Can my roof be repaired?

10 years ago

The inspection reports have come back in and the biggest issue is the roof. The buyer's inspector has determined that the roof needs total replacement, to the tune of $25,000 (this is assuming a Cedarlite replacement and plywood sheathing, which I understand is more expensive than a composition roof).

So, my questions to you all are:

1) from the below photos, does it look like the roof needs replaced? The roof is an imitation wood shake tile (Cal Shake) and was the subject of a class action lawsuit. They no longer manufacture the product. Some of the tiles are broken and/or cracked. Replacement of the tiles would be difficult because the product is no longer sold. But the roof does not look particularly unsightly, and there are no leaks. Is removal necessary just because the product has been discontinued and a few tiles are cracked? If the roof leaked, I could understand removal/replacement, but removal seems excessive just over a few broken tiles.

2) what sort of arguments can i pose to the buyer in support of leaving the roof?

3) I have a roofing contractor coming out to give us estimates. Are there other things I should be doing?

Here are some photos of the roof taken during the inspection:

wondering if these tiles could be replaced: (???)

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Comments (7)

kirkhall
10 years ago
I think your best bet is to do what our sellers did when we bought our house (and was satisfactory to us, as buyers).

Bring in a roofing contractor of your own. Have them "certify the roof" for some number of years (3 or 5 or...)

And, present that.

If they won't certify it, then you'll know you have a problem; and you can work toward a solution with the buyers that might include partial replacement; or replacement with a product of your choice, or ...
ncrealestateguy
10 years ago
Why was there a class action lawsuit over the product?
My concern as a buyer would be that there are no replacements to match and why would the tiles be breaking apart in the first place.
Did you get money from the lawsuit?

This post was edited by ncrealestateguy on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 23:23
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nosoccermom
10 years ago
i would get several roofers and see if there are any tiles that can be matched or if tiles can be repaired. If you google it, some people suggest repairing cracked tiles with cement. If that doesn't work, I'd get estimates for (partial) roof replacement. In fact, I'm just going through this and have received estimates with identical materials and work that differ by a factor of 2.5.
Fori
10 years ago
My neighbor had one of those roofs. Yours looks really good (ha!).

This is them on google maps. (It's been replaced.) Basically, that roof is NOT gonna get better. It probably does need to be replaced.
{{!gwi}}
DLM2000-GW
10 years ago
Just curious - was the inspector walking on the tiles? I know nothing about that particular material, but I know there is a risk to walking on any roofing material that has been in place for a long time. Anything exposed to the elements like a roof can get brittle over time and crack under body weight, especially stepping from a ladder to that first step onto a roof.
Pipdog
Original Author
10 years ago
thanks for the input!

kirkhall, that's great to know about a "certified" roof. I am going to talk to our next roofing contractor that is coming over to see if we can get one of those and use it as a negotiating tool.

ncrealestate, my understanding is that the class action alleged that the roof tiles were defective and broke down over time. We've never had any problems and the lawsuit settled well before we even bought the house.

nosoccermom, thanks, we'll be getting another estimate today. it's crazy how much the estimates can vary.

dlm, yes the roof inspector, the chimney inspector and the general inspector (3 people) were walking on the roof during the inspections and I am not very happy about it. I advised my agent that this material is very delicate and suggested that they not walk on it. I spoke to another roofing contractor yesterday who told me the same thing that you did, and that if it is absolutely necessary for someone to walk on the roof, they should have used foam-backed boards which displace the body weight. It's very possible that some of the cracked tiles were caused by all of the people walking on the roof during the inspection.
ncrealestateguy
10 years ago
This sounds like to me to be a material fact that would need to be disclosed to any and all sellers. Your home has a roof that is known to be defective by breaking down faster than normal. Your best bet may be to just replace it.
I am not really sure what you should do here. Let us know what you find out.