Signs You Need a New Roof on the Texas Gulf Coast

Around twenty years for an architectural shingle roof, less if the attic runs hot. Heat is what ages a shingle. Asphalt keeps the granules stuck on and the mat flexible, and every summer bakes a little more of it out. Once it is gone the shingle goes brittle, the granules let go and the corners curl. A sealed up attic in August cooks the shingles from underneath too, which is why ridge vents and clear soffit vents matter here.

Know your roof's age. The seller's disclosure or old insurance paperwork usually has it. Many 2000s homes in Tuscan Lakes, Victory Lakes and Westover Park are crossing twenty right now, and the 1970s ranch homes off FM 518 are often on their second or third roof. Age alone is not a reason to replace a roof that lies flat and holds its granules. Age plus two of the signs below is.

Check the gutters first. Granules are the colored grit on top of the shingle, the only thing between the asphalt and the sun. When they wash off you find them as a black sandy layer in the gutter trough and on the splash blocks. A few after a hard storm is normal. A steady layer after every rain is the roof shedding its armor.

From the ground, bald spots look like dark patches, usually worst on the south and west slopes that take the afternoon sun. Curling shows along the bottom edge of each shingle: the corners cup upward and never lie back down, and wind gets under a cupped edge and tears it. Both mean the asphalt has cooked out of the mat. You cannot put granules back on a shingle. If curling and bald spots cover whole slopes, that is a replacement, and the sooner it is scheduled ahead of hurricane season the better.

Usually not by themselves. The black streaks down a north slope are algae, and they thrive here because the north side stays damp in our humidity. They look bad from the street, but a streaked roof with good granules and flat shingles is a cosmetic problem, not a structural one. Do not let anyone pressure wash it. Pressure strips the granules and takes years off the roof to make it look clean for a month.

Where algae matters is as a tiebreaker. On a roof already past twenty with streaks, moss in the shaded valleys under the live oaks and granules in the gutter, the algae is one more sign the surface has been wet too long. On a younger roof, leave the streaks alone or have a roofer clean them gently, and spend the money on what actually leaks.

One leak is a repair. Water at one bathroom ceiling almost always traces to a single split pipe boot or a bad piece of flashing, and Vance fixes that in a morning. Leaks in two or three rooms on different slopes mean water is getting through the shingle field in several places at once, and the field is done. Patching each one does not stop the next.

The attic check is the most honest test you can do yourself. Go up on a bright afternoon with the lights off. Pinpoints of daylight mean holes, usually at nail pops or torn shingles. Dark stains on the underside of the deck, rusty nail tips and damp insulation mean water has been coming in longer than the ceiling admits. Daylight in one spot near a vent is a repair. Daylight in several places across a slope is a replacement, and an emergency tarp and leak repair only buys time.

A deck that gives under your foot, or a sag you can see from the street, ends the argument. The plywood has rotted under a long term leak, nails will not hold in it, and it cannot be patched from the top or shingled over. Do not walk on it. The fix is a tear off to bare wood, new sheets where the old ones are soft, then new underlayment and shingles.

Plenty of them, if they show up alone on a roof that is otherwise sound. Here is the honest split.

• Repair: one leak traced to a pipe boot, chimney or wall flashing. Wind lifted or creased shingles along a ridge or edge after a storm. A few nail pops. A rusted valley on a roof with good shingles. A single spot of daylight. Algae streaks on a younger roof.
• Replace: granule loss and bald spots across whole slopes. Curling on most of the roof. Leaks in more than one room on different slopes. Daylight in several places. Any soft or sagging deck. Age past twenty with two or more of the above.

Storm damage sits in between. Hail bruising or wind creasing over most of the roof is a replacement, but it may be an insurance replacement, which is a different conversation. Our storm damage roof repair page explains how we document it for your adjuster.