damage to the interior on a vaulted ceiling which has no access through an attic. So, I can only agree with those on the board who say to take it down to the plywood.
Heres another question. In my experience I have never been able to tear off a whole roof without ripping up at least a little bit of the old felt. If you leave the old felt on, do you patch the parts of old felt that have been torn off along with shingles or just leave it and go over it? Are nails pounded in or do you take the extra time to pull them out while making sure not to tear the felt.
Im just wondering how its done without the homeowner saying anything. I assume most homeowners think that when they pay for a tear off, they are getting all the old stuff torn off and brand new put on. I do not think to many of them think that ONLY the shingles are comming off and the old felt that could be many years older than the new shingles will be staying on?
I have nothing against the guys that do it, just wondering how it works.
[quote=“BAMBAMM5144”]Heres another question. In my experience I have never been able to tear off a whole roof without ripping up at least a little bit of the old felt. If you leave the old felt on, do you patch the parts of old felt that have been torn off along with shingles or just leave it and go over it? Are nails pounded in or do you take the extra time to pull them out while making sure not to tear the felt.
[/quote]
Remove the shingles.
Remove the nails. Do not pound them in.
There is shingle trash under the nail and you cannot pound it down flush.
Always install new felt.
Was the previous felt installed with staples?
Then it was trash anyway. remove it all.
