What to Expect the Day of Your Roof Replacement

by Margaret · Published November 30, 2017 · Updated May 2, 2019

**Our honesty policy: This post may contain affiliate links and I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you. Some are, some aren't--I do some comparison shopping. The important thing is you will know exactly what we are talking about. Drop a note/comment if you have any questions on the products as these are materials and tools we use on our own projects.

Not sure what to expect if this is your first time replacing a roof? Read on to find out what to expect the day of your roof replacement.

If you are hiring a company with a dedicated crew you can count on a few things on the actual day:

It will start early and last all day. It may take more than one day.
It will be LOUD.
Expect to uncover a few problems. You might get a pass on this, but it is better to expect a few hiccups and be happily surprised if you do not.
The roof will be better the more you get involved.

Your actual experience depends on how you want to handle the situation. It is sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure book. The following three scenarios will also give you an idea on what exactly you might encounter along with the final product.

I am going to take you on the latest experience with the roof we replaced two weeks ago. However, I’m going to first contrast it with what would have been if we were not hands on people.

Scenario #1: Take a day at the spa.

The roofing crew surprises you by pulling up in your yard like the first day of Yard Crashers at 7:30 AM. You immediately panic and worry if a tree just landed on your neighbor’s house because you know one did not come crashing down through yours. At least someone volunteers they are the roofing crew a day early. They start tearing off the old materials off the roof decking.

You leave.

You come back about 5. They are wrapping up and ask for the check.

You pay them and shake hands.

They leave.

Scenario #2: Dealing with the noise.

OMG it is so noisy?!? That’s what earplugs are for.

A project manager from the office stops by. He may or may not talk to you if you are not outside.

The crew stops once they do the basic tear-off they normally do on every other house. It’s only about 10 am. The new roofing materials are not delivered by Home Depot/Lowe’s/Menard’s/McCoy’s yet. They sit and wait with a lunch break in there somewhere.

At 2 PM the materials arrive and the crew jumps into action. The new drip edge, tar paper, shingles and whirlybirds are slapped on and they finish by the end of the day.

You pay them and shake hands.

They leave.

Scenario #3: YOU are up there working with them.

The roofing crew surprises us by pulling up in the yard like the first day of Yard Crashers at 7:30 AM. We immediately panic and worry if a tree just landed on our neighbor’s house because we know one did not come crashing down through ours. At least someone volunteers they are the roofing crew a day early. They start tearing off the old materials off the roof decking.

A project manager (not ours) from the office stops by. I meet him where I am standing in the front yard with my two year old on my hip. First, I ask where are the new materials. I follow up that question by inquiring what plan is in place if it starts to rain since the sky looks like it could break out into rain any minute.

Unfortunately, my husband is on a run to Home Depot to grab a new Velux skylight kit since the roofing company did not respond to our calls last month to verify the size and type of the old broken skylight. Otherwise he would already be on the roof. It was understood we would pay for the skylight out of pocket once they told us what to buy, but they were to install it. We attempted to call, but they did not return our calls the previous month so we incorrectly assumed it would be similar to what is installed on our primary residence.

Lesson to you: if you agreed to this situation during the bidding process, have the size and kind of skylight measured DURING the estimate visit. That way you don’t have to worry about a follow up before the actual tear off. You just order the skylight right away and have it on hand well before they show up. This way it doesn’t matter when they show up, even if it is a day or even a week early.

Old broken skylight. The caulk repair job was not done by yours truly or my husband.

The project manager leaves without going up on the roof.* My husband returns and goes up to inspect the now exposed decking, facia and shingle mould. I would be up there too except I’m in charge of our two year old. My husband and the crew foreman identify cracked, dry rot, and water damaged areas of the decking, shingle mould and, unfortunately, trusses below.

We find out the skylight is not a curb mount which is the only kind that you can buy off the shelf. This “small” oversight and lack of response from the roofing company from our calls previously mentioned turned out to be a HUGE problem.

