When Should You Replace the Toronto Roof on a Rental Property?
Today we’re going to talk about roofs on rental properties. It’s a huge expense that you probably don’t want to have to deal with unless you absolutely have to. I talk about the five key areas where you want to make sure you have rock solid repairs done on the property so you can protect your overall investment and mitigate those repairs. I want to talk about the one area, the roof, and how do you know? Well first of all, unless you are a toronto roof repair expert, you’re not going to know. So that’s why it’s very important for your property management team or your maintenance team to check the life of your roof once or even twice a year.
Preferably when it’s not icy up there, so they can get up on the roof and check it. What are they going to look for? They’re going to look for discoloration in some of the tiles– some of the shingles. What that means is that there might be like a mold colony living underneath there and water is getting through there, and is maybe making it a weird color. There might be mold on the toronto roof because maybe the sun is not hitting it at the right place. That means it could be extra wet and it may need to have some replacement done because water might be getting in. Maybe there are missing shingles. Maybe there was a big thunderstorm, a big windstorm and it blew off some shingles. OK. That may need repairing. There may be some sagging, right? That might mean that some of the sub roof, the actual roof underneath the shingles, is sagging and that needs to be replaced.
They’re also going to get up in the attic and look and see if they can see holes coming through or daylight. I actually had that on my primary residence not too long ago. We were having water dripping into our bathroom because there was a hole right in the roof. So we actually had to have that section of the roof– a new piece of plywood put down, the waterproofing, and then the new shingles put down. So let’s just assume you have a new toronto roof on the property and, under the tax law, you’re able to depreciate the value of that roof under the new tax code. It’s called cost segregation.
That’s typically the life of a toronto roof. So a 30-year– you always hear the term 30-year roof thrown around. So when we put on a new roof on the house, you should expect it to last roughly 30 years. Now, there are things you’re going to look out for, like I mentioned, what a good roofing company will do and get up there and check out. So when should you replace the whole roof? Well, if you need– let’s say the roof is really old, number one. So you know that it’s been put on 25 years ago.
That’s probably a good rule of thumb you’re going to probably need to replace the whole toronto roof. They’re going to look and see if there’s sagging and problems all around the roof. So missing shingles, sagging, holes. That’s a clear sign you need to replace the whole roof. If it just needs toronto roof repairs, then you may be able to get away with certain sections. And when do you know if you need to just repair the roof? Well, if the roof’s not old. Maybe it was only five years old, or 10 years old. And chances are it’s still got another 20 years of life in it. No need to waste your money on a whole new roof. So there may just need to be put a few shingles, and those are very inexpensive for your roofer to get up there and put a few shingles down. Maybe they need to patch a particular area because it gets more sun exposure. So some of those factors. There may be water getting through a certain area and they need to replace what’s underneath the shingles, the weatherproofing, and then put down new shingles.
So be careful before you splurge and want to buy a whole new roof. Now let me talk to you about overlays versus digging up and actually ripping off the old layer. Most states will allow you to put up to three layers of shingles. So you’ll see this on a lot of older houses. You’ll see one layer that was there in the 1940s, and then maybe in the 1960s they put another layer, and maybe in the 90s they put a third layer.
In that situation, you’re probably going to scrape all of that off, rip off the old plywood, and put down all new wood, and put down new shingles. Now that could be the most costly roof replacement that you could think of. If, however, there’s one layer of shingles and the sub roof is fine– they go up in the attic and they noticed that the plywood is fine, there’s no gaping holes coming through, then we can do what’s called a roof overlay. So we can add a whole layer over top of that existing layer, and in 30 years we could do that again. So check with, obviously, your building code enforcement, and check with your roofing companies. They’ll be able to tell you how many layers your state lets you get away with.
Well that’s really honestly how you know whether or not you need to replace your roof. Check with a professional or your property management team probably has somebody on staff that will check that, especially after thunderstorms or during the spring and the fall– to get up there and check the vitality and the health and wellness of your roof. Again, click on the videos in the description below because we have a whole series on what types of repairs you should do a rental property to really make it rock solid and to protect it against having to do major toronto roof repairs and costly things like that.
