26 questions, answered properly
Roofing Questions, Answered
Everything homeowners actually ask us — what it costs, how we get paid, how many nails go in a shingle, and what happens to your gutters while we are up there.
Answered in full rather than in a sentence. If something is not here, call and ask — and we will add it.
The one everyone wants to ask first
Nothing upfront. Ever.
No deposit, no payment before materials, nothing to hand over when you sign. 50% when the crew arrives and starts work, 50% on completion. Same for a replacement, a repair, or any other service we do.
Trust runs both ways. You are trusting us with your roof; we are trusting you to pay for it once it is on.
Before you hire
Before You Hire Anyone
Licensing, insurance, permits, money, and the questions worth asking any contractor.
Are you licensed and insured?
Texas does not license roofing contractors. There is no state register to check and no license number to verify — which is why the burden of checking falls on you, and why anyone can print cards and knock on a door after a storm.
What we can prove: general liability insurance and workers' compensation, certificates provided on request. Ask every contractor for both, and ask to see the certificate rather than take a verbal answer. A legitimate roofer will not be the least bit offended — if a contractor is uninsured and someone is hurt on your property, that can become your problem.
You can also check us where we have no control: BBB (A+, accredited 2014, no complaints since 2013) and GAF Master Elite, which roughly 2% of US contractors hold.
How do payments work?
Nothing upfront. No deposit, no payment before materials arrive, nothing to hand over when you sign.
50% when the crew arrives and begins work. 50% on completion. The same on a replacement, a repair, or any other roofing service.
Be wary of any contractor asking for a large deposit before materials are on site — and of anyone asking you to sign over an insurance check directly.
How soon can you start?
Repairs are usually within a few days. Replacements typically a week or two, depending on materials and the schedule. Emergencies are 2 to 4 hours, day or night.
After a major storm all of that stretches, for every contractor in the city. When several thousand roofs fail in one afternoon, we would rather tell you a real date than the one you want to hear.
You get an exact date with your written proposal, not a guess on the phone.
What does it cost?
We publish our prices, which almost nobody in this trade does. Repairs from $195, most single-issue repairs $350–$900. Replacement $8,000–$20,000 on a typical Houston home.
Cost depends on the height of the house, the pitch, how many layers come off, the material chosen, and the actual roof area — which is always more than the floor area, and more on a single-story ranch than on a two-story house of the same size.
Do you offer financing?
Yes, through the Wells Fargo Home Projects credit card, issued by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., and through Service Finance Company, a Truist company. Both are banks, so your application goes to one lender rather than being passed around.
Promotional 0% APR is available to qualified applicants, subject to credit approval. Compare the options
Do you handle my insurance claim?
No, and it would be improper for us to. Filing, negotiating and settling a claim is the work of a licensed public adjuster. In Texas a roofing contractor cannot do it, and anyone offering to is offering something they are not licensed for.
What we do: inspect, document the damage slope by slope, produce an itemised scope, and meet your adjuster on the roof so both parties are looking at the same evidence. That documentation is what a fair claim is built on. How Texas claims work
Will anyone bring a hammer to the inspection?
No. During an inspection there is no reason for anyone to be lifting shingles or hammering anything. An inspection is looking, not working.
We bring safety equipment, chalk to mark what we find, and a camera to prove it. A repair is different — that needs roofing tools. But nothing about assessing a roof requires something that can leave a mark of its own.
Hail damage can be faked with a ball-peen hammer and wind creasing created by lifting shingles by hand. Both inflate a claim and destroy a roof that may have had years left. Watch what comes up the ladder — including with us.
Who pulls the building permit?
We do, and we arrange any inspections. We have working relationships with the permit authorities across the metro and know the process, so it is one less thing for you.
Permit cost is not included in our estimate, because it varies enormously between jurisdictions in Greater Houston. We tell you the figure before it is incurred, never after.
The installation
How the Work Actually Gets Done
The details that decide whether a roof lasts twenty years or five.
How many nails per shingle, and what kind?
Six per shingle, and the nail itself matters more than the count.
Most manufacturers require a minimum of four, and six to extend the wind warranty coverage. Four is what a company working to a price will use — along with the cheapest nail they can find.
We use ring shank coil nails, hot-dip galvanized. Two things follow from that:
Ring shank does not back out. A smooth-shank nail relies on friction alone, and Houston decking expands and contracts through every summer until the nail works its way up and lifts the shingle above it. That is a nail pop, and it is one of the most common leaks we find on other people's roofs. The annular rings on a ring shank nail grip the wood so it cannot walk back out.
