Some homeowners who are handy around the house are tempted to try DIY roofing repairs. Maybe the work looks simple, or you’re trying to save some money by putting your home-improvement know-how to the test.
Be Warned: This Is Not For Hobbyists. It’s Only For The Professionals.
Compared to most house projects, roofs are exponentially more complex, and working on your roof by yourself can be very dangerous, not to mention costly. This is absolutely a job for an experienced, licensed, and insured professional.
Without further ado, we present five reasons why DIY roof-repair is a recipe for disaster.
1. You’re Risking Your Safety
Just because you have a ladder, a hardhat, and tools, you should think more than twice about climbing your roof. Actually, don’t think about it at all because you can easily take a fall.
Roofers wear personal fall arrest systems, among other pieces of safety equipment, so that if they fall (which they often do), they are caught before hitting the ground. Factor in wet, snowy, or icy conditions, and the risk of taking a spill increases. Even if your home is one-story, you can become seriously injured or even die.
2. You May Damage Your Home
If you escape injury or death that doesn’t mean your home will be unscathed. Screwing up a portion of, say, your kitchen backsplash tiling while installing it yourself, isn’t a big deal. But if you make a mistake up on your roof, the damage you cause can cost thousands of dollars.
Too much can go wrong, like cutting a structural member in the roof, damaging shingles, chimney, or the flashing, which can create leaks, and you’ll find yourself in a deep financial hole.
3. Repairs are Complex
Stopping a leak is simple, right? Just plug it up. A baseball hits your roof? Just replace a few shingles, right?
Wrong and wrong.
Rare is the roof repair that is resolved with a new shingle or a layer of roofing cement. Without training, odds are you can’t properly fix a leak. Roofing products are layered in a very particular way, and if you deviate from that, you’ll create more leaks.
A ball that hits your roof can have a wider-than-expected damage area, requiring you to replace a five-foot by five-foot section rather than some broken shingles.
4. Insurance Denials
As we’ve previously written, you can’t always count on insurance coverage when you incur roof damage that’s not your fault. When you’re the cause, forget about it.
If you perform your own roofing work, you could be violating your policy. This means that if you make a claim about a leak or another roofing issue, you’ll likely be denied coverage and have to pay the entire cost out-of-pocket.
Your carrier may also inspect your roof and force you to have a professional fix your DIY “repairs” before they will renew the policy. They may also decide to raise your premiums based on poor roofing work.
5. High Cost
When you attempt to fix your roof yourself, you have to purchase everything from heavy duty equipment down to the very last shingle and nail. When you hire a professional contractor, you are only charged for the labor and minimal supplies in most cases.
They say time is money. Well time + supplies + repairing your repairs = a lot more money.
We could go on and on and list hundreds of more reasons why trying to repair your roof on your own is a terrible idea. Kudos to you for wanting to take on such a challenge, but it would be all risk and no reward.
The Len Roofing & Remodeling Difference
When we say that we’re a top-quality home remodeling and roofing company that serves the North Shore and surrounding Chicagoland area, we back it up. We do more than simply cover the basics: we show up on time and nail it. For more information or to schedule a consultation, call 847-768-6000 or visit our contact page.
