Full roof replacement

When replacement is the real job

Granules in the gutter, curling tabs, cracked flashing, and a roof that has already been repaired in three valleys are the usual signs. Age alone is a weak reason. A twenty-year architectural shingle on a north slope in Logan can be tired while the same product on a simple hip in Santa Clara still has life — or the reverse, if the desert sun cooked it.

We will say so if the field of the roof is fine and the leak is a pipe boot, a skylight, or a chimney saddle. Replacing a roof to fix one flashing is how people pay for a new roof they did not need.

What the tear-off is for

Shingles, tile, or an old membrane come off down to the deck. We look for delaminated plywood, spaced planks that are fine for cedar and wrong for some shingle nailing patterns, and stains that mean a leak has been working longer than the ceiling spot suggests.

Decking is priced as an allowance unless the underside is already open and obvious. Anyone who quotes a firm plywood number before the tear-off is guessing. The estimate should say how that allowance is billed — by the sheet, with you seeing the bad wood.

• Tear-off and haul-away, including a second layer if one is there
• Deck repairs billed against a visible allowance
• Underlayment and ice-and-water where the climate and the eaves require them
• New flashings at walls, chimneys, and penetrations rather than reused metal
• Ventilation checked against the attic, not assumed from the ridge vent color
• A site left so nails are not the thing you find with a bare foot

Utah details that change the specification

Along the Wasatch Front, ice-and-water membrane belongs at the eaves and in valleys on most occupied houses, and farther up the slope where a north roof holds snow or a valley dumps onto a lower roof. Cache Valley and the higher benches need a wider conversation about ice dams. Washington County’s valley floor usually does not — until the house is up in New Harmony or Enterprise, where winter comes back.

Wind is local. South Weber and Uintah sit at the mouth of Weber Canyon. Bluffdale, Draper, and Lehi take the Point of the Mountain. Eagle Mountain is open to the west. Hurricane is named for a reason. Nailing pattern, starter course, and whether a hip needs a different edge detail all follow from that, not from a statewide package.

Permits are a city matter. Salt Lake City, a metro township, and a small town do not share a counter. We confirm who reviews the job before the tear-off is scheduled.

What a replacement estimate should name

The product family — architectural shingle, standing seam, tile, TPO — the underlayment, the flashing plan, and what is excluded. Solar panels, swamp coolers, and skylights are either in the scope or they are not. Gutters are a separate line unless the edge metal and the gutter are being done together, which is often the right time.

HOA neighborhoods such as Daybreak, Suncrest, Traverse Mountain, and many Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs plats need color approval before the order. We ask which HOA, if any, on the first call.