The first thing someone sees when they visit your home is your roof. Since it makes a crucial first impression, you don’t want to have it in poor condition. Sure, a new roof is expensive, but it’s a great way to improve your home value.
How an Old Roof Impacts Selling Your Home
Although a new roof is expensive, it’s worthwhile when you think about the negative impact your current roof may have upon the sale of your home. These include fewer offers, a longer sales process, and a reduced offer price due to the decreased home value
Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Roof
There are several things that you should look for. These are things that will serve as red flags to your home inspector, thus negatively impacting both your curb appeal and home value. They include:
- Buckling shingles
- Recent wind or hail damage
- Cracked shingles
- Ice dams (in winter)
- Sagging roof (which could indicate underlying deck rot)
- Leaks
- Lost granules (found in gutters and downspouts)
Replacement Options for Your New Roof
There are many types of roof repair and replacement options available. The one that’s right for your home will depend on your roof’s current condition and your budget. Nevertheless, you’ll want to look at each of these options and see which works for you and also helps you improve your home value.
Shingle replacement
It’s relatively inexpensive to replace shingles that are damaged by wind. You’ll need to determine what type of roof you have first, though.
Asphalt Shingles
These are easy to install, durable, waterproof, and affordable. Luckily, they’re also the most commonly used type of shingle in the U.S. throughout the past 20 years. You’ll find that they’re also relatively easy to install once you choose the right color for your roof.
Slate Shingles
These shingles are made from real stone, which is why they can last 100+ years. However, since they’re both heavy and expensive, you’ll pay 20 times more than what you’d pay for asphalt shingles. Anyone who’s in the market for a new home will be told about the benefits of these shingles and how they’ll add to your home value.
Synthetic or Composite Shingles
Designed to look like slate but comparably priced with asphalt, these shingles will last around 50 years and require minimal maintenance.
Tile or Clay Shingles
These shingles are common on Spanish-style homes. They’ll last 50 – 100 years, but they do cost around triple what you’d pay for asphalt shingles.
Partial re-roofing
When only certain parts of your roof need to be repaired, you may wish to consider doing a partial re-roof. However, you can only do this a couple of times before you get an uneven slope. So, if you’ve done this a few times already, it’s probably time to put a whole new roof on your home. This can be done in one of two ways:
- A tear-off roof replacement requires your old roof to be completely removed before being replaced with a new one.
- A roof over is less expensive than a tear-off because you’re putting a new roof over the top of your old one without removing the old one.
Taking the Plunger: Replacing Your Home’s Roof
There’s a great case to be made for replacing your home’s roof before listing your home for sale. So, if you do decide to replace your roof, you should know that you’ll be in good hands with us at Avatar Roofing in Tampa, FL. Many homeowners have had us put a new roof on their homes before selling and reported seeing a noticeable increase in home value. We look forward to helping you achieve the same results.