Hot-dip galvanized does not rust. An electroplated nail loses its coating and corrodes in Gulf Coast humidity. Hot-dip leaves a far thicker zinc layer, which is why it is what coastal building codes call for.
Neither costs the homeowner more. They cost us more per box, which is why most crews do not use them.
What should I do before the installation?
Very little. Two things:
Secure or remove fragile items from walls and ceilings inside the house. There is real vibration during a tear-off, and we cannot be responsible for unsecured items that fall.
Move vehicles out of the garage the night before. We start between 7:00 and 8:00am, and we would rather not intrude on your morning.
How do you protect my home during the work?
This is the part we are most careful about. Every home is different, so there is no single answer — the protection plan is decided during the original inspection, before anyone climbs a ladder.
Our haulers carry 4×8 sheets of wood, lumber, tarps and whatever else the job needs. Landscaping, air-conditioning units, pool surrounds, vehicles and windows all get covered.
The setup happens before the first crew member goes up, not after something gets damaged.
What happens to my gutters?
They are cleaned twice. By hand after the old roofing is torn off, then blown out to remove the fine debris. After the new roof goes on, they are cleaned again.
Tear-off puts an enormous amount of grit and granule into a gutter. Cleaning once at the end leaves whatever settled and compacted at the bottom during the job.
Should I be concerned about nails left behind?
Yes and no, and we will be honest about both.
Will we clean up properly? Yes. Magnet sweeps across the driveway, paths and lawn before we leave.
Will we swear we found every last nail? No, and any contractor who does is telling you something they cannot know. A tear-off throws thousands of nails. We use meticulous methods and we would rather say that than make a promise we cannot keep.
Can you roof in any weather?
In theory shingles can be installed in most conditions, which is useful given Houston weather. In practice the temperature changes how it has to be done.
Warm and sunny — shingles seal to each other almost immediately. Ideal.
Hot, humid and intense sun — extra care to avoid scuffing and scarring the surface while working on it.
Cold — shingles stiffen and nail placement needs more care.
What we will not do is a permanent repair in the rain. Sealant does not bond to a wet surface, and a repair made in a downpour fails within months.
How long does a replacement take?
Most roofs are finished in a single day. Two for large, steep or complex ones.
That is a full tear-off, decking inspection, the complete system installed, and the site cleaned — not a crew who leaves the roof open overnight.
What if you find rotten decking?
We photograph it, show you, and you approve it before we replace anything. Nothing appears on an invoice you did not agree to.
During a replacement: the first five sheets are free, then $90 a sheet — a sheet being 4ft × 8ft.
During a repair: $180 per repair area, because a repair means opening a section of roof specifically to reach the decking, which is most of the work.
Materials & warranties
What Goes On, and What Backs It
Shingles, underlayment, ventilation and the warranties behind them — the parts of a quote that decide whether a roof lasts.
Which shingles do you recommend?
There is no one-size answer, and we install several manufacturers. But we use GAF more than anything else, and on an approved insurance claim we install Timberline UHDZ with the GAF Golden Pledge warranty as standard.
That combination gives lifetime limited coverage on the shingle, a 50-year non-prorated protection period, and 30 years of non-prorated workmanship coverage backed by GAF rather than resting on whether we are still trading. Golden Pledge can only be registered by a Master Elite contractor installing five qualifying accessory products.
For customers paying cash there are four tiers, because a budget is a real constraint and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Compare all four
What is Class 4, and do I need it?
UL 2218 Class 4 is the highest of four impact-resistance ratings. Timberline UHDZ carries it, which matters because most Houston roof claims are hail claims — and replacing a hail-damaged roof with the same grade of shingle means the next storm does the same thing.
The Texas Department of Insurance states that a Class 4 roof receives the highest premium credit of the four classes. How much is set by each insurance company, not by the state, and it is never applied automatically — you have to ask and send documentation.
The full guide — including what UL 2218 actually measures, why IBHS testing sometimes disagrees, and the endorsement worth asking about before accepting a discount.
What is synthetic underlayment, and is it better than felt?
Underlayment is the layer between your decking and your shingles, on any area not covered by leak barrier. It is the roof's second line of defense — the thing that keeps water out when wind drives rain under a shingle.
Felt paper was the standard for decades. Synthetic consistently outperforms it: it does not absorb water, does not wrinkle when it gets wet, does not tear in wind while the roof is open, and it is far safer to walk on.
On a Houston roof the difference shows most during the install itself. A felt roof caught by an afternoon storm mid-job is a problem; a synthetic one is not.
