Residential roof restoration: the worn parts of a shingle roof renewed in one visit
A shingle roof rarely wears out all at once. The rubber pipe boots, the sealant at the walls and the seal under a few wind-lifted tabs give out years before the shingles do. We find every one of those parts on one visit and renew them together, so a roof with sound shingles stops leaking one spot at a time.
Where your roof's age puts it
Ages are for architectural asphalt in the north suburbs, taken from our roof repair page and our roof age guides. The red zone is when a restoration pays best.
Fix what fails, when it fails
Usually one boot or a few tabs lifted by a storm. A single repair visit is enough.
The restoration window
Pipe boots split somewhere in these years while the shingles still bend.
Inspect before you spend
Still worth restoring if the shingles pass the checks below. Many insurers start treating the roof as aging here.
Plan the new roof
Architectural asphalt here runs about 20 to 25 years, and repair money is never taken off a later replacement.
Can your roof be restored? Four checks on the roof decide it
We do these on the roof and in the attic before we write a single price. A navy line is a pass, a red line is a fail.
The bend test
A tab lifted in a hidden spot bends and lies back down.
It snaps. Then every repair cracks the shingles around it.
The granules
Some grit in the gutters, color still even across the slope.
Bald patches where the black mat shows through.
How far it has spread
Problems sit at a few details: a wall, the vents, one corner.
Leaks and lifted shingles on three or more slopes at once.
The deck
Firm underfoot and dry from the attic side.
Soft or swollen sheets. They're replaced first, at $75 to $120 a sheet.
Pass all four and you get a restoration scope. Miss one and we price a new roof next to it, so you compare two written numbers instead of guessing.
What a restoration renews, part by part
Each of these jobs also has its own page. A restoration does the ones your roof needs on the same day, with one ladder setup and one crew.
Pipe boots
The rubber collar hardens in the sun and splits, usually between year ten and year fifteen.
A new boot goes under the course above and is nailed into sound deck. Details on our roof vent leak repair page.
Wall flashing
Sealant smeared over old step flashing, which cracks again in a winter or two.
The flashing comes out and is relapped with each shingle course, as on our roof-to-wall flashing jobs.
Chimney flashing
The same caulk problem, plus counter-flashing pulling out of the mortar.
Reflashed around the chimney, or sent to a chimney flashing repair if the crown or brick is the cause.
Wind-lifted tabs
A broken seal strip. The tab looks fine from the driveway until the next gust takes it.
Lifted tabs are hand-sealed and creased ones replaced, the same work as a wind damage repair.
Box vents and caps
Hail dents the hood and the top flange lifts, so water gets in at the upper edge.
Replaced and seated under the course above, never caulked on top of the shingles.
Cracked or missing shingles
Single shingles broken by branches, foot traffic or old storms.
Replaced, with matching shingles taken from a hidden slope when the roof has one.
Attic airflow
Blocked soffit intake, which shows as ice dams in the same spot every winter.
Checked from the attic. If airflow is the cause, it's fixed as part of attic ventilation work.
A sample restoration on a 14-year-old roof, priced from our list
Three boots split, one side wall leaking at the flashing, and a section of tabs lifted on the windward slope. Every line uses our published repair prices. The last line is a full replacement, drawn on the same scale.
Where the money goes: into the parts that let water in
Some products sold as roof restoration are sprays or coatings rolled over the whole field. Our article on coatings for shingles covers the warranty questions shingle makers raise about them.
Our restoration spends the budget on metal, rubber and shingles: the boots, flashing and tabs you see in the photos afterwards. On most roofs that's where the leaks start, because freeze and thaw work on the joints long before the field wears out.
New shingles set into an older field won't match exactly. Granule color fades with sun, so a patch shows a little brighter for a few seasons. We hold the replacement shingle against your roof before it goes on.
What you get in writing after the visit
You can't see your own roof, so every part we touch is photographed before and after.
- A dated list of each part renewed, with the photos next to it.
- The age and condition of the shingles, including the bend test result.
- Anything we saw but didn't touch, so it isn't news next year.
- Our read on how long the shingles have left, and when to start pricing a new roof.
Homeowners keep this file for the insurer at renewal time and for a buyer's inspector. What either of them decides is up to them.
When the visit turns up storm damage
A restoration visit is a close look at every slope, and sometimes it finds hail bruises or creased shingles from a storm you remember. Wear and age are not covered by a homeowners policy. Damage from a dated storm may be, and then we stop, photograph it and write it down with the date before any repair starts.
What Illinois law lets a roofer do
Under Illinois law a roofer may not negotiate a claim on your behalf. Our part is the evidence: dated photos, measurements and an estimate written to current code. If you want someone dealing with the insurer for you, our partner State Adjusting Services is a licensed Illinois public adjuster and can take that on. The steps are laid out on our storm and insurance page.
Who restores your roof
Our own crews come out from Lincolnshire. We're a family business, licensed in Illinois as a roofer under number 104.018671, and most of our roofs are in Lake and Cook County towns such as Northbrook, Buffalo Grove and Arlington Heights.
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Call during these hours
7 AM to 7 PM on weekdays, 9 AM to 5 PM on Saturday and Sunday.
Questions about restoring a shingle roof
- What is residential roof restoration?
- It means renewing every worn part of a shingle roof on one visit while the shingles themselves still have years left. On most homes that is the pipe boots, the flashing at walls and chimneys, wind-lifted tabs and a few broken shingles, each one replaced rather than caulked.
- How much does a roof restoration cost?
- It depends on how many parts need work. Using our repair prices, three pipe boots, one wall of flashing and a hand-sealed wind section come to about $1,200 to $3,250. A new roof in architectural shingles runs about $9,000 to $18,000.
- Is my roof too old to restore?
- Age alone doesn't decide it. Past about 15 years we check whether the shingles still bend without cracking, whether granules are gone in patches, how far the problems have spread and whether the deck is firm. Fail one and we price a replacement instead.
- Does insurance pay for a roof restoration?
- Not for wear and age, which homeowners policies exclude. If the visit finds damage from a dated hail or wind storm, we document it, and our partner public adjuster State Adjusting Services can represent you on that claim.
Want this looked at?
We inspect for free, document what we find and prepare a code-compliant estimate you can hand to your insurer. Our partner, a licensed public adjuster, State Adjusting Services, can represent you on the claim.
Call (866) 992-2982. Free Inspection