Because they were unresponsive beforehand we could not purchase the skylight ahead of time. Since it was not available off the shelf (as my previous home’s skylight was) we had to scramble to come up with a temporary fix. My husband and I agreed temporary decking was the best of the bad answers. At this point we assumed he would have to come back later to saw through the seamless roof, repair the drywall, install the deck mount skylight, and probably buy more shingles since the project manager did not follow up as he said he would with spare shingles. It was disappointing to discover we would have to finish the roof on our own despite paying full price.

HAPPY ENDING HERE: Upon later discussions the company agreed to not only install the skylight we later bought, but also reframe and drywall the old skylight hole. This has made for a much happier and stress free maternity leave since the work needed to be complete within a year as this was part of an insurance claim.

Installing support scabs to go under the faux decking.

Faux decking waiting for a new skylight.

Temporary decking waiting for a new skylight.

You can imagine: the tenants are thrilled. I actually do think it is an improvement over the finger paint caulk job.

As you can see in the diagram below from the Velux website the shingles have to go over the flashing. So as you can see, it is definitely part of the reroof.

The crew removed the bad wood after my husband made further structural inspections but still stopped once they finished the basic tear-off they normally do on every other house. It’s only about 10 am. The new roofing materials are not delivered by Home Depot/Lowe’s/Menard’s/McCoy’s yet. They sit and wait with a lunch break in there somewhere.

My husband, crew foreman, another member of the crew, and eventually our originally expected project manager stops by and brainstorm ideas to fix the bad trusses.* At least the crew, while initially reluctant, did not insist on a carpenter to repair the trusses and patchwork for the bad decking and shingle mould.

However, the project manager also balked at replacing the shingle mould (a small strip of wood outside of the fascia board). He said the shingle mould is outside of their scope of work.* Hmmm…the metal drip edge plays the role of protecting the fascia board from rain. The shingle mould is more of an aesthetic than anything, but it is attached on the fascia board. The drip edge is properly attached under the tar paper/ice and water barrier on the eave edges as well as underneath the shingles. This happens to be right on the shingle mould (pictured below). I can see the argument if the shingle moulding is not already on the roof, but it is–around the entire house! It seems shingle mould is part of the roof…

Second, how can you install the drip edge properly if it is not done now before the shingles are installed? You can’t.

I finally get a first look at the roof once our daughter voluntarily went down for a nap in the car (as opposed to the house where hammering and nailing will surely ensue as soon as materials show up). My husband is all over the necessary repairs. So, I picked up a pry bar and started pulling nails and staples the crew was going to be more than happy leaving behind sticking out up off the decking.***

To be clear, I was not digging out nails and staples firmly embedded in the decking. I’m talking about removing the obvious ones that were sticking up and easy to catch with a prybar. These nails and staples were sticking up 1/8″ to 3/16″.

The scene when I arrived to start pulling nails and staples left behind by the roofing crew.

Do you know what happens when a lady (much less five months pregnant) gets up on a roof and starts working? It is pure motivation for the crew. Two other guys on the crew picked up their hammers and started pulling nails. Do I think we got to all of them? There is no way in hell. No one touched the front side of the house. I needed another day.

Not only did a few find motivation to help with the extraordinary effort (both from a lady wielding a hammer on the roof and the fact that they were pulling out nails and staples they would not pull out of 99.9% of other homes), but you KNOW every one of the members of the roofing crew knew these homeowners are different. And maybe they understood while we want quality which in direct competition with their speed to move to the next job, just maybe we also appreciate their work.

I triage’d the most important parts of the roof since there was no way I would get to it all. Areas most likely to have problems later include the skylight, a roof mounted A/C unit and/or evaporative (swamp) cooler, along gutters, near the valleys, and the top ridge line. By tackling these areas myself I know if someone steps on these areas later they are not going to step on an old nail, rip through the ice and water barrier, tear a shingle and start a leak.

