Putting A New Roof Over An Old One

If a shingle is torn or cracked glue the broken piece back in place using roofing cement.

Putting a new roof over an old one.

The answer is yes you can lay new roof shingles over old ones. With a traditional roof replacement we completely tear off your old roof and install a shiny new one in its place. When a home receives this classification it is illegal to install a new asphalt roof over an existing one. Unfortunately it s not an option for everyone.

You need to tear off the roof and install a new one. You re better off removing the old roof. Current shingles are curling or in bad shape the new shingle roof should lay flat on your old one. Then we ll look a lot more reasons why you might not want to do this.

So if there are already two layers the choice is made for you. Roofing over your existing roof is not always possible. A roof deck is an underlayment that shingles are laid on top of. A properly installed layover roof can look and function as well.

Sounds simple enough right. By adding shingles on top of the old roof there is no opportunity to inspect the roof deck to ensure that the current wood is not wearing out. When you recover your old roof stays and the new roof gets installed on top. If the broken piece is lost cut a new piece to fit the existing shingle.

Now that we ve taken care of the primary question at hand we ll consider a couple of reasons why you might want to do this. But if the current roof is curling this isn t possible.