The home inspection report said the roof had “normal wear consistent with age” and estimated “5–7 years of remaining useful life.” The seller’s disclosure listed no known roof issues. Three roofers we called for quotes before closing told us the roof looked like it had life left and we should wait. We bought the house in April.
The first November after we moved in, we had a significant rainstorm. Water came in through three separate places in the ceiling of the master bedroom. Tom got up in the attic with a flashlight and found that the roof decking — the plywood substrate under the shingles — was soft in two large areas, the ridge vent had failed, and there was evidence of multiple years of slow leakage that had been masked by the drop ceiling tile in the master bedroom that we’d already removed.
We replaced the entire roof that January at a cost of $14,200. This is the story of how we handled it and what we learned.
What the Inspection Missed
Home inspectors are not roofers. They walk the roof surface and look for visible deterioration — missing shingles, obvious curling, visible damage. What they generally cannot see from a surface inspection: compromised decking (you need to probe it, which they don’t do), failed flashings (requires closer inspection than a walk-through allows), and evidence of historical leakage in the attic.
Our inspector did go into the attic. He noted “evidence of previous minor moisture intrusion, appears to have dried out.” He wasn’t wrong about what he saw — but he didn’t recognize it as the warning sign that it was. A roofing contractor who spent twenty minutes in that attic would have caught it immediately.
The Lesson: Roof Inspections Require a Roofer
A general home inspector’s assessment of a roof is a starting point, not a conclusion. On any house built before 1990, we now recommend: if the home inspection raises any roof concerns at all, pay a licensed roofing contractor $150–300 to do a dedicated roof evaluation before you close. They can probe the decking, inspect the flashings, evaluate the attic ventilation, and give you a contractor’s assessment of actual remaining life versus what shows from the surface.
Had we done this before closing on the Glenview House, we would have known about the decking condition. That information would have either: resulted in a price reduction covering the replacement cost, given us grounds to require the seller to replace the roof as a condition of sale, or at minimum, let us budget for the replacement in year one instead of having it arrive as a surprise in January.
Managing the Emergency
When water is actively coming in during a storm, your first job is containment, not repair. We used buckets and plastic sheeting to protect the hardwood floors we’d just refinished. Then we called our insurance company — the coverage question for an old roof that’s been leaking slowly is complicated, and we wanted to understand what if anything was claimable before we spent money. (Answer in our case: the resulting water damage to the interior was claimable; the roof replacement itself was not, because it was a “maintenance issue” not a sudden event.)
We got three replacement quotes and chose a mid-tier contractor — not the cheapest (who had no verifiable reviews) and not the most expensive (who was quoting architectural shingles we didn’t need). The winning bid was $14,200 for full tear-off of the existing roof, replacement of all compromised decking (about 400 SF turned out to need replacement), new ice-and-water shield in the valleys and along all eaves, and new 30-year dimensional shingles.
What We Did Right
We did the roof replacement in winter, which got us a faster timeline (roofing contractors are typically slower in cold months) and a slight cost benefit. We also used this project to improve on the original design: the house had no gutters when we bought it, which contributed to the foundation moisture issues we’d been dealing with. We added seamless aluminum gutters and proper downspout extensions as part of the roofing project for an additional $1,800 — far cheaper than it would have been as a standalone project, and preventive for the foundation.
Adjusted Advice for Old-House Buyers
Budget for the roof. If the house is more than 20 years old and has its original roof, budget for replacement in your first 2–3 years of ownership. It may not need it — but the cost of being wrong is significant, and the cost of being prepared is just a line item in your renovation budget. We now tell anyone buying a house that a roof contingency fund is as non-negotiable as an emergency fund.