How A Roofer May Need To Replace Damaged Roof Materials After A Storm
When your roof is damaged by a storm, you'll want to call your insurance agent as soon as it's safe to do so and get advice about how to handle the repairs or roof replacement. If the damage is very bad, your homeowners insurance might pay for a replacement over doing roof repairs.
You'll also want to call a roofer as soon as you can since they might get swamped with calls if other roofs were damaged too. Here's a look at how a roofer might replace damaged roof materials.
Hail Damage
If you have an asphalt shingle roof, your insurance company might want you to replace the entire roof rather than make repairs if the hail damage is widespread. If you have a metal roof, your insurance company might replace it, but they might consider the damage to be cosmetic and decide a replacement isn't needed. That's why you want to involve your insurance agent early so you know what kind of help you'll get with your roof.
When your contractor wants to replace damaged roof materials due to hail, they'll need to tear off all of the shingles to start with a clean deck and then put a new roof on. Shingles with hail damage might start leaking right away, or they might not leak for months, so leaving them in place is risky.
Wind Damage
Wind can do a lot of damage to a shingle roof. Metal roofs are more durable, but wind can damage them too. If the winds came from a single direction, the damage might be confined to one side of the roof. If that's the case, the roofer might just replace roofing on a single side of your house, but they also have to consider the age of your roof.
If your roof is old, you might want to replace the whole thing at the same time even if you have to pay for part of the work yourself.
Deck Damage
Deck damage often has to be repaired right away since you don't want to leave a big hole in your roof. However, the roofer might make temporary repairs while you wait to have the hole repaired and new roofing put on. Temporary repairs might include placing a tarp on the roof to keep rain out.
Repairing deck damage requires patching the hole with new plywood and making sure the support of the roof is still in good shape. If the supports were damaged, the roofer may need to repair them too. Once the deck is solid, new roofing can be put on to restore your roof.
Contact a company like Select Exteriors to learn more.
