How Old is My Roof? It’s very important to know the age of your roof as it helps you with preventive maintenance, sets expectations for how many years you can expect before needing a replacement and can even help you negotiate the purchase price of a home. 
Ask Questions Before You Buy The best time to find out the age of your roof is before it’s your roof. That is, when you’re shopping for homes and when you get serious about putting in an offer, you have every right to ask the owners when the roof was installed. Often, this will be disclosed to you without having to ask, but if it’s not, make sure you get a definitive answer. Sometimes, the current owners won’t know, which makes things difficult. Maybe they’ve lived in the home for five years but never replaced the roof. That’s good information, but all it does is tell you the roof is at least five years old. If this is the case, you’ll need to do more research. If you find out the roof on the home you’re considering purchasing is particularly old, it can often help you negotiate a lower purchase price on the home. In that case, yes, you’ll need to expect to replace your roof sooner or later, but you could knock off thousands of dollars from the purchase price, which over the course of a 30-year loan turns into a huge savings. 
Ask Questions After You Buy If you forgot to ask before you purchased your home, it’s not too late. If you used a REALTOR, they’ll usually be willing to contact the sellers’ REALTOR for you and try to get the information. Often, it’s as simple as one phone call or email. How Can I Find Out How Old a Roof Is? When you’re not sure or only have partial information, don’t worry—there are still a couple ways to find out how old your roof is. If you live in a location that requires roofers to get permits before installing a roof, you can check with the county and find out when a permit was filed on your property. If that option isn’t available or you’d rather not deal with it, you can get a licensed inspector or roofing company to take a look. At West Michigan Roofing, we’re happy to help you determine the age of your roof and our experienced professionals can confidently give you a reliable estimate as to how old the roof is. Plus, when you go this route, you get the added benefit of an experienced roofer being able to spot signs of trouble (or, even better, no signs of trouble) and give you a good idea of what you might need to do and when. How Can I Tell How Old My Roof Is? There are pretty obvious signs of aging roofs you can see from the ground. Missing shingles, curled shingles and missing granules are all signs that your roof needs a qualified inspection. If you see any of those signs (pay particular attention to the valleys on your roof, as those are sometimes easy to overlook), contact a licensed roofer as soon as you can for an inspection. When you take care of the signs of problems before they become problems, you save money and have more peace of mind knowing you have a quality, reliable roof over your head.
Ask Questions Before You Buy The best time to find out the age of your roof is before it’s your roof. That is, when you’re shopping for homes and when you get serious about putting in an offer, you have every right to ask the owners when the roof was installed. Often, this will be disclosed to you without having to ask, but if it’s not, make sure you get a definitive answer. Sometimes, the current owners won’t know, which makes things difficult. Maybe they’ve lived in the home for five years but never replaced the roof. That’s good information, but all it does is tell you the roof is at least five years old. If this is the case, you’ll need to do more research. If you find out the roof on the home you’re considering purchasing is particularly old, it can often help you negotiate a lower purchase price on the home. In that case, yes, you’ll need to expect to replace your roof sooner or later, but you could knock off thousands of dollars from the purchase price, which over the course of a 30-year loan turns into a huge savings. Ask Questions After You Buy If you forgot to ask before you purchased your home, it’s not too late. If you used a REALTOR, they’ll usually be willing to contact the sellers’ REALTOR for you and try to get the information. Often, it’s as simple as one phone call or email. How Can I Find Out How Old a Roof Is? When you’re not sure or only have partial information, don’t worry—there are still a couple ways to find out how old your roof is. If you live in a location that requires roofers to get permits before installing a roof, you can check with the county and find out when a permit was filed on your property. If that option isn’t available or you’d rather not deal with it, you can get a licensed inspector or roofing company to take a look. At West Michigan Roofing, we’re happy to help you determine the age of your roof and our experienced professionals can confidently give you a reliable estimate as to how old the roof is. Plus, when you go this route, you get the added benefit of an experienced roofer being able to spot signs of trouble (or, even better, no signs of trouble) and give you a good idea of what you might need to do and when. How Can I Tell How Old My Roof Is? There are pretty obvious signs of aging roofs you can see from the ground. Missing shingles, curled shingles and missing granules are all signs that your roof needs a qualified inspection. If you see any of those signs (pay particular attention to the valleys on your roof, as those are sometimes easy to overlook), contact a licensed roofer as soon as you can for an inspection. When you take care of the signs of problems before they become problems, you save money and have more peace of mind knowing you have a quality, reliable roof over your head.
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