How Do You Prepare for a Roof Replacement?

Most of it comes down to three things: clear the driveway, take down anything a vibration could break, and mow the lawn short. Arrowhead Roofing has been sending clients a Homeowner’s Checklist before jobs in northeast Oklahoma since long before this page existed, and the fifteen items on it are all there because something once went wrong without them. This is that list, with the reason attached to each one.

Note: this is a general guide to preparing for a roof replacement. Every house and every job is different, and your own contractor should tell you what they need from you. Ask for their checklist if they have one.

The items that matter most, and what happens if they are skipped.

The Short Answer

A roof replacement is a demolition followed by a construction, compressed into a day, happening directly above your ceilings.

Almost everything on the checklist follows from that one sentence. Debris has to go somewhere, so the driveway is needed. Impact travels through the structure, so things on walls come down. Nails end up in the yard, so the grass gets cut. None of it is fussy and all of it is cheaper to do than to undo.

The Driveway Is the One That Matters Most

It is first on our list and it causes more friction than everything else combined.

The dump trailer occupies the driveway for most of the day, and material delivery goes to it. If a car is parked in front of it, the crew is carrying debris further and the day gets longer. If a car is in the garage and you need it at lunchtime, it may not be coming out.

So the ask is simple: clear the driveway the night before, and move anything you will need out of the garage before the crew arrives.

Inside the House

Two things, and people underestimate both.

Vibration. Hammering above a ceiling travels through the whole structure. Pictures, mirrors, shelves, anything on a mantel, anything on top of a wardrobe: down for the day. This is not a theoretical risk and it is the single most common avoidable annoyance on a job.

The attic. Decades of dust sits on the top side of a ceiling and a tear-off shakes it loose. On a re-deck it is worse. Anything stored up there is worth covering with plastic or moving out, and anything breakable should come down before the day.

One thing to expect rather than prevent: a new roof over old decking can show slight high and low spots you never noticed before. That is usually existing variation in the deck becoming visible under a flatter new surface.

Outside the House

Four items, and two of them are about what happens after the crew leaves.

Tell us which plants matter. We protect plants, shrubs and yard items as a matter of course, but we cannot know which ones you have spent five years growing. Point them out and they get extra care.

Trim overhanging limbs. Large trees growing over a roof get in the way of a safe, quick installation, and trimming them beforehand is easier than working around them.

Mow short, and keep checking afterwards. We run magnets across the yard to collect stray nails, and short grass lets them work far better than long grass does. Then keep an eye on the driveway for a couple of weeks, because a nail can lodge in a gutter downspout and drop out later.

Wasp and hornet nests. Deal with them before the day if you know about one. A crew discovering it from a ladder is a genuinely bad moment.

The Two Nobody Thinks Of

Both are quick and both cause real problems when they are missed.

Two exterior outlets, and someone reachable. The crew runs tools from your outlets. If a breaker trips, an authorised person at the property has to reset it, and nobody on the crew can do it for you.

Fuel burning appliance vent piping. Checking the piping on water heaters and furnaces for leaks is the homeowner’s responsibility, and it is worth doing before roof work rather than after.

What Changes the Answer

Three things make the preparation matter more than usual.

Whether the deck is being replaced

A re-deck is dustier, longer and noisier, and the attic instructions stop being optional. If decking is likely, assume it will happen and prepare accordingly.

Whether you have pets or small children

Noise, strangers around the perimeter, gates opening, material coming off a roof. A dog that copes with any one of those may not cope with all of them at once. Taking them elsewhere for the day is the easiest thing on this whole page.

Whether there is an HOA

Colour and material restrictions are much easier to sort out before an order is placed. Check the covenants, not just what the neighbours have.

Related Questions

Do I need to be there while it happens?

Not present, but reachable, and worth being there for the final walkthrough. Should you stay home during a roof replacement? covers the day itself, including the breaker.

Why might they find things once they start?

Because some conditions are invisible until the old roof comes off, decking being the usual one. Why is the insurance estimate lower than the contractor’s estimate? covers what that does to the numbers.

Can they go over the old shingles instead?

Not in Oklahoma on a shingle roof. The state amendment prohibits an additional application of asphalt shingles where one already exists. What building code applies to roofs in Oklahoma? covers that and three other state amendments.

What happens if they find bad decking?

Oklahoma is unusually specific about it: the deck has to give solid holding power for fasteners, and warped, split, cracked or rotten boards are excluded by name. When does roof decking need to be replaced? covers the test and what it does to the estimate.

See Also

The two answers that pair with this one are what the day itself is like, and how to check the company before it gets this far.