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East Meadow Roofing: Article About Roof Removal

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As a homeowner, you know just how important your roof is. However, if you've just purchased an older home or had severe damage occur to your roof, you may need to have a brand new roof installed by your trusted East Meadow Roofing contractor. Before a new roof can be installed, the remains of the old or damaged roof must be removed. If you are relatively handy, you may be able to do this portion of the job yourself or rely on your contractor to take care of this for you.

Are you wondering why you should remove old roofing? According to many building codes, if you have a shingle roof, you can put a second layer of shingles over the first. However, if your first level of shingles have any damage or wear to them, this will affect your outer layer and significantly reduce your roof's lifespan. Further, removing the old materials will allow you or a contractor to inspect all of the roof framing, structure and flashing to ensure that no underlying problems persist.

While removing shingles can be a hard, time-consuming job, you can speed up the process by investing in a few specialty tools. For example, a tear-off shovel can give you a huge hand when you need to remove shingles. These shovels have fulcrums attached to the bottom in order to give you leverage against those hard-to-remove shingle nails. If you don't plan on doing much work once your new roof is complete, you can always rent them over buying them.

Have a question regarding gutters and leaders or skylights? Please ask a roofing professional from Long Island Roofing of East Meadow.

Further, if you plan to do this job yourself, you will need a trash container to hold all of the old roofing materials. Finally, you'll also want to purchase builder's felt to protect the exposed portion of your home during the work.

The actual removal of the shingles is all about grunt-work. Starting at either the top or sides of your roof, you can remove the shingles at will. Using the tear-off shovels should help speed up production and save your back.

Once the shingles have been removed, you'll want to use a push broom to ensure that all debris is completely removed from the roof surface. Any fasteners or nails that are sticking up should be removed or marked so they do not become a tripping hazard. Finally, you'll need to replace the builder's felt over the remaining roof surface to protect your exposed substructure against the elements. You should completely cover the ventilation but mark out their locations with bright tape.

Once all of the old roofing material has been stripped away, the next step is to add the new roofing material. Depending upon the size of your home and the roofing materials that will be put on your new roof, the project could be completed within two to three days.

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For a free estimate for your roofing needs, call (516) 221-9100 or contact us via the form below. We offer emergency 24 hour service.

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