Should You Replace Your Roof When It Leaks?

Occasionally, building owners will see leaks in their roof, know that they should fix them, but either they don’t have the time, money, energy, or desire to get the leaks fixed. After ignoring a leaking roof for so long, these leaks eventually become very serious problems and can no longer be fixed by just patching and repairing the roof. When the roof gets so bad it can’t be repaired, there’s really only one option remaining (well, two, but the second one will be discussed in our next blog post): replace your roof.

As you may have guessed, a complete roof replacement is an extremely expensive undertaking. You have to tear off the existing roof (unless you install foam or a silicone coating), prep a new deck, then install the new system. It’s a very long, drawn out process that could have been avoided by simply taking care of leaks the first time you saw them on your roof.

No one has extra time just lying around that they’d like to kill. Most of our schedules aren’t just packed, but overbooked. If you do have free time, you probably want to spend it with your family, or friends, or on the golf course, not thinking about your roof. Unfortunately, replacing your roof takes a lot of time and most people don’t have that.

Despite the concerns raised above, replacing your roof does have advantages that come with it.

You usually get a warranty that comes with your new roof, which is a huge bonus. If anything goes wrong during that warranty period, you should be covered.

The greatest benefit is simply that you get a brand new roof. Rather than a repaired system or a patched roof, you now have a brand new, mint-condition roof.

While replacing your roof has its advantages, there are also drawbacks, most notably the time and cost associated with replacing your roof. If you want to eliminate one cause for roof replacement, take care of your roof leaks when you detect them, and don’t let them get so bad you have to replace the roof.