Nothing here is the age it looks
Rhode Island’s housing is older than almost anywhere else in the country, and the part that matters is not the date on the deed. It is that most of these roofs have been covered, re-covered and patched by people nobody can ask any more.
- 1 The ridge. One ridge over two households, and one of them pays to replace it.
- 2 The field. The part everyone looks at, and rarely the part that actually failed.
- 3 Valleys. Most of them were cut in later, when the house was divided into flats.
- 4 The chimney. Often two of them, and often neither one carries anything any more.
- 5 Penetrations. Two kitchens and two bathrooms mean twice the holes on the same roof.
- 6 The overhang. Where heat from a flat you do not control comes back down as ice.
What is under the covering
On anything from before the war, boards laid with gaps are normal rather than exceptional. They were sized for a material that was hung rather than nailed flat. A modern covering needs a continuous surface, so putting a new deck down is often part of the job and not an extra.
Layers are the second unknown. Re-covering was normal for decades, and a house here can be carrying two or three generations of material at once. A tape measure at the rake edge answers it in a minute, and any bidder can do it before quoting.
Framing sized for something heavier
A roof built to carry slate is built differently from one built to carry asphalt. Many of these houses were framed for the heavier material, then covered with something lighter, which is fine — it is the reverse that causes trouble.
It matters when someone proposes going back to a heavy covering, or when an owner discovers that a century of loads has moved something. That is an assessment from underneath, in the attic, not from the roof.
What this changes about a quote
Every unknown on an old roof should have a stated price rather than a stated assumption. A per-sheet rate for decking with an assumed count. What happens if the tear-off finds another layer. What happens if boards under the valleys are soft.
A quote without those lines is not cheaper. It is the same job with the surprises left out, and they arrive on day one either way.