Cedar shingles under new 40 yr asphalt shingles (Houston, Dallas: insurance, house)

[GUOD]

I am about to buy an old house in Houston and the house inspector said a composition roof over wooden shingles is not insurable. Is this true?

[Lost_In_Translation]

That doesn't sound good. If they were too lazy to take off the old shingles, what else did they do wrong. Dont do it.

[elnina]

Sounds like a flip house.

[HoustonRonnie]

Somebody was an idiot that decided to put asphalt shingles over shakes. Absolute idiocy.

Ronnie

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by HoustonRonnie

Somebody was an idiot that decided to put asphalt shingles over shakes. Absolute idiocy.

Ronnie

Just for education sake (I know you don't layer roofs) what, besides doubling the weight on your roof does layering like this do?

[Maybe So]

Unless something has changed-- yes, you can get insurance on a house with an overlay roof. Our old house had it before we replaced the entire roof. We did not live with it that way long. The overlay was bad, not energy efficient etc. No structure issues though. We did not pay a premium insurance. It was a non-issue in that regaurd. I am just surprised to hear someone doing that recently. Our overlay roof was old.

[crone]

Years ago, we bought a house in Dallas that had an overlay roof. The insurance was higher because of the roof. We went back to the sellers for the difference in what the insurance would have been without the overlay.

Ten years later, my Houston neighbor sold her house and had to replace the roof before closing. Cost her $30,000.

The trouble is, when a big wind comes, the roof will come off because it is only attached to dry cedar shingles. Have the seller replace the roof. I doubt that overlays are insurable anywhere in Texas, now.

[HoustonRonnie]

Overlay on shakes? Never heard of that in my entire life. Shingles on shingles, yes, shingles on shakes? Noway.

Ronnie

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by HoustonRonnie

Overlay on shakes? Never heard of that in my entire life. Shingles on shingles, yes, shingles on shakes? Noway.

Ronnie

I saw many neighbors do this in my 77079 neighborhood. It was a lot cheaper to not remove the shakes and not put plywood decking up than to just nail the shingles on to the shakes. However, many replaced roofs long before I had to doing it the expensive way. Ive seen it done too many times to count but a number of years ago. I cant speak to insurance or energy efficiency but do not doubt the later. Once I put the plywood deck up I had it sprayed on the back side as a radiant barrier. You cant put the plywood in with the built in radiant barrier on the back side I was told due to the slats and roof support which negated the positive impact of the radiant side.

If I was goign to buy one like that I would get a big deduct or price in a roof replacment sooner rather than later in the purchase price.

[willsonb]

We purchased a house with the same sort of roof, and it was not insurable with our former insurance company. We switched to another insurer who agreed to write the policy only if we replaced the roof within a month (which we were planning to do anyway). I was told that if you owned the house since way back when (before the wood shingles became an insurance fire hazard hot button) the insurance companies would continue to cover you, but not a new owner.