Roofing Guides
Guides that answer the questions around a roofing job rather than its price: whether your roof needs replacing, how long it should last, what homeowners insurance will and will not pay for, and what a shingle warranty really covers. Each guide has a small tool for checking your own roof, and every figure is traced to a public source listed on the methodology page.
Which guide answers your question
Start from the question you actually have. Each guide stands on its own, so there is no need to read them in order.
| Your question | Start with | Tool on that page |
|---|---|---|
| Is my roof failing, or is it only cosmetic? | Signs You Need a New Roof | Warning sign checklist |
| How many years does my roof have left? | How Long Does a Roof Last? | Roof age check |
| Should I repair it or replace it? | How Long Does a Roof Last? | Roof age check |
| A storm damaged my roof. Will insurance pay? | Does Insurance Cover Roof Replacement? | Claim payout estimator |
| My shingles failed early. Does the warranty help? | Roof Warranty Explained | Shingle warranty claim check |
| Which warranty should I ask for on a new roof? | Roof Warranty Explained | Shingle warranty claim check |
If you are starting from scratch
If you are not sure what you are dealing with yet, this order moves from what you can see to what it will cost you:
- Look first. Signs you need a new roof separates the two signs that need a professional now, a leak and a sagging roof line, from the ones that are mostly cosmetic at first, such as dark streaks.
- Check the age. How long does a roof last puts your roof against its material’s published lifespan. A 20-year-old three-tab roof is past its range, while a 20-year-old architectural roof has only just entered it.
- If a storm caused it, read your policy. Does insurance cover roof replacement explains why a worn-out roof is not covered, and why the same storm claim can pay very different amounts under two policies.
- If the roof is young, check the warranty. Roof warranty explained covers who pays when shingles fail early, and how much the manufacturer’s share shrinks with each year of the roof’s age.
Numbers these guides keep coming back to
A handful of published figures decide most roofing questions. Each one is explained, with its source, on the guide listed beside it.
| Figure | What it tells you | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Under 25% damaged, repair under 30% of a new roof, roof under 20 years | HomeGuide’s three-part test: when all three are true, repair can make sense | Roof lifespan |
| 15 to 20 years three-tab, 20 to 30 architectural, 30 to 80+ metal | Typical lifespan by material | Roof lifespan |
| $100 to $400 | What a roof inspection costs, small against a repair or a replacement | Warning signs |
| 1 to 5% of insured value | A typical wind and hail deductible. At 5% on a $300,000 home, the first $15,000 is yours | Roof insurance |
| $14,000 against $4,000 | The NAIC’s example of one $15,000 roof claim paid at replacement cost and at actual cash value | Roof insurance |
| First 10 years | Full coverage, labor included, on a standard GAF or Owens Corning lifetime warranty; after that the payout is prorated | Roof warranty |
When you need a price instead
These guides tell you whether a roof needs work. What that work costs is on the cost guides and calculators, which use the same sources and the same rounding rules.
- Roofing Cost Guides: replacement, shingle, metal, tile, repair and flat roof costs, plus Florida, Texas and California.
- Roof Repair Cost: common repairs, and the point where replacing is the better spend.
- Roof Replacement Cost Calculator: a cost range for your roof size and material.
- Metal Roof Cost Calculator: eight metal types, with the same roof in asphalt for comparison.
- Roof Area Calculator: true roof surface area from your house footprint and pitch.
How these guides are written
Every guide is researched from public sources: insurance regulators, shingle manufacturers’ published warranty terms, building-safety research and published contractor cost surveys. Nobody here installs or inspects roofs, and we do not claim any field experience. Where no citable figure exists, the guide leaves the figure out and says so rather than estimating one.
Each guide lists the sources it used and what each one supplied, and the methodology page sets out every source used across the site. If a number here does not match its source, that is a mistake and we want to hear about it.