Roofing Clean-up: What to Expect After a Roof Replacement?

Roofing projects are messy.

They are a major construction project that involves a full tear off of roofing materials, right on top of your home, before installing something entirely new up there. This process leaves a lot of mess down on the ground, which can be legitimately dangerous if not cleaned up properly.

There will be old shingles and nails, and potentially old metals and rotten wood. All of these things can damage your landscaping, but they can also pose a threat to you and your family. The nails and old metal may be rusted and sharp, and are a serious hazard if they are stepped on. The old wood may splinter and be similarly dangerous if they aren’t disposed of properly.

To many homeowners, the cleanup of a roof replacement is THE most important aspect of the job. It’s often the main that that people working with us ask about, and understandably so! You want to feel safe in your own yard, and if you know there may be nails scattered through the grass, safe is the last thing you’ll be feeling.

That makes it so important to work with a roofing company that you trust to treat your home and yard correctly. So, what should a quality roofing company do to help protect your property, and your family?

In today’s blog, we’ll be discussing:

• How roofer’s prepare your property
• How they should keep things clean during the job
• Ways they clean up after the installation
• What they’ll look for in the inspection
• BONUS: How Long Does a Roof Replacement Take?

Alright, let’s get into it!

How Your Property Should be Prepared

The first step that your company should take to protect your property is to document exactly how everything was when they arrived. More sophisticated roofers will take pictures of everything around the house, any damage that might already exist, as well as anything breakable. That way, if anything breaks, they’ll know exactly what happened.

The crew should also start by placing tarps over sensitive areas of the house like over porches and in front of windows, really anywhere that debris will be falling from the roof. The tarps should cover the face of the house, and down over the ground where the debris will land. This way it will be much easier for the crew to see and clean up the nails and other old materials that have fallen down to the ground.

If there are even more sensitive areas around the home, like an HVAC unit or a special garden, be sure to let your contractor know. They may be able to take special care around those places, and even put together boards in a structure that may help protect them from falling debris.

The roofing crew should also have had a dumpster delivered to the jobsite the morning of the replacement, so that they have a place to store all of the discarded materials in an organized way.

Keeping it clean during the job

During the tear off the materials should be periodically gathered and put into the dumpster, and the area where they were should also be cleaned up. When everything is taken down from the roof, the crew will focus on making sure that everything is clean up before they start opening up the packages for the new roofing materials.

On top of the roof, there will likely be someone either sweeping or blowing off the roof to make sure that all the debris gets off now, instead of coming down later when it next rains. The same should be done with your gutters. Debris may get stuck in them, especially if leaves or pine straw have already been in there.

That step is especially important, as gutter clogs can cause a lot of havoc later on if they get backed up when it rains. Water can work its way back underneath shingles, and start to rot the decking and fascia in those areas.

After the installation

Immediately following the installation, the crew will start looking more closely around the property for bits of shingles and loose nails around the property. This will include checking beds of pine straw for nails, as well as shaking out the gutter spouts to make sure everything got through the way it should.

The team will also sweep the yard with magnets, that will more easily pick up nails and dispose of them in the dumpster. One quick note: if you’re able to, it’s a good idea to cut your grass shortly before you get a roof replacement done. The short grass will make it much easier for the crew to spot any fallen nails, and make it easier for the magnet to grab them through the grass.

Once this is all wrapped up, a truck will come to take the dumpster, the crew will gather all of their tools, and leave your property looking as good as new, complete with a new roof on top!

What to expect during the post-inspection

When you work with a roofing company that cares about the work that they do, and your feelings about them, they will likely do an inspection of the new roof, and your property.

Most of the time, these inspections will happen the day after the replacement so that your project manager can take photos of the work, make sure all the gutters and areas got cleaned out, and answer any questions you may have about next steps in the process.

How long does this all take?

So now that you know you’ll hopefully be left with a clean property after your roof replacement, how much time do you need to set aside for this project to be over with?

To get to the answer quickly, the average roof replacement, on a normal sized home, will take pretty much the entire day. That being said, some smaller homes can be replaced by the middle of the afternoon, and some larger homes may take two to three days to finish the project. This is all going to be dependent on the weather and other factors, but we’ll get into that in more detail soon.

We tell our homeowners to have one to two days blocked off where your daily routines may be altered by the replacement process. This is because the roofing crews and materials get to the jobsite as early as 6:30 or 7:00 AM so that they can get started early and not be doing the bulk of the labor during the heat of the day.

So, we ask that homeowners be prepared by parking their vehicles or anything else that they would need outside of their driveway and garage. That way they don’t get blocked in when the dumpster and materials arrive.

Roofing crews will often work to make sure everything gets done in one calendar day, but as we mentioned, that can be affected by numerous different things, so let’s get into those now!

Now that you’ve learned how long a roof replacement takes, and how roofing contractors should clean up after the job, hopefully you’re starting to feel more comfortable for your roof replacement project!

On Tops Roofing has been helping homeowners in Raleigh, NC with their roof replacement projects since 1991! Whatever your roofing project needs, we’re on it!