What leak barrier do you use, and do I need it in Houston?
GAF StormGuard, on every roof — including Owens Corning systems. It is the most expensive leak barrier we can buy and we do not substitute it.
A leak barrier is a self-adhering rubberised membrane that seals around the nails driven through it. Ordinary underlayment resists water; this bonds to the deck and stays watertight even when penetrated. It goes on the entire perimeter, every valley, and every penetration — skylights, chimneys, pipes, vents, and the junctions where roof planes meet.
Houston does not get ice dams, which is what leak barrier is sold for up north. What we get is wind-driven rain, which forces water uphill and sideways under shingles in a way ordinary rain never does.
And there is a Houston-specific reason we pay for StormGuard. Cheaper leak barriers tear. On a house under pine canopy, somebody is walking that roof several times a year to clear needles — and the valleys are exactly where they step and exactly where the debris collects. A membrane that splits under foot traffic becomes a valley leak, which is the most expensive kind to trace. StormGuard does not tear, and it does not let water through.
GAF StormGuard specifications · why pine needles matter here
Ridge vents or box vents — which is better?
Neither, universally. It depends on the roof.
Ridge vent where the roof allows it. It runs the length of the ridge, moves more air than spot vents, and is barely visible from the ground. On a cathedral ceiling it is the only workable option. We fit the 12-inch ridge vent — a 9-inch exists but does not move enough air to justify the cut.
Box or turtle vents where there is no continuous ridge — a roof where four slopes meet at a point has nowhere to run a ridge vent. In that case spot vents are correct, and we fit metal only. We do not install plastic turtle vents at all; we have replaced too many that cracked and leaked.
Whichever goes on, it does nothing without intake. See the next question.
Why does ventilation matter so much?
It is the single most under-scrutinized part of a roofing quote, and it decides how long the roof lasts.
A 90°F Houston day is not a 90°F attic — it is a 140°F attic without proper ventilation. That heat cooks asphalt shingles from underneath, buckling them and ending the roof years early. It also drives your cooling bill up and grows mold in the attic and beneath the shingles.
Ventilation is a system, not a vent. Air has to come in before it can go out. Exhaust with no intake is not ventilation — it is holes in your roof. If a quote lists ridge vent and says nothing about intake, that is the question to ask.
Where a house has no soffit vents, or the insulation is packed against them, we fit deck-mounted intake vents through the roof plane instead. Most contractors will not raise the problem at all.
What is the wind rating on 3-tab versus architectural?
3-tab: 60 mph with the correct four-nail pattern. Architectural: 130 mph.
The difference is the exposed portion. A 3-tab is split into three separate tabs, so there is more free edge for wind to catch and lift. An architectural shingle is a single laminated piece with far less to grab.
On LayerLock-labelled GAF shingles fitted as a complete system, the WindProven limited wind warranty carries no maximum wind speed limitation at all. On the Gulf Coast that is the number worth having.
Do architectural shingles add value to the house?
Yes. They give the dimensional look of a cedar shake roof with higher-definition color, which is real curb appeal at resale.
They also outperform 3-tab substantially on wind resistance — 130 mph against 60 — so the benefit is not only cosmetic. A buyer's inspector notices the difference too.
How old is my roof, and how can I tell?
Age in years tells you less than you would think. A well-installed roof in quality materials can look sound at twenty; a cheap one can look finished at nine.
Granule loss is the real test. The granules on a shingle exist to shield the waterproofing asphalt from UV. Once they are substantially gone, the serviceable life is over regardless of the date on the invoice.
You can check from the ground: look for granules collecting at the bottom of a downspout, and for shingles that look flat or shiny rather than textured. Or book a free inspection and we will measure what is left with a shingle gauge.
What if the repair does not fix the leak?
We come back. Every repair carries a 24-month labor warranty, and if the problem returns within it we repair it again until the leak stops.
The other half of that policy matters more: if we cannot guarantee the repair, we will not take your money for it. On a roof too old or brittle to hold a proper fix, we say so and tell you what it actually needs instead.
Roof replacements carry a 5-year leak warranty on our workmanship, with a 24-hour response, alongside whatever GAF warranty is registered on the system.
Something not answered here?
Call and ask. If it is a question worth answering, we will add it to this page.
33 repairs, priced · Free inspection · Replacement packages · Why we work this way
JC&C Roofing Company · 1431 Graham Dr #266, Tomball, TX 77375 · 1220 Blalock Rd #345, Houston, TX 77055 · hello@jccroofing.com