<p>Our deductible is $500…no roofs cost that little to replace. BUT we have not had significant damage. Our roof had a 30 year warranty but due to snow, ice and sun exposure, it’s not looking too great. Plus there is the little ice dam leak (we have that rubber “stuff” and it goes up SIX feet from the roof edge in all spots…but last winter, the ice built up on one valley of our roof and actually went under the shingles from the outside…and poof…leak. </p>
<p>We need new gutters too.</p>
<p>What kind of deductible covers the cost of a whole roof? Our roof cost $10,000 to replace ten years ago. Your best bet on an honest answer is a home inspector, however in my experience they tend to say they can’t really tell without pulling off part of the roof. A roof should have roofing felt underneath, and depending on where you live may also have an ice dam near the eaves. I think there’s a good chance that your roof has five or ten more years if it was constructed properly in the first place.</p>
<p>^^^^^Well, my deductible is 10K!</p>
<p>Our house was built in 1988. It withstood hurricane Hugo in 1989. We replaced it in late 2003. Roof replacement by insurance companies seems to be common. A couple of summers ago it seemed like half the houses in the neighborhood got roof replacements courtesy of insurance companies after a summer hail storm. We did not.</p>
<p>My understanding is that insurance companies keep a database of all claims each home makes and every time you make a claim your house is stigmatized and harder to sell and harder and more expensive for the new buyers to insure.</p>
<p>It is best not to put in an insurance claim for anything but catastrophic.</p>
<p>
There are exceptions to this, and cover most of the roofs I have had done (6 of them so far):</p>
<p>1) If there is no Ice and Water Shield on the roof, tear it all off so this can be installed. This is obviously more important where there can be ice dams</p>
<p>2) If the shingles are cupping or buckling, or starting to tear, I won’t shingle over them. This is when roofs start to leak, which is when they get replaced.</p>
<p>3) If the first layer was done using gun-driven staples rather than hand-pounded nails, I would rather tear off the first layer. It is so easy to have the staples driven too far through the shingles.</p>
<p>4) Being in the show belt, the extra weight of a second layer of shingles concerns me. At 300+ pounds per square for high quality shingles, that second layer is like having 7 or 8 inches of snow on your roof for life.</p>
<p>5) I personally don’t see how the second layer can last as long when it is on top of another layer rather than the roof sheathing. The shingles don’t lie as flat, they don’t adhere as well, etc.</p>
<p>End result is, I have always done a tear-off. The price difference is not huge.</p>
<p>Just my opinion.</p>
<p>We had some hail damage on our 8 yr old roof. Ended up with an entirely new roof and gutter guard system. We paid for the gutters, insu paid for the roof.</p>
<p>parent1986 – see my post #17 – we think alike!</p>
<p>I never even thought of putting in a claim for hail damage to my roof…we’ve had a few hail storms…pelted the cars outside (ours weren’t). Too late now. </p>
<p>We’ll have the old roof torn off.</p>
<p>The hail took some major chunks out of the house. We were lucky- we didnt get the wood trim all gashed like some neighbors did. It was a hella storm. We were out of town when it happened.</p>
<p>When we bought our house, the roof was a couple of years away from needing to be replaced (original roof). About 20 years later, we replaced it. </p>
<p>Over a year before replacing, there was a leak in one bedroom, staining the ceiling. Since it was fall, I just got a couple of tubes of wet/dry roofing cement and gobbed a bunch of it on the only spot with a missing shingle, high above the leak (water must have run down a rafter before dripping). Everything stayed dry for another 1-1/2 years before we replaced the roof. There was no mold/damage in the area of the leak. </p>
<p>So, I wouldn’t be too concerned about them just repairing the spot. If a patch can hold up for over a year, especially on a roof that was almost 20 years past its useful life, chances are your patch will last until you replace the roof on its normal schedule. Granted, I do sleep better now that the new roof has held up over the first winter and numerous wind storms with no damage.</p>
<p>Because of the damage inside, we called our windstorm insurance company. We pay for so much darn insurance (house, windstorm, flood, etc.) that while we considered just paying for it all ourselves, in the end we decided to use the insurance.</p>
<p>All 3 roofers we consulted before re-doing our roof recommended removing the previous layer of shingles. I think that’s becoming standard. Our roofer said he’d have to pull a bunch of shingles off in various spots anyway, to check the plywood beneath to be sure it wasn’t rotting.</p>
<p>In our suburban Chicago town tearoffs are now required - no second layers allowed.</p>
<p>We bought our house about 27 years ago- it was ready for a new roof supposedly- last year we replaced it. Never had any leaks & we would check the roof through the unfinished attic every year.(its fairly steep, about 51deg, so we couldn’t climb onto it easily) Don’t have many hail storms do have a lot of rain. We did a complete tear down because not only was there several layers of shingles, there was also a layer of cedar shakes. New roof line is at least 4" slimmer!</p>