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Has anyone heard of not being able to get home owners insurance because a house has a roof overlay? More specifically....compostition over wood shingles.
Not specifically. What I do know is that in areas of the country (like California) where there is high risk of outdoor fire some insurers will not write policies for any home that is NOT roofed entirely in non-combustible material. Depending on how / when the composition roofing was installed that might the issue...
The appearance of composition over shingle / shakes would be miserable, isn't it? I can't imagine that a pro roofer did this either, sounds like a DIY job... Most roofing manufacturers strongly discourage against anything other than a tearoff -- too much potential to miss a hidden problem.
It appears you might reside in Houston, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I checked the permit requirements and Houston requires permitting for a roof covering replacement. All of the shingle manufacturers require that a flat surface be provided for the decking under the shingles. They will allow old wood shingles as long as the shingles have been flattened prior to installation of the comp shingle. This is usually accomplished by cutting a cupping shingle and re-securing it to the mounting slats. Also it would have to be planed near flat. The manufacturers would also require a new underlayment over the wood shingles and prior to installing the comp shingle. If this is not done then they will not warrant their shingles. As a substitute for all that work then new plywood decking can be placed over the wood shingles.
I pointed that out only to demonstrate the amount of work that would be potentially required to overlay a wood shingle roof material with comp shingles. All of these I have inspected have been poorly performed and naturally are comp directly over the old wood shingles. They generally result in wavy roof surfaces, early shingle deterioration by cracking and checking and, if not properly flashed and sealed, deterioration from water damage.
As for placing a new layer of plywood decking over the existing wood shingles that presents other hazards from additional weight to improper securement of the roof decking and shingles to the roof framing below (rafters). You are in a higher wind zone region as well in the Houston area which might also affect your local requirements. Here locally we have AHJ's (Authority Having Jurisdiction, local building department) who will not allow comp over wood shingles because of the issues that can occur. One actually considers a new plywood decking to be an additional layer which means the new comp shingles are the third layer and against most all AHJ's allowances.
Again I point these things out as the insurance companies might very well treat an overlay of comp over wood shingles as a not allowed configuration and as such your roof might not be considered insurable. If your roof is not in a safe condition then they can not expect it to protect the interior of the home.
Call your local AHJ, Houston, and check out their requirements of whether comp over wood shingles is allowed. Their contact information can be found at City of Houston eGovernment Center (http://www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/planning/enforcement/index.htm - broken link).
Good luck and let us know how it turns out as I too am curious as to the outcome.
It appears you might reside in Houston, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I checked the permit requirements and Houston requires permitting for a roof covering replacement. All of the shingle manufacturers require that a flat surface be provided for the decking under the shingles. They will allow old wood shingles as long as the shingles have been flattened prior to installation of the comp shingle. This is usually accomplished by cutting a cupping shingle and re-securing it to the mounting slats. Also it would have to be planed near flat. The manufacturers would also require a new underlayment over the wood shingles and prior to installing the comp shingle. If this is not done then they will not warrant their shingles. As a substitute for all that work then new plywood decking can be placed over the wood shingles.
I pointed that out only to demonstrate the amount of work that would be potentially required to overlay a wood shingle roof material with comp shingles. All of these I have inspected have been poorly performed and naturally are comp directly over the old wood shingles. They generally result in wavy roof surfaces, early shingle deterioration by cracking and checking and, if not properly flashed and sealed, deterioration from water damage.
Sorry, but my parents had composition over wood (no plywood between) and it looked perfectly fine and lasted 25 years (that includes Hurricane Alicia). Many houses in their neighborhood were the same but did not make it through Ike due to age. The also live in Houston. My parents got the new roof which included new decking just before Ike arrived. As for insurance, they had no problem with that at all. I could certainly understand where it would be a problem in California though.
I see this was posted in 2009. Were you able to resolve the insurance issue? If so, how?
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