How to Prepare Your Home for a Roof Replacement

Your roof replacement in Anderson is on the calendar. The estimate is signed, the materials are ordered, and soon a crew, a dumpster and a stack of panels or shingle bundles will arrive. From that morning until the final walk-around, the roof and the strip of yard around the house belong to the crew. Everything you do now is about keeping your belongings, your family and the crew out of each other's way.

This guide builds on the site's ten safety tips for a roof replacement and steps to prepare for a metal roofing installation, and adds the things people most often forget: the attic, the pool, the dish and the panels. For what the crew will do once they arrive, read what happens on installation day.

Tear-off and the nailing or screwing of new panels send vibration through the framing. Rooms directly under the roof feel it most; rooms next to them feel some.

• Cover what is in the attic. Dust, old granules and small debris fall between the rafters during tear-off and installation. Drape sheets or plastic over stored boxes, and move anything irreplaceable downstairs.
• Take pictures, mirrors and shelf items down. Anything hanging on a wall or sitting on a high shelf in the rooms under the roof can walk off its hook. Loose light fixtures and ceiling fans are worth a look too.
• Clear the garage ceiling. If the garage is under the roof, items hung from the ceiling or stacked on open joists get the same vibration.
• Plan for noise. Working from home, napping babies and anxious dogs do not mix with a roofing crew. Decide where people and pets will be during work hours.
• Check the attic afterward. When the job is done, look for daylight, sawdust and displaced insulation from the attic hatch. If you see anything you did not expect, call the roofer before signing off; do not go up on the roof to check from above.

The crew needs the driveway and a clear strip around the whole house. The more you clear, the faster the cleanup and the smaller the chance of a nail in a tire.

• Move cars out of the driveway and away from the side of the street nearest the house. Debris can slide off the roof, and the roofer's trucks need loading room. Keep garage doors closed against dust.
• Move patio furniture, grills, planters and lawn ornaments away from the drip line or into the garage. Do not expect the crew to do it.
• Mark plants and shrubs you care about so the crew can cover them, and mow and trim beforehand so fallen nails and bits of shingle are easy to find and sweep.
• Cover the pool and switch off the pump if the pool is near the house. Shingle grit and metal shavings in a pool are a cleanup problem that is easier to prevent.
• Point out an outside outlet or run a heavy outdoor-rated cord from the garage. CPSC's outdoor-repair guidance says extension cords should be undamaged, labeled for outdoor use, and plugged into proper grounded receptacles.
• Unlock gates and move anything blocking access to all sides of the house, including trash cans and vehicles in side yards. Ask where the dumpster will sit and whether it will rest on boards to protect the driveway.

Children and pets do not understand a drop zone. The crew's cords, ladders and loading areas are hazards, and OSHA's construction rules require fall protection for workers on roofs six feet or more above a lower level, which tells you how seriously the people on your roof take the edge. Keep kids and pets inside or away from the house during work hours, and ask the roofer where the no-go areas will be.

Tell your neighbors the dates. Their cars may be parked under your drip line, their dog may hate the noise, and their driveway may be where the delivery truck ends up turning around. If your home is in a homeowners' association, read the covenants or ask the board whether a roof color, material or work-hours rule applies, and get any approval in writing before the materials are ordered, not after. In a historic district the city may also need to review a roof change; the permits guide covers who to ask.

Anything screwed into the old roof has to come off before tear-off and go back on afterward, and the question is who does it and who pays if it does not work the same. The post on why you should not nail things to your roof explains why a new roof is a bad place for improvised mounts.

For a satellite dish or antenna, call your provider first; many will relocate or reinstall a dish, and the roofer can set it aside. Decide before day one whether the dish goes back on the new roof at all, since every penetration is a future maintenance point, and ask the roofer how it will be flashed if it does. An old dish you no longer use can simply be removed.

Solar panels are a bigger conversation. They have to be removed by someone qualified to disconnect them, stored, and reinstalled with mounts and flashing matched to the new roof, which is one reason to coordinate the roof and the solar work rather than treat them as separate jobs. Anderson Metal Roofing and Shingles installs solar panels as well as roofs; see the solar panels page and ask how the two schedules fit together. Whatever the arrangement, get the removal, storage and reinstall responsibilities and their cost in writing before the roof comes off.

A few things are reasons to pause before the crew comes. If the roof is being paid from an insurance claim, the SC Department of Insurance says not to make permanent repairs before talking with your insurer, because the company may not pay for repairs it did not authorize. If you have not received the written contract with the product, dates, payment schedule and warranties, ask for it first; the questions-to-ask guide lists what should be in it. And if the forecast shows a wet week, ask how the roofer decides to start and how an opened roof is dried in at the end of each day.

The day before, confirm four things with the roofer: the arrival time, where the dumpster and materials go, where the crew will plug in, and the name and number of the person on site. If you are still choosing the roof itself, the residential metal page lists the home types the company roofs and the color choices, and the request a quote form is where a reroof inspection starts. Preparing the house is the easy part of the project.