At 2 PM the materials arrive and the rest of the crew jumps into action. The holes where bad decking was removed were patched. Bad shingle mould was replaced. The truss fix continued on with a table saw provided by my step father-in-law and our circular saw. The drip edge was installed on the now 100% good shingle mould. Rather than tar paper we explicitly called out ice and water barrier across the entire roof.

For some reason this is when three of the project managers showed up to chuckle at the ridiculous amount of ice and water barrier going up. It is impressive!!! However, this whole thing started because the low pitched roof had problems with rain coming down sideways pushing up through the shingles. For only an extra $300 and some laughter my husband and I now have peace of mind. And so can the next homeowners.

I stayed on the roof pulling nails for about two hours until naptime was over. My husband continued on the rest of the afternoon assisting with the fix to the rotten trusses and decking. Afterwards he continued pulling nails and staples until the crew asked him to move to put on the ice and water barrier, sealing up the last part of the roof before it might rain overnight.

The entire front and part of the back roof had shingles by the end of the day. The other wing of the house was covered in ice and water barrier.

The crew came back the next morning to finish the job. One of the members of the crew started installing the whirlybirds. From the ground I could see the top of the whirlybird, which you might guess, should be pointed at the sky. I motioned for my husband to go over to level the base. Apparently the guy was a newer member of the crew and had not installed too many, if at all.**** So, my husband pulled out the instructions and showed him how to level the bases.

The project manager said they had installed thousands of these and leveling is not necessary.**** My husband ended up installing them all himself. The same way he did on my first roof with another roofing crew.

During tear off staples and nails go everywhere and roll off the roof. The last thing the crew did before they left was run a magnet across the yard around the entire house. There is a device that is basically a big magnet on wheels. It picks up any of the wayward metallic fasteners, preventing injuries well after the crew is gone.

A special thank you to the roofing crew

I will give some props to the roofing crew itself. The last time I reroofed my house the crew pulled the diva card and said they needed a carpenter to fix the pieces of bad decking. This crew made it happen!

They were also stuck between what the salesperson wanted (not to do the fascia and shingle mould) and what we and the insurance provider wanted and were willing to pay (a safe, solid surface to cover the house). They backed us and we backed them.

The delay in materials were a blessing to us (not the crew) since we were able to complete more work during the downtime. We know we were a pain. We slowed them down despite the delay because we wanted the work done right. They were still patient.

The differences between the first two scenarios and the third.

Get involved! No one cares about your home as much as you. The roofing crew gets paid by the square (100 sq ft) so speed is encouraged. Quite often homeowners just want their piece and quiet back as fast as possible so speed is encouraged. If you don’t know what’s going on up there the crew is more likely to keep up the battle rhythm tempo and cover over the rotten pieces of decking, trusses and shingle mould. Some crews may not, but some will.

Unless you are EXTREMELY lucky, if you are up on your roof checking it out with the roofers you WILL find some problems with the surface. Plan on having a little extra cash cushion WHEN (not if) you find problems–it is much easier and therefore cheaper to fix while the roof is open. If you are actively involved and you don’t find any problems, consider yourself lucky. Go buy a lottery ticket. Seriously.

For full disclosure, our new roof was part of an insurance claim from the storms that rolled through in the spring. Tornadoes were in the area and the low slop of the roof along with sideways wind forced water up under the shingles. In addition, we were thoroughly stumped as to why nails popped up in a few places from the decking up through the tar paper and shingles. Apparently this is a real phenomenon from fluctuations of the temperature and not enough ventilation. A nail can slowly work it’s way out!

Recall, upgrades are not covered by insurance. However, we wanted to make sure we prevent a repeat of the situation even if it is out of pocket:

Installing ice and water barrier across the entire roof instead of tar paper would address water coming up under shingles. The difference in materials is like a forgiving elastic waistband versus the button popping off your pants after Thanksgiving dinner. Surprisingly, covering the entire roof with ice and water barrier was only an additional $300.
We added an additional whirlybird to beef up the ventilation across the attic. Tack on about another $75 for the whirlybird.
The additional truss and fascia board repair was an additional $550 (covered by a supplemental extension of the claim). Even if it were not covered it is well worth the additional cost.

