Roofing Repair or Replacement Atlanta

After a wind or hail storm many home owners are not sure if their roof will require repairs or replacement. The information here will help shed some light on how it is determined which course of action is best for you.

In many cases one can not tell if their roof is damaged by simply looking at it from the ground so its important to have a qualified person inspect your roof. This can be your insurance adjuster or a roofing contractor who is experienced in identifying wind and hail damage to roofing systems.

Depending on the severity of the wind storm it can be pretty easy to tell if your roof has suffered damage. You'll find blown off shingles or tabs on your roof which are easily seen from the ground.

However it is important to note that while you may be missing some tabs here and there it does not nessesarily mean your roof will be ok once those areas are fixed.

The age and condition of your roof will determine how easy or difficult it will be to make repairs. Even if tabs were lifted but did not come off they may never seal again due to dirt and debris collecting on the adhesive strip. This can make your roof suseptible to future wind damage which will cause you additional money to keep repairing.

One important factor that must be taken into consideration is how the surrounding undamaged shingles are going to hold up when they are lifted to insert newer shingles.

The Lift Test

This is called the lift test and it will indicate the repairablitiy factor of your wind damaged roof. To properly replace blown off singles or tabs the shingles above the area must be lifted up and the nails removed.

The lift distance and resulting reaction of the lifted shingle is what we are looking for. In most cases the lift distance required to slide a new shingle into place is 5 to 6 inches.

An experienced inspector will do a lift test and lay the shingle tab back down, then rub the tab near the top to see if the roofing granules fall off from the stress the tab just experienced from being lifted up.

If the granules do not fall off the shingle tab, then the roofing shingles have a good repairability factor and can be easily repaired.

If after rubbing the shingle tab the granules begin to fall off then this is a sign of a high or negative repairability factor. This will cause a domino effect, that will continue to damage shingles during the process of replacing missing shingles or tabs. This condition in most cases means that the whole slope must be replaced.