From the owner's notebook
Repair or replace: how we call it on an aging roof
The quick answer: if the damage is local and the shingles still have life, repair it. If leaks keep coming back or the shingles themselves are failing, replace it. Repairs start from $450 as of June 2026 and most replacements start from $9,500. Here is how we make the call on your roof.
When is a repair the right call?
When the problem is smaller than the roof. A run of shingles the wind lifted, one piece of failed flashing around the chimney or a puncture from a dropped branch: those are repairs, and we treat them as repairs. If the surrounding shingles still bend without cracking and hold their granules, there is no honest reason to sell you a new roof.
Age is the best shortcut. A roof under 15 years old with local damage is almost always worth repairing. We fix the spot, photograph the rest and tell you how many winters the roof has left.
When has a roof crossed the line?
When the shingles themselves are failing, not just one spot on the roof. The signs we look for: tabs that are curling at the corners, granules collecting in the eavestrough, shingles that crack when you lift them gently and leaks that show up in a different place each winter. A roof at year 22 with its second leak in two winters is telling you something, and patching it is just paying twice.
What does each option cost?
Repairs start from $450 as of June 2026, depending on what we find and how big the fix is. A full asphalt shingle replacement in Peterborough starts from $9,500, and the real number depends on the size and pitch of your roof and the material you pick. The replacement carries our 10-year workmanship warranty in writing.
The expensive mistake is the middle path. Pouring $2,000 of repairs into a roof with three winters left is the costliest option on the table, and it is the one we will talk you out of.
How do we make the call at the inspection?
We get on the roof and run the 21-Point Roof Checkup before we say a word about price. You get photos of what we found either way, and the recommendation comes with the reasoning attached. We say repair when a repair is enough, and roughly a third of the inspections we do end with us telling the homeowner to spend nothing at all this year.
The call gets harder on older rural roofs, where board decking hides under the shingles. That is a big part of our work out in Douro, and it is why we never quote a farmhouse over the phone.
Can a repaired roof still be trusted through winter?
Yes, when the repair was the right call in the first place. A properly done repair on a roof with life left will see out the shingles' natural span, and we stand behind our repair work the same way we stand behind a replacement. What we will not do is stack a third repair on a roof that has already told us twice that it is finished. At that point the honest move is a replacement quote and a straight conversation about timing, because a planned replacement in September always beats an emergency one in January.
Not sure which side of the line your roof is on? The free inspection answers it with photos, not guesses.