To me, the additional ~$1000 is a “similar” cost to the first scenario where the problems are covered back up. Of course, as you find issues, the price only goes up, but the point and pay cost of a roof is well into the four figures if not five. For this roof on a 1,200 sq ft house, $1000 is only about a 10% difference.

If the truss problem was covered up and fails in a few more years I have no idea how much the fix would cost. $550 would probably be a pipe dream. The same goes for nails popping up through the shingles again. Despite the short term unexpected costs in the long run it can be MUCH cheaper. A small payment now is much less than an entire roof later!

However, the quality is vastly different. The full roof coverage of ice and water barrier ensures a sideways driving rain does not pull up singles and allow water below the surface of a low slope roof. Pulling out the nails and staples prevents walking from punching holes all the way to the outer surface. Non existent nails have a guaranteed zero chance of working their way out of the decking from temperature changes.

There is also no rotten decking waiting for a foot to punch through into the attic. ANY rotted material on a roof should be replaced because that material is

the structural nailing substrate
already compromised and likely to leak despite having a new covering

As for the rotten trusses and fascia board, it was claimed that insurance companies “do not normally cover this kind of work”. Incorrect. If the insurance company is called and notified as soon as possible of the additional damage, they MAY cover. There may be some push back about “maintenance”, but the claims department will admit that there is a greater liability and cost of not addressing the problem immediately. They do not want to pay for a roof AGAIN because a failure point was left in place! Case in point: our additional find was covered.

Stress is another factor. The first roof job scenario has virtually no stress by the time you sign off on the roof just after completion. However, the first time another contractor goes up to service your A/C or you go on top to clean out your gutters, step on a popped up nail hidden under the tar paper, and the next rainstorm pours down water into your living room–your stress skyrockets!

In the third roof scenario the stress is during the actual installation of the roof. Slowing down the crew to care and arguing with the project manager what needs fixing is incredibly stressful. Afterwards, you have peace of mind, but it takes a huge amount of effort, sweet talking, and sweat equity with the crew.

One of the most important differences is in the end the main difference the third scenario has a much higher quality roof that lasts for years. Because of the quality the roof will have a longer lifespan and solid warranty. The next time it rains you can laugh and enjoy the sound.

My new idea in the future for what to expect the day of your roof replacement: DIY Scenario #4

All of that being said, I don’t want to deal with scenario #3 again. Forget about wanting to hire another roofing contractor. I also know myself well enough to know I will never be the homeowner in scenario #1 or #2. Next time I want to do it myself. Yes, it will be slower, but it will be so much better and stress free than hiring any roofing company.*****

Want more roofing goodness?

Lessons Learned from a Replacement Roof Install

What You Need to Know BEFORE You Replace Your Roof

*Perhaps we had a bad day/previous month for the project manager. The amount of push back, reluctance to do repair work despite payment from us and the insurance company, and lack of knowledge was incredibly and unnecessarily stressful.

**I will now include that line of questioning if I interview another round of contractors for a different roof. Or better yet, forget another follow up call and drive by–ask for the size and type (curb or deck mount) as part of the interview.

***Unfortunately, if my husband and I work with you we truly apologize. We go against your fast-paced money making tendencies. We do advertise this ahead of time during the interview process.

****This is one point against the crew. Show your team members how to do their job. I understand everyone has a job to do and they were all doing something else. Don’t allow your teammate to do something they do not know. Or speak up if you don’t know how to do something. It is pretty bad when the homeowner ends up doing the instructing.

*****No, I’m not in the roofing business, but I might be with the right offer and if the location and weather is nice. Am I really saying that after the last post? 😉