Condo Media - March 2013 - 40

COvEr StOry
COLUMN NAME
it is to repair the leak and the water
damage it has caused. “You need to be
proactive,” Tony Chiarelli, president
of the Massachusetts construction
consulting and engineering firm RMX
Northeast, Inc., emphasizes.
Roofing experts generally recommend seasonal inspections (which can
be done by an in-house maintenance
staff) in the fall and in the winter, with
additional spot inspections, as needed,
after any severe weather event. For
older roofs, periodic inspections by a
professional are a good idea.
Five or 10 years at most after a roof
is installed (“You don’t want to wait
15 years,” Chiarelli says), the association should have a professional inspect
it, to establish a benchmark. Based on
the roof’s condition, the professional
can recommend an inspection schedule
going forward. For a roof in top-notch
shape, professional inspections every
three or four years or longer may be
fine, Chiarelli says, but if the roof is
showing signs of wear, you will want to
keep a closer professional eye on it.

Maintenance Common Sense

“Maintenance is really common sense,”
Chiarelli adds, noting, “Your eyes will
tell you” what you need to know. What
should you look for? Mainly the obvious:
• ake sure drains, gutters and downM
spouts are clear.
• ook for areas where water is
L
“ponding.”
• ook for missing shingles and watch
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for “fluttering” on a windy day — “a
ticking time bomb,” Noblin warns.
• heck potential penetration areas
C
(around chimneys and at termination points); make sure the flashing is
intact.
• ook for “anomalies,” Carr advises.
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Nails poking up through the roof indicate careless nailing, at a minimum.
Bowing or bending in the middle of
the roof may suggest more serious
problems. Shingles that are “curling”
or “fish-mouthing” indicate that the
roof is nearing the end of its useful
life, he suggests.
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Condo Media • March 2013

Apart from regular inspections to
identify and address any problems,
most roofs won’t require a lot of
hands-on maintenance. “If the roof was
installed correctly to begin with, and
that’s a big assumption,” Schernecker
points out, “most people believe, with
some validity, that there isn’t much —
aside from periodic inspections — that
you can do to maintain a shingled roof
until you replace it.”
Chiarelli agrees. As long as you keep
drains clear and maintain the flashing, he
says, a single-ply roof can last, if not forever, then certainly well beyond its projected useful life. “The rubber isn’t going
to dry up and blow away,” he notes.

Repair or Replace?

Everything ages, however. And roofs —
even those that are inspected regularly
and maintained conscientiously — will
have to be replaced sometime. How do
you know when that time has come?
You probably want a professional to
help you answer that question, but the
contractor interested in doing the work
is not the professional you should ask.
That would be like asking a teenager,
“Do you need the new iPhone?” You
won’t find many teens who don’t think
they need a new phone, and you won’t
find many roofers who don’t think you
need a new roof.
Sometimes the repair-vs.-replace
decision will be unambiguous. If part
of the roof has collapsed or if water
pours through your 22-year-old roof
and soaks the common areas and half
the residences every time it rains, a roof
replacement is more likely the answer
than not. But if the leak is confined to
one area, then maybe the problem isn’t
the roof at all — poor ventilation or
improper flashing could be the issue.
The age of the roof will be a factor in
the repair-or-replace decision, but not
the only one. In fact, the experts caution against making assumptions based
on age alone. A roof that has been
well-maintained or has not been exposed to severe weather may last many
years beyond its anticipated life span,
while poorly maintained structures, or

those that have suffered through many
years of violent weather, will need drastic measures sooner.
Leaks are also less definitive replacement signals than you might think.
While always problematic, leaks don’t
necessarily indicate that replacement is
required. On the other hand, roofers will tell you, “There are two kinds
of roofs — those that leak and those
that will leak.” Just because a roof
hasn’t begun to leak doesn’t mean it is
problem-free or will continue to be.
The condition of the shingles is one
key indicator of where the roof sits on
the replacement timeline, Chiarelli says.
As the granules embedded in asphalt
shingles erode over time, the shingles
start to separate “like alligator skin” —
an indicator that the roof is nearing the
end of its useful life, Chiarelli says. “Blistering” on the shingles — suggesting
moisture penetration — is another signal
that the board should begin thinking
seriously about replacement, he suggests.
On a single-ply, membrane roof,
Chiarelli says, you may notice areas where
the seams are starting to separate or where
the flashing is starting to lift. “If the roof
is solid underneath,” he says, preventive repairs can extend its life. But if the
membrane is soft, that means moisture has
penetrated the surface. If the deterioration
is isolated, that area can be cut out and
patched, Chiarelli says, but if the moisture
penetration is extensive, replacing the roof
will probably be the more sensible and
more cost-effective solution.
As a general rule, industry executives
agree, the older the roof, the more
chronic and widespread the problems,
the more likely the money the association is spending on repairs would be
better spent on the new roof you’re
going to need eventually anyway. CM
(Next Month: Common sense suggestions for managing roof replacement
projects.)
Nena Groskind is president of eContentplus, providing editorial content for
websites, print and electronic newsletters
and magazines.

Condo Media - March 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - March 2013