roof when to replace

[Gp G.]

Hi,

In my old rental property I am not sure when roof replaced last time. How to know when is time to replace the roof.  can the roofing companies can give honest answer.  I do not want to spend 20k to replace roof if current old roof still has more years of age left. Please advise

[David Krulac]

besides looking for leaks, we look for raised shingles, loose shingles, some shingles on the ground, etc.  We have repaired and not replaced roofs when appropriate.  We sold a house that we had a total roof replacement, within a few year the new owner had a leak of the flashing around the chimney.  They decided to replace the entire 50 year shingles that were only 4 years old and replaced it with a metal roof.  imho, that was very overkill.  We have also had houses with slate roofs that were 120 years old while our neighbor with a similar house was on their 3rd roof replacement.